NYPD officers shot dead as "revenge" for Garner decision.

[The_Doctor]

A simple question.

Why is it that the anti-police folks here were all over Ferguson, and New York, and regularly called out issues of police brutality but now we're not expected to discuss that the police do face great dangers in everyday life? That there are substantial amounts of minorities on the police force across America? And that they face risks and they make decisions everyday, that, imperfect as they are, tend to be on balance decisions that keep communities safe? We're going to pretend this is now a non-political issue?

We can all agree police officers are better off with better race relations, uniform cameras, and so on but I heard a lot of anti-"pigs" rhetoric here the last few weeks. I've heard comments about how America being a terrible nation, and all that. Now we've seen that rhetoric turn into forcible action. It's no better than the Right's demonizing minority communities as havens of crime, and so on. And it's equally tragic.

But we can't just pretend that Ferguson and Brooklyn (wherever it was) and so on are political issues but the murder of two cops isn't something that profoundly affects our society too, on the other side of the ledger.

[The_Doctor]

A simple question.

Why is it that the anti-police folks here were all over Ferguson, and New York, and regularly called out issues of police brutality but now we're not expected to discuss that the police do face great dangers in everyday life? That there are substantial amounts of minorities on the police force across America? And that they face risks and they make decisions everyday, that, imperfect as they are, tend to be on balance decisions that keep communities safe? We're going to pretend this is now a non-political issue?

We can all agree police officers are better off with better race relations, uniform cameras, and so on but I heard a lot of anti-"pigs" rhetoric here the last few weeks. I've heard comments about how America being a terrible nation, and all that. Now we've seen that rhetoric turn into forcible action. It's no better than the Right's demonizing minority communities as havens of crime, and so on. And it's equally tragic.

But we can't just pretend that Ferguson and Brooklyn (wherever it was) and so on are political issues but the murder of two cops isn't something that profoundly affects our society too, on the other side of the ledger.

Obviously murders are bad regardless of who is on which side of the thin blue line. But it's clear that some are making a huge deal of this to exploit for political purposes. 1 guy killed 4 Oakland cops a few years ago, and I don't think that was anywhere as big a story.

The thing, police brutality is a political issue. It was made a very political issue just a few weeks ago and extremely so. Liberals were galvanized and made it very political and someone here even compared the reactions to the 2014 midterm racial breakdown.

[The_Doctor]

Once again - can we now stop regarding all cops as "pigs" and respect that many, a vast majority, do hard work and risk their lives and put themselves in danger to protect communities, and not every situation is black and white?

I've still seen liberals on this board still use generic anti-cop rhetoric, albeit more muted, even after these cops were murdered.

[The_Doctor]

Once again - can we now stop regarding all cops as "pigs" and respect that many, a vast majority, do hard work and risk their lives and put themselves in danger to protect communities, and not every situation is black and white?

I've still seen liberals on this board still use generic anti-cop rhetoric, albeit more muted, even after these cops were murdered.

You are the only person who has brought up the word "pig" in this thread other than Patrick, who agrees with you. Also just because two police officers were tragically murdered, doesn't mean we still can't criticize police and violent police behavior.

I've seen the epithet used here a lot (or a version of anti-cop rhetoric). Ditto other places like Daily Kos.

I agree that cops can and should be criticized. But not in a blanket way, that suggests all cops are somehow terrible human beings (or even most).

But I saw and still see blanket condemnation of the cops in many liberal quarters. It's telling, right now for example, that Daily Kos isn't addressing the murders on the front page at all.