Joe Biden commemorated police officers who had lost their lives in the line of duty in 2019 and 2020 in a speech at the Capitol building on Saturday. “There’s too much pain. There’s too much loss. There’s too much at stake for your safety and the safety of those you serve,” Biden said at the National Peace Officers’ annual memorial service.
There’s also too much interference by politicians for the police to do an effective job. And there’s too little support by Democratic politicians of the police forces that keep their cities from blowing up.
There’s a clear disconnect between what Biden was saying about the heroism of police and the fact that he and other politicians have abandoned them.
The 2020 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer brought millions into the streets to call for police reform and a dismantling of systemic racism. “Defund the police” became a rallying cry for some and a source of derision for others. The polarization was exacerbated as violent crime ticked up in American cities and local leaders looked to police to curb the violence.
Floyd’s family spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, where Biden was nominated. And as president, Biden invited the Floyds to a White House meeting on the anniversary of his killing.
Biden said nothing about the way that Floyd’s murder while in police custody was used by politicians and activists — including radical revolutionaries — to portray all police as being guilty of racism and “targeting” black people for death. The white-hot anti-police rhetoric by Black Lives Matter has directly led to the deaths of several police officers — gunned down for the simple reason that they wore blue.
Most recently, a Houston, Texas, deputy constable working a “police-related extra job” was shot and killed while two other constables were wounded in what authorities say was an “ambush” shooting.
The deputies were working a police-related extra job when they responded to a disturbance by a bar and lounge at around 2:15 a.m. The disturbance may have been a robbery, but that was unknown to the deputies at the time, Assistant Chief James Jones told reporters.
A suspect then “ambushed” the deputies, shooting them from behind. Police could not say if the deputies were able to return fire, nor could they say what assistance – if any – was rendered to the deputies at the scene.
Media briefing on shooting of three @pct4constable deputies. #hounews https://t.co/9zL6BecBvO
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) October 16, 2021
Biden helped politicize the murder of George Floyd by inviting his parents to speak at the most political event in America — the Democratic National Convention. Biden bemoaning the loss of police officers in the line of duty is akin to an arsonist complaining about the rash of fires lately.
“The toll on this professionthese past two years has been heavy,” he added. “Unless we change the environment in which the job can be done, we’re going to have trouble having enough women and men come forward who want to do the job.”
Saturday’s memorial honors police officers who died in 2019 and 2020. On Friday, Biden ordered flags to be flown at half-staff as a tribute to the fallen. Last year’s event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden speaking about “changing the environment” for cops is nauseating. An example of “changing the environment” can be found in Portland as cops stood by while a mob of about 100 trashed the central city.
Portland Police Bureau officials say that’s because of legislation passed by Oregon lawmakers this year, which restricts the tools they can use to confront people vandalizing buildings and causing mayhem.
“The reason that we did not intervene goes back to what we talked about last month with House Bill 2928 and the restrictions placed on us in a crowd control environment,” KOIN reports that Portland Police Lt. Jake Jensen said in a neighborhood meeting Thursday.
The legislation prohibits the use of things like pepper spray and rubber bullets for crowd control. Activists insist that officers can still use those tools as long as they can prove there was a “riot” or their lives were in danger.
Does anyone believe that a cop in Portland would get the benefit of the doubt?
The crisis in American policing can be laid directly at the feet of Democratic politicians who took a few tragic shootings by police officers around the country and turned the entire issue into a morality play about “systemic racism.”
And Joe Biden was a major character in that play.
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