By Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D.
It would be fitting to properly honor the life, service, and sacrifice of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Given so many of the Biden administrations’ disdain for law enforcement, it was hard to get past the hypocrisy as so many supporters of the anti-police movement somberly lamented Brian’s death with sound bytes and photo ops.
As questions still linger over what happened on that January day when the capitol building security was breached by dozens of persons ostensibly protesting the Electoral College count, the narrative has been seized by the new administration. With all due respect to the gravity of the Capitol invasion and the tragedy of all of the deaths and injuries that are connected to it, the contrast between the cheerleading of rioters across the country during 2020 and the declarations of outrage for disturbances in their own neighborhood is noteworthy.
As President Biden includes the elimination of offering surplus safety equipment from the military, improving federal prison conditions, and enjoying the celebrity of his Vice President who has praised defunding the police, it is no surprise that no sorrow has been extended to the hundreds of police officers who die in the line of duty yearly or to the thousands of police injured in riots across the country. That he has now made time to add Officer Sicknick to George Floyd as a funeral guest smacks of pandering to law enforcement whom he alienated during the presential campaign.
A Biden Justice Department is poised to begin an aggressive hunt for police agencies to accuse of racially biased practices in order to continue for the federalization of law enforcement along with federal oversight of local police and national policies to impose on local entities. Biden has also attacked the discretion of local elected prosecutors, although many politicized prosecutors have declined to prosecute criminal behavior of rioters including assaults on officers, the goal of Biden’s policy is to ensure that police officers are prosecuted.
Biden has repudiated his involvement in the 1994 crime bill that he once took great pride in and credit for. Despite crime’s significant decline partially due to the bill, the fact that it ended up putting people in prison merited his apology for it. He has also begun aggressive efforts to reduce immigration enforcement, deflating the brave men and women that work to interdict those who engage in smuggling, human trafficking, and drug importation.
Biden and Obama had urged fellow Democrats to walk back harsh talk about defunding the police, recognizing that it could alienate independent conservatives and many centrist Democrat voters. A member of the police reform task force that served Biden and Bernie Sanders described the anti-police protests as a great liberation movement. Jalina Porter has been named deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department under President Biden, once wrote that the largest threat to U.S. national security is law enforcement, not Russian hackers or ISIS. These pervasive influences may not reflect Biden’s public pronouncements of supporting the police but are components of his administration.
The narrative of the capitol riots has been leveraged to imply support for law enforcement. During President Trump’s tenure, he was a vocal supporter of policing which meant that to be an anti-trump politician had to include being anti-police. Since supporters of law and order come in all stripes and party affiliations, the opportunity provided by rioters waving Trump logos struggling against police officers was not to be overlooked by strategists. Praising the heroes of the Capitol police (while, of course, later blaming police leaders for failure) has all of the appearances of political leverage. We can only hope that the death of Officer Sicknick is being honestly mourned.
Autopsy results may or may not verify the sketchy reports that Sicknick was beaten with a fire extinguisher as a cause of death. Investigators have yet to confirm exactly what happened during the melee. The best narrative that would serve the generally anti-police, anti-Trump narrative would be this brutal death, so any contrary investigative results may be difficult to find and not likely to be widely reported. Meanwhile, the suicides of two officers, Officers Jeffrey Smith and Howard Liebengood, who served on the Capitol grounds that day have evoked no widespread action on behalf of officer well-being. The three medical emergencies that resulted in three other deaths in the crowd have been headlined as deaths directly resulting from the incursion.
Add to the public’s skepticism is Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’ (AOC) claim of trauma from the riots may be a dramatized version since recent reports indicate she was not even in the building at the time of the attack. If the reports are confirmed, it is just one more example of false narratives foisted on the American public.
Thank you to all the officers who brought order to the chaos, including the 65 officers hurt during the event. Rest in peace, Officer Brian SnickNick, and Officers Smith and Liebengood.