By Steve Byas
On September 12 of this year, two deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were merely sitting in their patrol car in Compton, when an assailant strolled up to the passenger-side window and began shooting into the car with a handgun. The totally unprovoked attack severely wounded the two deputies, one a 24-year-old man and the other a 31-year-old mother.
Hate-filled assaults such as this are becoming more prevalent across America as local law-enforcement officers — either police or, in this case, sheriff’s deputies — are demonized by radical groups, and even far too many in public office.
Why is this happening?
While generally portrayed in the mass media as a benign organization, simply desiring to advance the cause of the African-American population, Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a major driving force in undermining public confidence in the nation’s local police forces. This organization was founded partly to honor Assata Shakur (aka Joanne Chesimard), a terrorist who is on the most-wanted list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Significantly, considering how the rise in violent assaults on police has corresponded with the rise of BLM, Chesimard is also a cop-killer.
Chesimard and others murdered Werner Foerster, a state trooper in New Jersey. She was later busted out of jail by another terrorist organization, the Weather Underground. Chesimard fled, not surprisingly, to Communist Cuba. BLM honors Chesimard as some sort of heroine. BLM co-founder Alicia Garza has specifically cited Chesimard as an inspiration for the creation of her anti-police organization, saying, “When I use Assata’s powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assata’s significance to the Black Liberation Movement.”
Another organization that sees the police as the enemy is Antifa. Mike Isaacson, a law professor at the City University of New York, and a self-proclaimed leader of Antifa, has been quite blunt in his disdain for local police. “Off the pigs,” he said in August 2017. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has also been active in organizing and training protesters. Minnesota DSA tweeted in May that it was “so proud of all the Minnesotans fighting back against the police.”
The mantra of all of these radical, anti-police groups is that the local law-enforcement “system” is inherently racist, and that cops — even black officers — target members of minority groups, especially African-Americans. But Heather Mac Donald, writing in the Wall Street Journal, documented that over 7,000 black men died at the hands of other black men last year. In comparison, only nine unarmed blacks died at the hands of police during the same period. Mac Donald noted that “a police officer is 18 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer.”
It is simply false that there exists some systemic animus against blacks by America’s cops. Certainly, out of thousands of local officers across the country, there could be a few bad apples who harbor hatred toward persons of a different race. But anyone harboring such irrational hatred would most likely not even apply to be a police officer, and those who did would probably be screened and rejected. The bottom line is that it is simply unsupported by the facts to say that America’s local police are somehow shot through — systemically — with racism. In fact, as Alex Newman wrote in The New American magazine, “Studies have also revealed that police are more likely to shoot white suspects than black suspects.”
In addition to all of that, even if there were an unlikely case in which a white cop simply hated all blacks enough to kill them, how could such an incident justify the violent assault on other police officers — even in other parts of the country? Nothing could be more bigoted and prejudiced than that. Anti-police activists like to charge that law-enforcement officers unfairly “profile” blacks and other minorities for traffic stops and the like. Attacking a police officer who has done nothing wrong, all because another police officer has allegedly mistreated a person, is the very definition of profiling.
It is not surprising that local law-enforcement officers, whether city police or county deputies, are being randomly attacked, considering the incendiary rhetoric of left-leaning politicians and their media allies, saying, without evidence, that there is systemic racism in local law enforcement. To the contrary, it should be noted that millions of interactions between police or sheriff’s deputies and the public (including with minorities) happen every year across America, with only few significant incidents. If local law enforcement was filled with racist cops, one would think that thousands of violent confrontations would be happening. As it is, more local law enforcement officers are killed each year in the line of duty than are unarmed civilians, by police, of all races and ethnicities.
Assassination of Cops in Dallas
Shortly after BLM was organized, a man inspired by their strong anti-police rhetoric, Micah Xavier Johnson, essentially assassinated five Dallas police officers, and injured nine others. Two other citizens were injured in Johnson’s murderous rampage on July 7, 2016. He had told others, multiple times, that he wanted to kill white people, especially white police officers.
