They want to pretend that all the protests against police brutality and police murder were directed at all police, calling for the death of police officers in response to the murder of two black men in Missouri and New York. They want to pretend that Mayor De Blasio and President Obama, in legitimatizing the concerns of the protesters by speaking to their concerns, also called for the death of police.
The have to pretend all that because they never want to be questioned or criticized, even when one of them does wrong. And any and all questions or criticism of bad cop behavior is taken as a direct attack on all cops, the good ones and the bad. Perhaps because in their mind there is no good or bad behavior. There is only police behavior, and that cannot be good or bad. Perhaps whatever they do is to be considered right and just for the simple reason that it was a police officer doing it.
That is fascism.
And it is the only thing I can think of to explain the outrageous overreaction of a few on the right to the horrible and evil murder of two police officers in Brooklyn this weekend. NYPD Union President Pat Lynch and Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani went out of their way to directly blame President Obama and Mayor de Blasio for the murder of Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. There was absolutely no mention of any blame being directed towards the evil police officer who murdered Eric Gardner. So that means protesting bad cop behavior is bad, and responsible for murder; while actually murdering an unarmed man selling untaxed cigarettes is good. That is the only conclusion I can come to.
The Slate’s Jamelle Bouie:
Despite what these police organizations and their allies allege, there isn’t an anti-police movement in this country, or at least, none of any significance.
The people demonstrating for Eric Garner and Michael Brown aren’t against police, they are for better policing. They want departments to treat their communities with respect, and they want accountability for officers who kill their neighbors without justification. When criminals kill law-abiding citizens, they’re punished. When criminals kill cops, they’re punished. But when cops kill citizens, the system breaks down and no one is held accountable. That is what people are protesting. …
The idea that citizens can’t criticize police—that free speech excludes scrutiny of state violence—is disturbing. Since, if free speech doesn’t include the right to challenge the official use of force, then it isn’t really free speech.
Until every good police officer in this country stands up and denounces Pat Lynch and Rudy Giuliani as not speaking for them, I will assume that they do speak for them, and thus I will assume that they share this police can do no wrong ever mindset. And thus I will assume that there are no good police officers left in this country.