This editorial is brought to you by a staff writer for Law Enforcement Today.
WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator and Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris (D-CA) said that she believes that more emphasis needs to be placed on “accountability” and “consequence” for law enforcement officers.
But @KamalaHarris and Senate Democrats blocked a mainly bipartisan police reform bill – refusing to even debate and vote on it! I guess they wanted the issue for their campaign and are not interested in addressing racial injustice after all. @SenatorTimScott #JUSTICEAct https://t.co/aAgTQnO1CY
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) August 28, 2020
As violent protests continue to disrupt large cities from coast-to-coast, Harris wants more accountability from law enforcement.
Yes – police – as opposed to protesters who are looting, destroying property, vandalizing buildings and statues, and setting practically anything they can on fire.
Not to mention their blatant disrespect for the officers who continue to protect and serve their communities.
As we remember the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more whose lives were cut short, we must commit to reforming policing—ensuring officers face accountability and consequence for abuses of power. pic.twitter.com/k1mD4Dz5QV
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 31, 2020
Many officers have been subject to frozen water bottles, bricks, and fireworks being thrown at them as well as being assaulted by protesters. They have sustained various injuries, some life-threatening and yet Kamala Harris wants more accountability and consequences for officers. She said:
“As we remember the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arberym, and so many more whose lives were cut short, we must commit to reforming policing, ensuring officers face accountability and consequences for abuses of power.”
She added:
“You know, I know from my time of being a prosecutor that, you know, in the criminal justice system, people talk all the time about consequence and accountability, accountability and consequence and they always talk about it in terms of the person who’s arrested.”
Kamala Harris before Trump’s re-election nomination: “We will only achieve that [promise of equal justice under the law] when we finally come together to pass meaningful police reform and broader criminal justice reform and acknowledge…systemic racism.” pic.twitter.com/KSkVhm1rGI
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) August 28, 2020
She went on to suggest that the focus turn to people who are in the system and the system itself. She said that there are a “number” of things “we need to do” to reform policing in this country. She said:
“Are we holding the system and the people who work in the system accountable? And when they break the rules and break the law, is there a consequence?”
Harris discussed creating a “national standard” on the use of force and providing federal funds to police departments so they can train their officers on the adoption of that standard.
She claimed this new national standard would hold officers accountable.
.@KamalaHarris had an opportunity in June 2020 to vote for @SenatorTimScott’s police reform bill. That would have made lynching a federal hate crime, and had a ton of what people claim to be fighting for.
She voted against it.
Everything she and @JoeBiden does is for power
— iRepubliCAN (@iRepublicann) August 30, 2020
While Harris spoke about accountability and consequence she continued to place an emphasis on the police rather than the details surrounding the police-involved incidents and violent protests.
Officers are expected to make split-second decisions in a myriad of situations, thus making it nearly impossible for a “national standard”.
But, Harris pressed on. She said:
“As far as I’m concerned, the whole system needs to be reformed and the police issue is a very important piece of that.”
She’s still laughing at imprisoning people for Marijuana, and filibustering a bill for police reform.
— Evdog 🇺🇲 (@EvCastTV) August 30, 2020
Since becoming Bide’s running mate, Harris has emerged as a strong voice on issues of police misconduct that seem to be central to the upcoming presidential election.
Yet, in her own unsuccessful presidential run, she struggled to reconcile her calls for criminal justice reform with her record on these same exact issues during a long career being a state prosecutor and working directly with law enforcement.
Independent reported that since becoming California’s attorney general back in 2011, Harris had largely avoided intervening in cases involving officer-involved shootings.
Allegedly, back in 2014 in the midst of the killing of Michael Brown came pleas for her to investigate a series of police shootings in San Francisco.
Back in July there was a rare opportunity in Congress to pass bipartisan law enforcement reform. But it was blocked by Democrats – Kamala Harris led the way against it.
And as @SenatorTimScott had predicted, it was all politics for them. https://t.co/Qowsw3iJKk
— Michele Perez Exner (@michelepexner) August 27, 2020
Harris did not step in. Unless it was extraordinary circumstances, she said it was not her “job”. Over the years, Harris has proudly labelled herself both a “top cop” and a “progressive prosecutor.”
Harris’ remarks on greater police accountability and consequence follow months of violent protests in several large U.S. cities. 132 police officers were injured in Chicago alone the week immediately following George Floyd’s death.