Johnson’s attacks took place on the occasion of an anti-police protest organized by BLM in Dallas. It is estimated that about 800 protesters were involved in the event, and approximately 100 police officers were assigned to monitor the protest. Dallas Police Chief David Brown said that there were about two dozen protesters carrying guns, with some wearing gas masks, bulletproof vests, and fatigues.
The protests took place around El Centro College, bordered by Main Street on the south (where the protest march took place), Lamar Street to the east (from which Johnson began shooting), and Elm Street to the north.
Three officers were killed and three other officers were wounded in Johnson’s initial attack. One private citizen was also shot at this time. Johnson then took off north on Lamar Street, where he came upon another police officer, Brent Thomson. Johnson shot Thompson several times from behind, killing him.
He then shot a campus police officer at the entrance of El Centro College. Another officer was wounded from flying glass. From the building’s mezzanine between the college’s second and third floors, Johnson continued firing at police officers on Elm Street. He killed Michael Smith, who was standing in front of a convenience store.
After police stormed the building and opened negotiations for his surrender, Johnson — who was a black man — insisted that he would only speak to black officers. For the next two hours, Johnson taunted the police negotiators, laughing and singing, and asking how many police officers he had killed, adding that he wanted to kill some more. Finally, Chief Brown made the decision to use a bomb disposal remote-control vehicle armed with a one-pound explosive, which ended the standoff.
In the aftermath of the horrendous murders, Dallas police investigated Johnson’s motivations and discovered that he had long harbored a grudge against the police because of recent police shootings of black men. A friend of Johnson told police that Johnson would repeatedly watch video of the 1991 beating of Rodney King by police officers. During his standoff with police, Johnson had yelled support for the Black Lives Matter group.
On Facebook, Johnson had also expressed his support for the New Black Panther Party (NBPP), the Nation of Islam, and the Black Raiders Liberation Army. A few days before the attack, Johnson had made a long post, expressing hate against white people in general.
It was later found that Johnson had been a member of the Houston chapter of NBPP. A leader of NBPP told police that Johnson also hated black preachers. Johnson also “liked” the Facebook page of the African American Defense League, whose leader had called for the murder of police officers across the country in 2014.
It is quite clear that Johnson’s rage was intensified by these radical groups. But the tepid response to these cold-blooded murders is likewise troubling.
These killings took place shortly before the beginning of the 2016 season of the National Football League (NFL). Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his players walked onto the field at the beginning of training camp a few weeks later with Dallas Police Chief David Brown, Mayor Mike Rawlings, and relatives of the five slain officers. The Cowboys asked the NFL if they could wear a decal on their helmets during the pre-season games honoring the murdered policemen. But the NFL refused to allow the players to wear “Arm in Arm” helmet decals.
“The NFL had an opportunity to be leaders and advocates for change in law enforcement,” said Sergeant Demetrick Pennie, president of the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation. “These are our friends and our loved ones … it hurts to not have the NFL fully support us.”
But Beyonce’s anti-police “tribute” during the halftime show at Super Bowl 50 was allowed. Sports-talk radio host Dylan Gwinn noted the hypocrisy: “That’s the platform the NFL gives to anti-police activists. What do police officers get from the NFL? Not even a sticker in a preseason game.”
Of course, this hypocrisy displayed by the NFL in 2016 has only gotten worse. While police officers continue to be assaulted, professional sports — not just football but baseball, basketball, and soccer — fall all over themselves to support Black Lives Matter, the organization whose anti-police incendiary rhetoric inspires violent assaults against the police.
Attempted Murder in California
Even after the two aforementioned LA County deputies were rushed to an area hospital in Lynwood and were inside fighting for their very lives (each with gunshot wounds to the head), protesters blocked the emergency room entrance, shouting, “We hope they die” and “Death to the police!”
One protester yelled, “I want to deliver a message to the family of the pigs. I hope they f*****g die.” Another demonstrator told the police outside the hospital, “Y’all gonna die one by one. This ain’t gonna stop.”
Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that the shooting is part of a growing trend across the country of law-enforcement officers being shot, without provocation. He noted that the shooting demonstrates the dangers faced by law enforcement officers, and how something tragic like this can happen in “the blink of a eye.”
