Political protests leading to violence against police and the murder of yet another officer show violence against law enforcement reaching a fevered pitch, and Manhattan Institute expert Heather MacDonald says politicians and the media are ignoring the statistics and giving credence for increased hatred against the men and women in blue.
On Friday, protesters forced the cancellation of a Donald Trump rally at the University of Illinois-Chicago and then spilled into the streets where they confronted police, resulting in injury to two officers. Sunday, a young police officer was ambushed and murdered in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
MacDonald, who is author of “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe,” says we are not seeing some statistical anomaly. She says we’re in the midst of a troubling cultural slide when it comes to respect for those in authority.
“Cops are certainly seeing greater hostility growing towards them. When you have not just President Obama but now the two Democratic contenders for the presidency routinely saying that cops think that black lives are cheap and we have a racist criminal justice system, what cops are seeing on the streets is more resistance to their lawful authority,” said MacDonald.
She says routine stops are now fraught with danger in many parts of the country.
“It’s a real breakdown of law and order in the inner city now. When cops go to make an arrest, they find themselves routinely surrounded by people, cursing at them, throwing things at them, throwing diapers, throwing ice-hardened bottles, brick,” said MacDonald.
“It’s not surprising that that kind of hostility is going to result sometimes in even more lethal use of force,” said MacDonald.
She adds such behavior is only going to result in more tragedy.
“The resistance to arrest that is happening now at such high levels and such dangerous levels in the inner city is wrong and it’s going to lead to an escalation of force on the part of the officers and possibly putting innocent bystanders’ lives at risk,” said MacDonald.
In addition to slamming politicians for fanning the impression that police are hostile to people of color, MacDonald says the media are also doing the public a major disservice.
“There’s always a mysterious jump between public rhetoric and an act to that degree of heinousness,” said MacDonald, in reference to the Maryland murder of 28-year-old officer Jacai Colson.
“We have a media culture now that actively encourages the Black Lives Matter movement, which is based on complete lies about shootings. The media buy into the narrative about this being a fundamentally racist society and police sort of as the vanguard of that racism,” she added.
MacDonald says the facts shatter the narrative, including the notion that police are killing black people at alarming rates.
“Police officers are two-and-a-half times more likely to be killed by a black person than a black male is to be killed by a police officer,” said MacDonald.
She says additional research shows whites and Hispanics are more likely to be killed by police than blacks. Her data show 12 percent of murders among whites and Hispanics come from police. That number is four percent among black homicides, which are overwhelming committed by other black civilians.
MacDonald says the current or the next president could accomplish a great deal of healing by helping all Americans see the truth. She says for now, the political left sees an advantage in perpetuating the narrative and inciting violence at places like Trump rallies.
“I think there’s a desire to try to incite violence at these rallies,” said MacDonald.