More recently, five police officers were injured after responding to a protest in D.C.’s Black Lives Matter Plaza over the weekend. According to reports, officers were hit with rocks, bricks, and fireworks. Police said that at least five people were arrested on charges of assault on an officer and felony rioting.
5 people arrested last night in clashes with Police in downtown Washington — including a pair who D.C. police said assaulted officers. Demonstrators ignited fireworks, set small fires and threw projectiles including bricks, glass and smoke grenades at officers 8/30/2020
— Select605 (@select605) August 31, 2020
The Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement:
“Some members of the group were intent on damaging property and injuring Metropolitan Police Department officers.”
The department added:
“These individuals ignited fireworks, intentionally set fires, as well as threw projectiles including glass, bricks, and smoke grenades at officers in the area. Additionally, lasers were used to visually impair officers.”
The police department said they would protect the rights of people exercising their First Amendment rights, but criminals would be held accountable.
Here is another article from Law Enforcement Today on the dangers of the type of police reform democrats are suggesting:
This editorial is brought to you by a former police chief and a current staff writer at Law Enforcement Today.
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Make no mistake about it. The chaos that has ensued in the last month has been planned. All it took was a spark to set it off, and that spark was the death of George Floyd. More accurately, all it took was an excuse to set it off. If anyone thinks all of this is about George Floyd, you are sadly mistaken. This is mostly about one thing…November 3, 2020.
All you have to do is look at what the reaction (or lack thereof) of the Democrats to the unadulterated chaos that is going on and it is clear that they have no interest in putting a stop to the madness. In fact, in many instances, they are actually encouraging it.
None of this is lost on Judge Jeanine Pirro of Fox News. Last Saturday, Pirro addressed the lunacy that is the Democrats and their minions. Pirro said that the Democrats were hoping for chaos not only to undermine the police but also to help them at the ballot box in November.
Pirro is in favor of deploying the National Guard in cities across the country where local leadership, all Democrats have refused to act. As a matter of fact, it took the mob showing up at the home of Seattle’s mayor Jenny Durkan before she finally took action to dismantle an autonomous zone in the downtown area that had become the laughing stock of the country, at least among those with more than a couple of brain cells to rub together.
We’re going to paraphrase what Judge Pirro said and she makes some tremendously valid points.
We are a nation of laws, or at least we were a nation of laws. Since Floyd’s death, we have seen our cities devolve into virtual anarchy, with police officers being excoriated and those who commit crimes being lifted up as heroes. In many cities, police have just thrown up their hands and virtually given up, mostly because they fear that if they do act, they will get arrested, as happened to two officers in Atlanta.
After destroying businesses in the cities through unabated looting, burning and wanton destruction, the mob has diverted toward removing anything that commemorates our history—good, bad, or indifferent. What started out as destroying Confederate monuments has denigrated into destroying anything that commemorates any historical figure—be it Christopher Columbus, George Washington, or even the man who lost his life after emancipating slaves, Abraham Lincoln. Make no mistake about it. This latest part is not about George Floyd. It’s about fundamentally changing our country and removing any remnants of our founding.
Of these monuments that the anarchist left is trying to remove, is one called an Emancipation monument, which pictures a former slave, breaking his bonds with Abraham Lincoln freeing him. The whiny anarchists say that this monument shows the slave being “subservient” to Lincoln, and the arts commission in Boston has authorized its removal.
Ulysses S. Grant was the Union general who turned the Civil War around in favor of the North and brought about the downfall of the confederacy. His statue too had to come down. But this is about racism? Apparently not.
Those who do riot, loot, and burn? Well in cities such as St. Louis, where George Soros’ planted stooge sits as District Attorney, they are dismissing charges against the criminals. Defend your house from the mob, as a couple in St. Louis did last weekend? Well, that same District Attorney is threatening them with arrest, for defending themselves and their property from the mob.
Police have been virtually emasculated by city leaders in Democrat-run cities, as cops are forced to abandon their precincts in cities such as Seattle and Minneapolis as the mob runs wild as they are ordered to stand down. And now, with the threat of defunding hanging over their heads, as crime explodes, many cops are putting in their retirement papers. They’ve had it. Pirro noted that over 272 New York City police officers have filed for retirement, with more planning on doing so.
