Sorry Conservatives, You Don’t Really “Back the Blue”
You can’t support cops and oppose gun control
Recently one of my Facebook friends shared the following quote from the Trump supporter and frequent Fox News guest Sheriff David Clarke:
“It’s not the police who need to be retrained, it’s the public. We have grown into a mouthy, mobile phone wielding, vulgar, uncivil society with no personal responsibility and the attitude of ‘it’s the other person’s fault, you owe me’. A society where children grow up with no boundaries or knowledge or concern for civil society and personal responsibility.
When an officer says “Put your hands up,” then put your hands up! Don’t reach for something in your pocket, your lap, your seat. There’s plenty of reason for a police officer to feel threatened, there have been multiple assaults and ambushes on police officers lately. Comply with requests from the officer, have your day in court. Don’t mouth off, or fight, or refuse to comply… that escalates the situation.”
The quote goes on, but you get the gist. And you know, I understand where he’s coming from. I’ve taught in middle schools and I know how mouthy, disrespectful, and irresponsible some kids can be. But I also know how polite and helpful most others are. As Clarke goes on to say, “They see the worst side of humanity… the raped children, the bloody mangled bodies of traffic victims, the bruised and battered victims of domestic violence, homicide victims, body parts…day after day.” No wonder Clarke has such a dim view of society, but he shows no sign of realizing how skewed his sample is, and how biased it’s made him.
He makes a good point here: “When a police officer encounters any person… any person, whether at a traffic stop, a street confrontation, an arrest, whatever… that situation has the potential to become life threatening.” But once again he fails to ask why. Cops in other countries don’t go into run-of-the-mill encounters with the same degree of suspicion and vigilance. But there is a gun for every man, woman, and child in America, and that makes a difference.
So you’d think that people like Clarke and others who want us to “back the blue” would support gun control. After all, at least one study has found a strong correlation between rates of gun ownership and homicides of law enforcement officers. And anyway, robust restrictions on guns haven’t stopped people in Europe from owning them for hunting or sport shooting — if you don’t believe me, check out the International Sport Shooting Federation’s website — though they have made policing a much safer profession. But no, any gun control at all would be a slippery slope to “tyranny.”
Which is what I just don’t get. After all, tyranny, if it comes, will be imposed by men with government badges; in other words, by the police and the military, two groups about which conservatives never have a bad thing to say. And maybe that’s the point: all those guns aren’t meant to protect us from tyranny, but to impose it. Clarke wants the public to be “retrained” because he wants us to accept his version of a right-wing authoritarian police state.
Maybe the right believes some form of tyranny is inevitable, and better the devil you know. I don’t believe that. I still believe in democracy, and I think most Americans agree with me. But when I look at the Republican Party, right-wing media, and conservative churches and activist groups, I see a longing to demolish the institutions of liberal democracy rather than accept the political, economic, and cultural changes that may evolve out of them.
Maybe Clarke’s experiences as a police officer have left him too jaded to have faith in his fellow citizens, but that’s his loss. We absolutely should do what we can to make policing safer, for cops and the communities they serve, but never at the expense of our liberty, our dignity, or our commitment to democracy.
