The Left's War on Cops Has Begun

 

IBDEditorials.com

War On Cops: As two NYPD officers were laid to rest, deadly attacks against police have exploded across the country, the outcome of leftist anti-police protests. The left can't wash its hands of this with phony tears at funerals.

The murdered New York officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were barely in their graves after being eulogized by Vice President Joe Biden and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio when new attacks — from targeted shootings to credible Internet threats — flared up across the land.

In Durham, N.C., police were shot at in an unprovoked Christmas night attack, while on Sunday officers were shot at with rifles in Los Angeles, prompting a citywide alert. There was another shooting in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. And 11 would-be shooters in Chicago, Pennsylvania and New York all posted credible Internet threats.

In an atmosphere like this, it's pretty obvious that there's a war against the police, and not surprisingly the security of all law-abiding people is already suffering.

On Monday, the New York Post reported that police were refraining from enforcing penalties for small crimes now, fearful of any confrontation that might inflame racial tensions.

That's exceptionally bad news, given that New York was cured of its ugly "Shattered" and "Fun City" reality (as Mick Jagger and Bill Buckley respectively put it) only by Mayor Rudy Giuliani's emphasis on enforcing punishment for small crimes so that large ones could not occur — the so-called "broken windows theory" of law enforcement.

There's little doubt where the blame lies: with the race-baiters and communist organizing groups who have taken their cues from the wink-and-nod encouragement from political leaders at the top.

Leaders from President Obama to de Blasio have embraced the radical "narrative" that all police are "Bull Connor"-style predators on black people, along with the de facto message that the police do not have the right to defend themselves in a confrontation.

That was clearly evident in these political leaders' stances in favor of mob protests over grand jury rulings, first in Ferguson, Mo., when a thug attacked a cop to a bad end. It was the cop, cleared by a grand jury, who was forced to resign amid protests. Similar incidents occured in New York and Cleveland.

It didn't help that Obama used race-baiter Al Sharpton as a go-to man on race, inviting the "leader" to the White House 81 times. It also didn't help that he made apologetic remarks to the U.N. about Ferguson, again underlining that police have no right to self-defense.

With a message like that, it shouldn't surprise anyone that thugs with rifles and an urge to scream fire in a crowded theatre would act up — and very quickly.

It's a disastrous and foolish action, effectively announcing to criminals that the consequences for hunting down cops is nonexistent to small.

Personal security is the foremost of human rights, as writer Robert Young Pelton has noted, and there's no disputing that cops protect far more than they harm.

It's time for a serious response from political leaders, because the fire this time has already started.