Police last week in Tampa were setup on a probably bogus report of shots fired, then are virtually ambushed by hundreds of people. The legislature in Virginia has a bill proposed which will downgrade the charge of assault on a police officer from a felony to a misdemeanor.
That legislature is of course, run by Democrats. Minneapolis has a veto-proof majority of city council members who want to disband the police department are replace it with some social engineering “department of community do-gooders” or something.
In Seattle, the autonomous zone initially known as CHAZ and then renamed CHOP had the blessing of the mayor initially, who likened the autonomous zone carved out of her city as basically a reincarnation of Woodstock, and even said that this summer would be the “summer of love” in Seattle.
That of course started falling apart, and gangs of armed thugs with AR-15’s were seen roaming the area as a quasi-“law enforcement” group. The “summer of love” became the summer of death as shootings started to occur and took two lives, including a 16-year-old teen.
As mentioned above, it wasn’t until the criminal thugs set up at Mayor Durkan’s house did she take action to take back that area for the city.
In an ultimate display of chutzpah, one of those shot, who occupied the autonomous zone, complained that the police didn’t respond quickly enough to the area where first of all they were chased out of, and secondly where they were denied admittance a week earlier to tend to shooting victim. Actions have consequences.
In fact, Seattle police released a video which showed police and other emergency responders being denied admittance to the zone by a violent crowd.
One billion-dollar business has said that they are leaving Seattle and heading to safer pastures, going to Phoenix where the president of the company said there is a “better quality of life.” Other businesses are suing Seattle and Durkan, claiming that city officials had basically abandoned that area of the city to the mob.
It is hardly surprising that all of this mayhem is taking place primarily in states run by Democrats. Which states prohibited religious gatherings of all types during the coronavirus pandemic? If you said Democrat-run states, you would be correct.
As the judge noted, there is far less murder and mayhem occurring in Republican-led states. Why you say? Because Republican governors would not be hesitant to call in the National Guard, and the dirtbags know it. In addition, those states are standing behind their law enforcement officers, not abandoning them to appease the mob.
All of this chaos has been created in response to the Floyd killing to protest against so-called “systemic racism.” Citizens, businesses and of course the usual suspects like sports figures and Hollywood hypocrites have all jumped on the “Black Lives Matter” bandwagon without even looking at what the group represents. The founders of the group are all avowed Marxists, and make no mistake about it, they want to turn America into a Marxist country.
Doubt us? The president of Black Lives Matter New York was upfront about exactly what they want in an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum: “If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it, all right? You can take that figuratively or literally.”
While President Trump has condemned the violence, one voice has been mysteriously absent. That voice belongs to former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. He has not issued one word—not one—condemning the violence. What about other Democrats? Not one of them…not Pelosi, not Schumer…none of them have criticized the violence. They’re too busy criticizing President Trump for how he was holding a bible.
What about Republicans for God’s sake? With few exceptions, they’ve been silent. Oh, we have two Republican senators who are virtue signaling by sponsoring a bill to remove Columbus Day as a national holiday with Juneteenth, which nobody ever heard of for the most part until this year. We have cities burning, cops being attacked, our national heritage being destroyed, and these two clowns are worried about sucking up to the mob.
Murders in our major cities are set to break records and not the good kind. New York, Chicago, Baltimore, and other major cities have seen an explosion in major crimes, including murder as they push to defund police and slash their budgets in favor of youth basketball leagues, more social workers and to increase teacher’s salaries.
Democrats say they want police reform; however, they only want it on their terms. They refused to work with Sen. Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, with one tone-deaf senator Dick Durbin referring to it as a “token” gesture. “Token?” Tell us what you really think, Sen. Durbin. Scott told Democrats to present amendments they wanted considered, and they outright refused. Yet, House Democrats accuse House Republicans of blocking reform.
Democrats are showing their hand. If somehow the Democrats are able to pull it off and defeat President Trump, watch the Democrats do an about face on November 4. If Trump wins, expect more of the same. Meanwhile, the Democrats are living up to their mascot, that of stubborn donkeys. They don’t give a rat’s ass about reform. They want chaos. They embrace chaos.
Judge Pirro believes the National Guard needs to be federalized in order to keep the peace, and I agree. It is the beginning of July and it is looking to be a long, hot summer. Law enforcement needs to be supported, or it will get to the point where we have a vigilante justice system where ordinary citizens will be forced to defend themselves. That is a recipe for disaster.
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