President Joe Biden began the festivities of Police Week by praising officers for their devotion to their duty to the public.
“Every morning, our Nation’s law enforcement officers pin on a badge and go to work, not knowing what the day will bring, and hoping to come home safely,” the president says in his official proclamation, before noting the impact of COVID-19 on the men and women in blue.
“As we recognize Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, we honor those who lost their lives in the line of duty, and thank them on behalf of this grateful Nation for their service,” he says.
If Biden had stopped there, he could have gotten away with some rather bland, boilerplate praise for the nation’s police officers.
But Biden didn’t stop there. He proceeded to feed black paranoia about officers by talking about the “deep sense of distrust” in black communities when it came to the police.
“This year, we also recognize that in many of our communities, especially Black and brown communities, there is a deep sense of distrust towards law enforcement; a distrust that has been exacerbated by the recent deaths of several Black and brown people at the hands of law enforcement,” he says.
Biden has pushed for police reform in the wake of the death of George Floyd, for which the police officer was convicted of murder, and his Department of Justice has returned to the Obama-era practice of issuing consent decrees to crack down on police departments — amid claims by activists and many Democrats that such deaths are caused by systemic racism.
“These deaths have resulted in a profound fear, trauma, pain, and exhaustion for many Black and brown Americans, and the resulting breakdown in trust between law enforcement and the communities they have sworn to protect and serve ultimately makes officers’ jobs harder and more dangerous as well,” Biden wrote. “In order to rebuild that trust, our State, local, and Federal Government and law enforcement agencies must protect constitutional rights, ensure accountability for misconduct, and embrace policing that reflects community values and ensures community safety. These approaches benefit those who wear the badge and those who count on their protection.”
There has been a “breakdown in trust” long before the recent spate of police-involved shootings. It has been fomented for many years by black activists who prey upon the fear and paranoia of crime-ridden black communities to achieve power, fame, and self-aggrandizement.
Does Biden really have to help them out? Not even Barack Obama went so far during Police Week.
The statements are in stark contrast to those from the overwhelmingly positive proclamations issued by the Trump administration, and even the Obama administration — where a 2016 proclamation included no explicit reference to such controversies and said that cops “care deeply about their communities, and together with our partners in law enforcement, we must work to build up our neighborhoods, prevent crime before it happens, and put opportunity within reach for all our people.”
Biden didn’t say much about the police during Police Week — he held no formal events at the White House and he issued no statements besides the one quoted above.
The White House did invite several Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) reciptients to the White House. DACA recipients are in the country illegally.
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