There is an organized and concerted effort by conservative elements and, understandably, police departments to portray the peaceful non-violent movement as having been hijacked by cop killers and the demented hateful types. For those of us who have been around long enough there is nothing new with this approach. It is called divide and conquer. It starts with an orchestrated backlash which left unchecked turns into an outcry that builds more resentment as each side digs further into their fortified positions. It is perhaps inevitable that such emotionally charged issues continue to vex us. Still, vigilance is critical and requires right minded people to “Keep Their Eyes On The Prize.” I heard a police spokesman explain the…
There is an organized and concerted effort by conservative elements and, understandably, police departments to portray the peaceful non-violent movement as having been hijacked by cop killers and the demented hateful types. For those of us who have been around long enough there is nothing new with this approach. It is called divide and conquer.
It starts with an orchestrated backlash which left unchecked turns into an outcry that builds more resentment as each side digs further into their fortified positions. It is perhaps inevitable that such emotionally charged issues continue to vex us. Still, vigilance is critical and requires right minded people to “Keep Their Eyes On The Prize.”
I heard a police spokesman explain the concept, as he understood it, thusly – the hijackers’ shenanigans simply detract the rest of us from fully understanding the police officer’s “Prime Imperative” to protect all lives. Who in their right mind would argue against this? The imperative’s logic ensures that if all lives matter then the police are intuitively prone to respect all lives, including “Black” lives. By the same token “Blue” lives also matter, but that doesn’t necessarily justify their taking over the narrative.
That is exactly what they are trying to accomplish by decrying the sad state of affairs when they have become the target of those they are sworn to protect. But have they really become targets? The unfortunate truth is that cop killings have been around since the early days of police departments. The police officer’s Memorial in Washington depicts a row of wall panels listing the names by year of those they have lost in the line of duty. They reveal the cyclical nature of these tragic losses. To say the least, Policing is by nature a deadly profession and has been officially recognized to be among the top ranks of those with the worst “Occupational Hazard” on record. Like other victims police officers have to find ways to cope with their losses. Blaming other victims should not be their “go to” response. It is simply unfair to portray a protest movement as responsible for an uptick in their losses, let alone attributing a complex problem to a single cause. As Detective Sergeant Joe Friday would say, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Truth needs to be a fact that is exposed and not exploited or buried under emotions.
It can be said that what police departments suffer most from is a lack of credibility and perspective. The perception that the Police are nothing more than an “Army of Occupation” is unfortunate but real. The more recent arming of them with military surplus equipment belies their denial of such. They can ill afford to discount the fact that, by and large, the protests have been peaceful and that the movement has not employed “Kill the Pig” as their battle cry. That was a different era and the divide and conquer tactics of those days will not be tolerate by a society calling for transparency as part of their inalienable right to be “Free.”
The Police will do well in understanding the underpinnings of the anger that has fueled the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Maintaining a proper perspective requires a concerted effort to understand the history of a slave nation, slavery itself, and the rise of the Civil Rights movement and the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. The Police are not alone here, the community they serve also needs to come to terms with some of the societal reasons behind our current state of affairs.
Police Departments should avoid falling into the trap of making the refrain “All Lives” matter their mantra. Like corporate employers professing their mantra that they are “An Equal Opportunity Employer” they will discover that the public doesn’t buy it. Proof positive is the millions that continue to be paid out in lawsuits over egregious conduct. And, it’s not just the lawsuits.
Their actions and not their words go a long way in establishing and destroying their credibility. And given the historical perspective their actions seem to speak for themselves.
In the past Law Enforcement outfits have been the first to betray the public trust and perpetrate their own hijackings. Be it the FBI infiltration of the Black Panthers, the Anti-Vietnam War Movement or Martin Luther King, Jr. More recently the N.Y.C. Police Department’s unconstitutional infiltration of Muslim organizations along with their never ending all-out war against the pubic, with their official “stop and frisk” practices, does little to inspire an outpouring of support for the men and women in Blue. So, pray tell, why should we believe them when they claim that the movement is stacked with cop killers?
The discontented in American society have a long history and tradition of protesting and making change happen. After all the “Prime Imperative” of our nation is that “We The People” constitute the government. We fought the British because the Crown carried on an abusive and repressive practice against the people. And, 239 years later those early protesters showed the world that “Truth” indeed will set you free. Let us therefore repeat history, but let us focus on that history which leads opposing forces to unite behind a common goal.
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