The War On Cops: REMEMBER the ALAMO!
/by Chris Amos
In her book, The War on Cops, Heather Mac Donald traces this “war” back to the shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson Police Officer Darrin Wilson in 2014. Mac Donald specifically points to the false narrative, “hands up, don’t shoot” that spread like wildfire. With full knowledge that this narrative was not true, and in fact Wilson shot Brown while being beaten by the much stronger and bigger Brown, the media fanned the flames of this lie. I was traveling across the country speaking at law enforcement conferences during this time and have picture after picture of very influential people from members of the St. Louis Rams to news anchors of CNN; from crowds in Times Square to even larger crowds in Hong Kong and from actors in Hollywood to performers at the Grammys. In every case, hands were raised, buying into the “hands up, don’t shoot” bogus narrative. This was fake news before the term fake news had been born.
The coordinated attacks on law enforcement we see today may have begun in 2014 with the “Ferguson Effect” but they caught fire on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, MN as the perfect storm unfolded. Unlike Ferguson, in the Minneapolis case there were many credible witnesses, including other police officers, and there was video. The anti-police movement suddenly had what they were previously missing, and we all know the summer of fires, riots, looting and violence that followed. The match had been struck and policing would, possibly forever, be changed.
I want to share, as a retired cop and police shooting survivor, what I see unfolding in this war before ending with a word of hope. Initially, I thought the attacks against law enforcement were a reaction to Trump Derangement Syndrome. I remember hearing stories about the hatred held by many for POTUS Richard Nixon. While Nixon was beyond reach for his detractors, his foot soldiers, our Vietnam vets, were not. As a rookie cop I was surrounded by these vets and they would share the animosity and hatred they experienced for just doing their jobs. I thought those suffering from T.D.S. would likewise turn their disdain for Trump toward the law and order POTUS’ foot soldiers, law enforcement and corrections officers. While I am sure this happened, I failed to see that these attacks were far more coordinated and sinister than T.D.S. No, what we are seeing is an attempt to tear apart America and BUILD it BACK BETTER, into some Marxist utopia. A utopia that exists only in the minds and hearts of those who that want to see America, as we know it, destroyed. How might this be done?
STEP ONE: Demonize the police. This has been the sole calling of many within the media, both legacy and social. Paint every police officer as a racist, trigger-happy thug, just looking to violate someone’s civil rights. This is done by taking the actions of a few corrupt and racist cops and applying them to every L.E.O. in the country. And by taking the actions, the policies, the procedures of one corrupt police department and painting every police department or sheriff’s office with that same brush. Following the George Floyd incident, EVERY police department in the country was called on to make reforms, whether they were needed or not. My own department in Norfolk eliminated chokeholds almost 20 years before the Floyd incident. About 15 years ago, having been made aware of positional asphyxia, we did away with dogpiling on a suspect, unless needed to gain control and once done the suspect would immediately be placed in a sitting or standing position. I mention this just as an example to demonstrate how not all police officers or departments operate in the same manner. But those in a war against cops do not want to hear that. No, to them ALL Cops are evil, or in the words of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar while trying to explain the spike in crime in Minneapolis, “the [bad, evil, hateful] police have chosen to not fulfill their oath of office and to provide the public safety they are owed to the citizens they serve.” She went on to describe the Minneapolis Police Dept. as “the most dysfunctional in our state and probably in the country.” This narrative is needed to ensure step two is attained.
STEP TWO: Defund the police. If all cops and departments are evil, negligent, and dysfunctional then it just goes to reason that we have to stop sending money their way. NYC defunded the NYPD $1,000,000,000. That is ONE BILLION DOLLARS! Many other cities across the country followed suit, from rural Asheville, N.C. to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, just to name a few. So let’s take already undermanned, overworked agencies and cut all overtime from their budget. Let’s cut all training from their budget. While we are at it let’s get rid of their SWAT teams, Vice and Narcotics Division, Harbor Patrol, School Resource Officers, Horse and Bike Units, and whatever else we deem unnecessary. The insanity of such a position is clear to everyone except the Marxists calling the shots right now, or is it? I would argue the people making these decisions know exactly what their actions are doing to their cities, both large and small. The irony is many of them have become victims themselves of this rising crime rate from their cars being broken into, to personally being victims of robberies and assaults. Oh they know what is happening, but if allowing their cities to become dumpster fires are needed to initiate step 3, then so be it.