“Every week across the nation, someone is losing their life in the line of duty,” Villanueva said. “It p****s me off; it dismays me at the same time. There’s no pretty way to say it.” The sheriff noted the long hours that his department had been working, due to the wildfires in southern California, as well as continuing protests in south Los Angeles.
After the deputies were brought to the hospital, protesters showed up at the hospital’s emergency entrance, blocking the doors, and shouted their desire that the deputies die. Other deputies ordered them to disperse, telling them that their blocking the entrance was “an unlawful assembly.” (It should be noted that the First Amendment protects the right of peaceful protest; it is unthinkable that James Madison, who wrote the First Amendment, intended to protect some “right” to block the entrance to a hospital emergency room.)
While most of the those staging the illegal protest — blocking a hospital entrance — complied, deputies tweeted that “a male adult protester refused to comply.”
“During his arrest, a struggle ensued at which time a female adult ran towards the deputies, ignored repeated commands to stay back [emphasis added] as they struggled with the male and interfered with the arrest,” the LA Sheriff’s Department added. “The female adult, who was later identified as a member of the press, did not identify herself as press and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person.”
Of course, freedom of the press does not entitle a media person, even if she is properly identified, to interfere with a lawful arrest. But this illustrates what local police have to contend with. Much of the media simply accept and promote the premise that there is systemic racism in America’s local police departments, and it comes through in their reporting of events. Along with the decision by the nation’s professional sports leagues to perpetuate this same myth, it is no surprise that police are often seen as a target of violence, even deadly violence.
Sometimes, anti-police rhetoric leads to refusal to even serve a cop a cup of coffee in a Starbucks, or a meal in an Arby’s or a Whataburger. Some officers have had their coffee served in cups with “PIG” written on them. Cities across America have already cut, or are considering making dramatic cuts, in the budgets for police departments. This seems hypocritical. If there were really a problem of systemic racism, one would think these departments would need more money for better recruiting better cops and training those already on the force.
Violence Against Police Across America
As discouraging as all of this is, the principal concern of the average police officer has to be the threat of physical violence. Even in circumstances that have nothing to do with such radical-inspired violence against police, an officer realizes that every contact with a member of the public could potentially turn into a violent confrontation. A simple traffic stop could result in confrontation with, say, a violent criminal who fears capture. Responding to a domestic dispute could prove deadly to the responding officer.
Now, in addition to the normal routine of police work, officers have to be wary of politically inspired violence.
Examples abound in recent months. In Albany, New York, a man allegedly threw a brick at a police officer — who was taken to a local hospital — during a “peaceful protest.” Rocks, bricks, and other dangerous projectiles have injured police officers in New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Kansas, and the nation’s capital.
In Salt Lake City, Utah, a police car was set ablaze and 21 officers were injured during a riot. One officer was even struck in the back of the head with a baseball bat.
Police have been attacked with motor vehicles across the country. In Buffalo, New York, a trooper was run over and suffered a shattered pelvis and a broken leg. A violent riots in Chicago led to injuries to 132 officers — yet the media insists on reporting on riots as “mostly peaceful protests.”
Another tactic of the anti-police mobs has been to set fire to police stations, as was done in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Of course, shootings, a particular concern for officers, have been reported in St. Louis, Missouri; Oakland, California; Brooklyn, New York; Lynchburg, Virginia; Las Vegas, Nevada; Davenport, Iowa; and Cincinnati, Ohio. The officer in Cincinnati was saved by a ballistic helmet.
In all, several thousand officers are assaulted each year in the United States, some during random traffic stops, some during rioting, and some during ambushes. In Philadelphia, a police officer was ambushed in his vehicle after being waved down. Despite being seriously wounded, the officer was able to fire his own weapon, striking the attacker.
Yet, anti-police rhetoric would add this to the statistics of an incident where a police officers shot a citizen.
It is important for the average citizen to be more supportive of their local police officers. They are the thin blue line that protects the law-abiding citizen from those who would take our liberties, our property, and even our very lives. The average citizen can and should speak up to counter the oft-repeated “systemic racism” lie. Otherwise, all Americans — of all races and ethnicities — will suffer the consequences of this continuing violence against America’s local law-enforcement men and women.