WAR ON COPS IS NOT EVEN OVER

I am continually reminded that the assault on what I believe to be the most significant domestic institution in America, the institution of policing, still rages. No civil or orderly society can thrive or be held together without the men and women who put on the uniform of their community and go out to serve and protect.

I do a lot of public speaking all across America and every chance I get I continue to remind the good law-abiding people in these communities how important it is to loudly support their local law enforcement officers and agencies. I remind them to be not afraid of placing a Back the Blue sign in front of their homes or to display the Thin Blue Line flag outside their homes. Every time I see these I say to myself, there is a courageous person.

I was at a support rally in Strongsville, Ohio recently and while speaking to the Chief of Police there he told me of a movement by the local chapter of Black Lives Matter had gone to the mayor and asked that a wooden Thin Blue Line flag hanging on the wall in the lobby entrance of the police department be removed because they felt it was divisive and harmful to police community relations. I am not making this up. I gave you the name of the city. Call and ask the Chief if you don’t believe me. The Chief said that the mayor suggested that he consider removing it but he was not ordered to take it down. When it was my turn to speak, I told the people in attendance at the support police rally that if I was the Chief, I would meet with the head of the Black Lives Matter chapter and after listening briefly out of courtesy I would then tell that person that the flag would be removed over my dead body. I would then say, “Now get the hell out of my office”. Obviously, the crowd roared in approval. Now that would be leadership, that would be a morale booster to the frontline officers. We don’t always get that however. I previously wrote in this publication about the University of Wisconsin police chief who caved to Black Lives Matter and ordered that her officers could no longer carry any items like coffee mugs or pad folios on duty that depicted a Thin Blue Line flag. She called it divisive,  saying that it did not represent the values of the department. Sometimes the enemy resides among us in the form of feckless law enforcement executives.

Let me give you more examples that the War on Police is alive and well.

Recently in San Francisco, a restaurant refused to serve two San Francisco police officer in uniform because they were armed and the staff found the firearms to be threatening. Yes, you read that correctly. Police officers in uniform carrying service weapons are threatening. When news of this story broke, the owners doubled down saying that the officers were politely asked to leave because the restaurant is a, “safe space and the weapons made them feel uncomfortable.” He indicated that the officers could come back out of uniform and unarmed and that they would be served. Would these nitwits find it welcoming if masked hold-up men brandishing guns came in to rob the place? Would they politely tell the hold-up men to go put their guns back in their car and then the money would be handed over? Outrage against the restaurant soon followed and after calls for boycotts, the owners reversed course and apologized calling it a mistake and an unfortunate incident. They said, “these are stressful times and we handled this badly.” Ya think?

Now that might not be the biggest indicator that the War on Cops continues but what I am about to talk about next is a sobering and more serious reminder.

In 2021, a total of 60 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty by gunfire cross 45 states according to the National Fraternal Order of Police. That is a nearly 30 percent increase compared to the calendar year 2020. Additionally, 314 officers have been shot since the beginning of this year. One hundred and nineteen officers have been shot in 95 separate ambush-style attacks resulting in 28 of the total gunfire deaths. Ambush attacks on officers have increased 130 percent in 2021 compared to 2020. An FOP union leader attributes the increase in ambush style attacks on a growing hostility toward law enforcement.

Those figures might not make the liberal corporate media raise any eyebrows but I find them staggering. I realize that the same cop hating media outlets no longer report it as breaking news because it reflects poorly on Democrat politicians who have supported defund and abolish police departments. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a correlation between fewer officers available and not having enough resources and the increase of these deaths even if indirectly. This same progressive corporate media still reports as breaking news every time a white police officer shoots a black criminal, even one who was armed and posed a grave threat to the officer at the time. Reporters are rushed to the scene to stick a microphone in the face of cop hating people who have no facts and start unverified rumors. The murder of a police officer doesn’t get that attention from the same criminal apologist progressive news agencies.

I recently attended a support police rally in Champaign, Illinois. I met the widow of Champaign Police officer Chris Oberheim who was shot and killed in the line of duty back in May. That would make him among the 60 who have been killed in 2021. Officer Oberheim leaves behind four daughters in addition to his wife, Amber. I met one daughter who is engaged to be married this summer. She will not experience her father walking her down the aisle. This isn’t the first time I have met a law enforcement officer’s surviving spouse or child. It’s gut wrenching. Every time I think about an officer killed in the line of duty I am reminded that, there but for the grace of God go I. Seeing the pain and grief in their eyes is numbing for me. The outpouring of support that Amber Oberheim is getting from the Champaign Police Department and the community is reassuring to me. We owe it to the survivors of officers killed in the line of duty. They gave everything.

Because we aren’t hearing about officers killed in the line of duty on national news because of liberal media indifference to it doesn’t mean it’s subsiding. Me saying that the War on Cops hasn’t let up is not embellishing things.  

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of Americas Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, Board member of the Crime Research Center, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com