STEP THREE: Dismantle the police. That is their endgame. They want to see local and state law enforcement agencies dismantled or “abolished” in their lingo. They probably would love to federalize all law enforcement, think Mexico and their Federal Police Force. What could possibly go wrong? The last thing the Marxists want is for law enforcement to answer to their respective local communities. We have seen in just the last few months, duly elected sheriffs go on the record, telling their constituents they would not be taking legally owned weapons from their community members, enforcing mask mandates, rounding up their local “domestic terrorists,” AKA, concerned parents speaking out at local school board meetings. Many sheriffs have said they will not be firing professional, experienced, proven deputies simply for refusing to get the COVID vaccine. The powers that be toss and turn at night at the very thought that there exist in this country law enforcement and corrections officers and agencies that refuse to bend the knee in submission to their radical agenda. But they will not give up easily. If vaccine mandate threats do not bring the troops in line, then let’s look at eliminating Qualified Immunity as was done for the NYPD.Thank God, the US Supreme Court just upheld Qualified Immunity involving LEOs. Incidentally, no one dissented on the court. So I’m sure the powers that be took note and have made removing Qualified Immunity a priority. Another tactic is to undercut an officer’s authority by advising him he can not make arrests for crimes that are on the books.Another tool being implemented is to place such a heavy burden of the officers, like The Chicago Police Dept’s 13-page general order on foot pursuits, that officers just throw their hands up in the air and adopt all of these when combined, lead to a massive Blue Exodus from departments around the country. Nursing shortage? No problem! We will activate the National Guard. Law enforcement shortage? Guess what… the answer is simple enough, we will activate the National Guard.
Now for some good news, I believe the opponents to law enforcement and corrections will be DEFEATED. Every day more and more people are having their eyes opened to what is happening. They see the flagrant contempt for the law, and the men and women sworn to uphold it. They are seeing and experiencing the consequences of defunding the police. The distant memories of placing their children in bathtubs to sleep at night for fear of being struck by a random bullet are returning. They are reading about security details they, as taxpayers, are providing for the defund the police politicians in office. They are beginning to realize that the men and women in law enforcement and corrections are not evil. They are not villains. No, they are in fact their neighbors. Their kids attend the same schools. They pass unaware in the grocery store or doctor’s office. They are cheering for the same teams. They are quite simply, “one of us”.
Your part in this chapter is to hold the line. Keep your oar in the water. Keep your shoulder to the plow. Don’t give up! Even if that means moving to a state or department that appreciates, supports, and genuinely wants you. I can’t help but think of the men who defended the Alamo during its 13-day siege in 1836. These men sacrificed their very lives for something much bigger than the Alamo, or even Texas. General Santa Anna would be defeated soon after the Alamo fell. The last thing Santa Anna would hear as the Texans overwhelmed his army where the shouts, “Remember the Alamo!”
Friends, I’m here to tell you that you are as important to America’s survival today as those Texans at the Alamo were to the survival of Texas. Now is the time to double down on your commitment to the thin blue line. I would not be surprised if historians, many years from now, looked back at this moment in history, giving credit to law enforcement officers, corrections officers, doctors, nurses, even those domestic terrorists/concerned parents and write about your sacrificial resolve and commitment in the face of tremendous opposition.
Chris Amos is a retired officer and former spokesperson for the Norfolk Virginia Police Department. He is currently the pastor at Chr1st Fellowship Church in Norfolk. He is married for over 30 years and is the proud father of three children, two of whom are police officers. He serves as the volunteer Chaplain for Norfolk Police Dept. and Norfolk Sheriff’s Office.
