The Consequences of Appeasing Anti-police Activists

By Rick Martin, BMET III

Since the start of the George Floyd police brutality protests, we have seen almost every “peaceful” protest turn violent. The local police and citizens in these cities are starting to feel the effect of the leftist demands that are being implemented in these protests.

Last week in Seattle, 59 officers were hurt when a “peaceful” protest of 5,000 people quickly turned into a riot. For hours rioters vandalized and destroyed property, injured police officers, and destroyed a Starbucks while also attempting to do the same to the police precinct. After this took place for hours the police finally had enough and declared a riot but not after nearly 60 police officers were injured.

Another casualty of these leftist demands is the police in the city of Milwaukee. They are set to host the Democratic National Convention in a few weeks and they have already seen more than 100 police agencies withdraw from agreements to send more personnel to bolster security in part because they’re concerned about a recent directive ordering police in the city to stop using tear gas to control crowds.

In most cases, it’s the mayor that hires the chief of police, but the City of Milwaukee has been saddled with the civilian oversight commission since 1885 in the name of the Milwaukee Board of Fire and Police Commissioners. The whole point of this commission is to remove politics out of the operations of the departments but in reality it only adds more bureaucracy which creates more opportunities to inject politics.

This commission basically makes it much more difficult for the police chief to do his job. Since the early days of The John Birch Society we have been strongly against civilian review boards. They do nothing more than interfere with the job of the police, tie the hands of the officers so they cannot do their job effectively, and drive down morale. This all creates a situation of additional crime which gives the opportunity for the federal government to intervene, which inches us closer to a national police force.

As we have pointed out before, local elected officials are reflective of the local electorate. If your leaders are not following the limitations of their office or reflecting the values of the electorate, then you change the leaders by changing the mind of the electorate.

To do so, you must be engaged in your local community. We organize at the grassroots level to help you educate or inform your electorate. So to change the police reforms, you must target the right audience. It’s important to find out who has oversight over police operations and pass along educational materials that expose the various ways that police are under attack.

I urge you to check out our SYLP Action Tools at jbs.org to find the educational materials to pass along. A great place to start is our July 9, 2020 Special Report on What’s Really Behind the Riots from The New American magazine. We have a great opportunity to wake up America and we just need to get our fellow patriots activated and motivated to save our Republic!