As just about everything bizarre in life, things have a way of turning around. It is the interim that hurts most, and the time waiting patiently is often tested by elected officials who deliberate much too long, who tally ticks of fatalities while spewing talking points from a podium. These same so-called “leaders” are often the ones who hinder their own police contingencies by reserving them and allowing anarchy to fester…until it is irredeemably too late.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, we saw the latest despicable action take place on the precipice of the now-infamous Wendy’s in Atlanta, Georgia.
Several thugs armed with firepower ruthlessly unloosed bullets into a car with a young mom, her 8-year-old daughter, and a friend after they reportedly tried to turn their car around. Presumably, they encroached a tad too far beyond the so-called barrier set forth by Rayshard Brooks “protesters” who fashioned the burned-out shell of Wendy’s into their very own fortress ala Settle’s CHOP. Among several men who took abrupt exception to this innocuous change of course, two brandished weapons and opened fire, killing the youngster.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms took to the podium media mics to say “enough is enough.” Interesting fact: that is the exact plea law enforcement and their loved ones and their supporters have been echoing for the last several years when it seemed open season on cops. A string of police ambushes influenced the “enough is enough” credo.
Who is responsible for sidelining Atlanta cops while chaos is permitted to fester? Hint: Atlanta’s police chief reports to the mayor. Enough is enough, for certain. And it cuts all ways, with mayors positioned to enforce laws and have their police departments deployed proactively, not reactively. Heck, we even see some situations where cops are barred from areas under control of mayhem-inducing sorts. Utterly ridiculous governance (read: lack thereof)!
Swing on over to glance at yet another out-of-control metropolis, New York City, and we find starkly bold anti-police Mayor Bill de Blasio and his hampered police force under wraps while the city runs amok, with soaring murder rates as he produces the poison pen obliterating police budgets (by about $1 billion) and essentially evicting roughly 1,000 police cadets poised to commence law enforcement training at the police academy. I wonder if he still engages in his wonderful walks to the gym of his choice, without fear of bullets whizzing by and not a cop in sight. Nah…silly me: He has his very own protection detail comprised of a squad of cops who meet his needs via a neatly appointed blacked-out city-owned SUV.
As New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said over the surge in shootings during the Fourth of July weekend, “This has been predictable.” For a police commissioner —for any cop anywhere USA— to forewarn that crime would soar and then actually stand by and witness fruition of such a prediction is gut-wrenching and morose. Talk about feeling disarmed.
Much of this could have been preempted, had local leaders (metropolis mayor) done the right thing and kept a mainstay over police operations instead of kowtowing to overly emotional voices who think they knew better, hoppity and uppity with “abolish police” clown-shows. The NYPD “anti-crime” unit had in its very name what the results would undoubtedly be if it were dissolved. How does a mayor not see this simple ABC…123 lesson and react responsibly, promptly, and accordingly?
What does NYC Mayor de Blasio do after a 205% super spike in shootings in NYC after disbanding the anti-crime unit? He blames it on coronavirus. “This is directly related to coronavirus,” were the words Mayor de Blasio muttered with his very own mouth. Coronavirus is packing heat now, too?
Lest we fail to touch upon Portland, Oregon’s illustrious anti-law enforcement bigwig, Mayor Ted Wheeler (who is also uniquely the Portland police commissioner) has literally permitted his city to decay at the speed of light, non-prudently siding with Antifa and their ilk over city, county and federal law enforcers in his locale. So much so that the National Police Association expended efforts to file a motion with the federal courts, arguing, “Portland City Hall is too anti-cop to be the sole voice defending the Portland police officers in this lawsuit.” The ACLU is on the other end, so there’s that brand of voice on the spectrum—you know, the same organization which barked to have cops outfitted with body cams then reportedly reversed course when many police complaints were found to be falsified by folks seeking to jam up cops.
It is to the point where “reimagining policing” is actually closer to imagining zero police, starting with stripping cops of equipment and justified enforcement authority. Gee, what a key-to-the-city thrill for barbaric criminality to spawn like red tide in an otherwise balanced ecosystem known as America, especially threatened by cancel culture zeroing in on cops.
NPA’s court filing is effectively delineated with broad applications customed for any jurisdiction enduring locale political climate nonsense: “As Antifa and their fellow protesters in Portland rip down statues, damage business, deface buildings and set fires, egged on by the City’s non-enforcement policies and political support, the NPA’s brief to the Court will provide a perspective unfiltered by City officials hostile to the most fundamental values the Court is sworn to protect.”
Things are so pitiful in Portland (no fault of the Portland Police Bureau) that the United States Border Patrol had to come to the aid of local cops. Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said the following about the recent Portland unmitigated anarchy: “These are not protesters. These are criminals who got together and organized and planned and actually brought weapons. They brought shields. They brought frozen water bottles, rocks, lasers, weapons with the intent to destroy a federal building and harm law enforcement officers and I’ve said it before. I don’t care what your ideal logic [or] beliefs are your— political affiliation. Violence, we should all be united is wrong and I can tell you for one, I’m glad this President of the United States understands the importance of law and order and that it’s a cornerstone of American society.” Reading that passage offers a sense of the lawman’s angst, to the point you can envision spittle flying from his mouth.
So, the feds came in because the do-nothing mayor stuffed his hands in his pockets and jutted his anti-cop nose in the air wafting with riotous odor…while karma took serious notes.
Frankly, we are much more realistically reimagining the extraordinary moral corruption in general human behavior, not necessarily police misconduct (fractionally errant) somehow warranting torching cities as a seemingly justified reckoning. Some of the former have been exhibiting depravities against persons and property while the latter whose job it is to quell are seemingly sequestered…then inexplicably blamed. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t is a tantamount outcome when swearing an oath to protect and serve in America nowadays. And the sordid collection of mayors fueling these fires deserve all the heat for perpetuating discord and allowing unsavory elements to run rampant in the name of “peaceful protests.” That nifty ploy accorded by the Constitution is hijacked when city leaders put police in the pitstop while, conversely, waving the green flag for miscreants out for bloodletting behavior.
Generally, cops are liability-conscious professionals who routinely secure the store against litigious-minded individuals seeking a windfall from the city tax coffers. Are America’s most outlandish mayors who ostensibly condone anarchistic (turn a blind eye) behavior by remanding police forces placing constituents (to whom they swore an oath) on the hook for damages caused by asinine advocacy? Anyone happen to be accounting tallies regarding how many police cruisers were ignited/destroyed? What about other police property such as those utilized by Seattle police and the Georgia Department of Public Safety headquarters in Atlanta?
Such mayors deserve the heat for allowing this degeneracy, but citizens do not deserve to pay the price—either monetarily or with their lives. And cops surely do not deserve to be sidelined while law-abiding citizens bear the brunt of brutal miscreants hell-bent on “social justice” ploys supplemented by a biggie-size of repugnant rampage…only to be summoned when a mayor’s mansion and personal space are besieged by the very protesters she permitted to propagate hostilities dubiously touted as “peaceful.” Karma is apparently taking good notes. And that fact makes me wonder what level of bluster is in store for the Windy City, as it once again saw another atrociously violent weekend riddled with hails of bullets, one instance resulting in the death of a seven-year-old child. Chicago’s city leaders seem to blame everyone else (especially police) and everything (coronavirus) but themselves.
No matter the leadership capacity in Anycity, USA…back the blue so our beloved nation can get back to some semblance of normal.