Today's Daily News has a front page headline that shows slain NY Cop Brian Moore's crying father and sister at his funeral with the caption 'Cops Lives Matter Too.'
This gets my goat. It begs the question: Who says they don't matter? The implication is ugly that some people don't care when those sworn to protect and serve are gunned down in cold blood.
My problem is that I say this is a straw man. There are no decent people in NY who aren't mourning the the awfully premature death of Officer Moore.
The implication that a lot of us don't care-has been made many times in the weeks since Moore's death. The NY Post predictably is the worse offender-it usually is-but the Daily News hasn't been much better as this front page was in the News-no doubt they overcompensate so as not to be outdone by the Post.
Here is a classic example of this veiled implication-without naming who it is that doesn't care when cops die or what they've done to show this-by none other than Mike Lupica.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/lupica-outrage-short-supply-victim-article-1.2208939
He bases this claim that outrage is in short supply on what? He worries that seeing all these cases of police misconduct that people are now painting with a broad brush.
"Last week, of course, there was a different kind of trouble in Baltimore, trouble that began when Freddie Gray somehow suffered the spinal injury that killed him in the back of a police van."
"But this is how terrible and complicated it has become in this country: On Friday, when the state’s attorney in Baltimore, Marilyn Mosby, announced she was charging six Baltimore cops in Freddie Gray’s death, Mosbywas the one cheered as a hero,and credited for helping restore calm to that city."
"But not all cops are those cops. Not everyone the police come after ends up a victim the way Freddie Gray did. Sometimes the person to whom cops want to talk is Demetrius Blackwell, 35. Moore and his partner saw him adjusting an object in his waistband, and pulled up behind him. In that moment, Blackwell turned and fired off two rounds into Moore’s car and in that moment we had another cop shot and down in New York City."
What I don't get is who is saying that all cops are those cops. My worry is that implicit in complains like this-Lupica is just one example in a cacophony of voices claiming that no one cares when cops are the victim-is the claim that all criticism of police in incitement of violence and driven by hatred of the police.
Yet, while we're warned that not all cops are the same, there is the implication that all people who criticize police misconduct are the same, that all protesters are the same. After the outbreak of looting and rioting in Baltimore, there was an attempt to paint all the protesters as looters and rioters and all criticism of the police as leading to such behaviour. See yet another such post by Lupica.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/lupica-nypd-killings-cops-threat-article-1.2052151
When Mayor De Blasio spoke words of mourning for Officer Moore, some attacked him as crying crocodile tears and declaring that it's ironic that some who 'hated Brian Williams' now claim to mourn him.
I agree it's wrong to speak as if all cops are bad-most are good cops However, it's just as wrong to claim that all who criticize the police in any way, don't care if cops are killed or even that their criticism somehow precipitated these horrible, senseless, executions.
Both actions are socially divisive and wrongheaded.
This gets my goat. It begs the question: Who says they don't matter? The implication is ugly that some people don't care when those sworn to protect and serve are gunned down in cold blood.
My problem is that I say this is a straw man. There are no decent people in NY who aren't mourning the the awfully premature death of Officer Moore.
The implication that a lot of us don't care-has been made many times in the weeks since Moore's death. The NY Post predictably is the worse offender-it usually is-but the Daily News hasn't been much better as this front page was in the News-no doubt they overcompensate so as not to be outdone by the Post.
Here is a classic example of this veiled implication-without naming who it is that doesn't care when cops die or what they've done to show this-by none other than Mike Lupica.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/lupica-outrage-short-supply-victim-article-1.2208939
He bases this claim that outrage is in short supply on what? He worries that seeing all these cases of police misconduct that people are now painting with a broad brush.
"Last week, of course, there was a different kind of trouble in Baltimore, trouble that began when Freddie Gray somehow suffered the spinal injury that killed him in the back of a police van."
"But this is how terrible and complicated it has become in this country: On Friday, when the state’s attorney in Baltimore, Marilyn Mosby, announced she was charging six Baltimore cops in Freddie Gray’s death, Mosbywas the one cheered as a hero,and credited for helping restore calm to that city."
"But not all cops are those cops. Not everyone the police come after ends up a victim the way Freddie Gray did. Sometimes the person to whom cops want to talk is Demetrius Blackwell, 35. Moore and his partner saw him adjusting an object in his waistband, and pulled up behind him. In that moment, Blackwell turned and fired off two rounds into Moore’s car and in that moment we had another cop shot and down in New York City."
What I don't get is who is saying that all cops are those cops. My worry is that implicit in complains like this-Lupica is just one example in a cacophony of voices claiming that no one cares when cops are the victim-is the claim that all criticism of police in incitement of violence and driven by hatred of the police.
Yet, while we're warned that not all cops are the same, there is the implication that all people who criticize police misconduct are the same, that all protesters are the same. After the outbreak of looting and rioting in Baltimore, there was an attempt to paint all the protesters as looters and rioters and all criticism of the police as leading to such behaviour. See yet another such post by Lupica.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/lupica-nypd-killings-cops-threat-article-1.2052151
When Mayor De Blasio spoke words of mourning for Officer Moore, some attacked him as crying crocodile tears and declaring that it's ironic that some who 'hated Brian Williams' now claim to mourn him.
I agree it's wrong to speak as if all cops are bad-most are good cops However, it's just as wrong to claim that all who criticize the police in any way, don't care if cops are killed or even that their criticism somehow precipitated these horrible, senseless, executions.
Both actions are socially divisive and wrongheaded.
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