Anti-Police Tactics Will Backfire

Since the anti-police demonstrations that were spawned by the Ferguson, Missouri police killing of Michael Brown last August, there have been at least four unprovoked gunfire attacks on police officers. Scores of social media postings have also threatened police officers' lives. Shootings have taken place not only in New York City where two officers were gunned down by a murderous thug, but also in Dade City, Florida, Durham, North Carolina, and Los Angeles, California. All shooters were black. Last year, one hundred twenty-six police officers were killed in the United States. This is 24 percent higher than in 2013. Ambush attacks accounted for the majority of police officer deaths, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Just when police officers need support more than ever from their communities and city governments, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attended a birthday celebration with Rev. Al Sharpton, the ultimate cop hater. The mayor also spoke separately about how his bi-racial son needs to act, if he is ever encountered by one of New York's finest, to escape injury or death at the hands of the police. As a consummate leftist, the mayor has made a career of being anti-police, as evidenced by rubbing shoulders with Sharpton and not appealing a court ruling curtailing the effective crime fighting technique of "stop and frisk," that resulted in the confiscation of numerous illegal firearms before they could be used in crime. If Mayor de Blasio doesn't want his cops to stop and frisk potentially armed thugs, then thugs will increasingly carry guns and kill more people, mostly minorities. It's no wonder police officers turn their backs on the mayor when he makes his presence. Sadly, I believe more attacks on police officers throughout the country will continue as the media consistently portrays white lawmen as unprovoked attackers of young black men, when the opposite is true. The result of this will backfire when police officers become reactive, as opposed to proactive, in their search for criminals. The effects of this anti-police rhetoric have resulted in a 94 percent reduction in traffic citations and over a 60 percent drop in arrests in New York City as compared to this time last year. Cities where the police shift from proactive to reactive techniques to stop crime will see a sudden surge in the crime rate. Thugs will take advantage of not being "harassed" by the police and grow bolder in their criminal activities. Police will likely maintain a low profile during anti-police protests for fear of being labeled racists. Race baiters like Sharpton and his peers beat the drum at every opportunity when a police officer is forced to use deadly force. To them, the facts don't matter, only the race of the "victim" and the shooter. He, and others like him, have perpetuated the myth that police officers, especially white men, look for opportunities to gun down innocent young black men. The facts be damned, as in Ferguson, Missouri because Michael Brown, the "gentle giant," was unarmed. Sharpton would like you to believe the police obviously shot Brown for no reason other than he was black. According to Sharpton and his hysterical, ignorant, followers, all police are racists, and police departments recruit like-minded racists to fill their ranks. Sharpton ignores the fact that in many of these shootings, the police chiefs of these departments are black. It doesn't matter. Some of these jurisdictions have mayors or chief county supervisors that are black. It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters to these race baiting anarchists is that a young black man was gunned down by the "militarized" police, no matter the circumstances that led to the shooting. Even presented with video evidence that Michael Brown strong armed a shopkeeper to steal some cheap cigars moments before confronting officer Wilson, some members of Ferguson's black community don't believe it. It doesn't fit Sharpton's template. Police work, especially uniform patrol, is an increasingly dangerous profession. If cities want to waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on unnecessary body cameras for police officers, go ahead. The cameras will depict extremely polite police officers dealing with aggressive thugs, weirdoes and nut jobs on a daily basis. It won't be long before Sharpton and his followers will demand removal of the body cameras because they will prove that in 999 times out of a thousand, police officers were fully justified in using deadly force. Body cameras might just put Sharpton out of the race-baiting business.