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Whereas the media and the entertainment industry once lauded police officers and the family tradition of generations of cops, the tables have turned in recent years, and dramatically so.
The profession no longer wins plaudits from Hollywood, and the Left-leaning ‘mainstream’ media has taken a decidedly anti-police stance, opting instead to promote a quasi-Marxist movement known as Black Lives Matter, whose supporters are backing calls to “defund” police departments.
Following the George Floyd incident, Democrat mayors and governors in blue states picked up the BLM cause as well and have similarly backed police defunding calls. In Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle, efforts led by socialist/Democrat politicians are already underway to cut police budgets by billions of dollars per year.
Along the way, riots and violent demonstrations, which have also been largely supported by socialist/Democrat political leaders, have left an estimated 700 police officers injured, according to Justice Department figures.
But aside from suffering physically, cops are also losing faith: Morale has tanked in departments all around the country, particularly those in cities like Portland, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta where officers perpetually under siege are getting little support from city hall.
President Donald Trump appears to have made ‘law and order’ a centerpiece of his reelection campaign.
“My administration is pro-safety, pro-police, and anti-crime,” the president told a group of law enforcement officers who visited with him at the White House earlier this week, the Washington Times reported.
His message of unequivocal support was echoed by Vice President Mike Pence as well.
“I can assure you that while some are talking about defunding the police, under this president and this administration, we’re going to defend the police. We’re going to back the blue,” the VP said, according to the Times.
Nevertheless, the family tradition of policing is dying away.
“Two major police union officials said law enforcement morale is declining so sharply that they wouldn’t want their own sons to join the force, particularly as violence targeting police officers increases,” Daily Caller contributor Jake Dima writes.
“I took this job after my father did, and I will not let my sons take this job,” the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) Vice President Vincent Vallelong, noting that he has a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old, told the Daily Caller.
Adds International Union of Police Associations (IUPA) Vice President Emeritus Dennis Slocumb: “I don’t know one parent who was a cop who wants his kid to be a cop and if that was true 20 years ago, it’s darn true today.”
Slocumb told the Daily Caller his son said he wanted to be a police officer since he was a toddler. But his son elected not to join the force instead, which was a relief to the police union exec — especially these days.
If he had any advice for young people considering a policing career, Vallelong said, “I would tell them to stay clear.”
“It’s just a thankless, awful job right now. I would tell them to just go into the fire department or become a truck driver or something,” he noted further, adding that morale is “in the toilet.”
Over the past several weeks, officers have been shot, struck with bricks, run over with ATVs, and have had Molotov cocktails and fireworks mortars lobbed at them, according to Fox News.
In New York City, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan suffered broken fingers while three other officers also suffered serious injuries after they were attacked while trying to make arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge Wednesday.
These are the injuries our officers sustained. pic.twitter.com/KI9wQKywHH
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) July 15, 2020
Interestingly, Monahan gained attention — and scorn — when he and other ranking NYPD officials took a knee with BLM demonstrators.
The president is doing what he can to support local police. In mid-June, he signed an executive order called “Safe Policing for Safe Communities” incentivizing law enforcement to “secure lasting relationships” with the communities they serve and to adopt “best practices in the use of force” as well as other reforms.
“We have to give law enforcement more support, more training and resources. And I think the executive order that the president signed last month strikes exactly the right balance: It’s supportive of the police, and it also addresses legitimate concerns about excessive force,” Attorney General William Barr said after reviewing the order.
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign recently released an ad slamming likely Democratic rival Joe Biden and allies “for their irresponsible undermining of law enforcement, encouraging lawlessness, and contributing to rising violent crime.”
On the front lines, however, conditions appear to be worsening.
“[Police are] beaten, they have been fighting with these individuals for the past month and a half with no end in sight. You have to sit there and listen to people taunt you day in and day out. There’s no one there that supports [police],” Vallelong said.
“Let’s throw the police under the bus because right now, that’s the flavor of the week,” he added, the Daily Caller reported. “Everyone hates the police.”
In addition to low morale and recruiting, current officers are retiring as fast as they can. At least 179 NYPD officers have retired in recent weeks, or a 411 percent increase over the same time last year, according to The Independent.
In fact, retirements have become so numerous department officials have had to limit them.
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Jon is a staff writer for BizPac Review with 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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