Attorney General William Barr triggered hardcore leftists on Wednesday over remarks he made on Tuesday evening while honoring some of the nation’s finest law enforcement officers with the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing. The media, in covering his remarks about how people need to respect law enforcement otherwise there may not be law enforcement officers there to serve them, conveniently left out important information from their reports that would have altered people’s perception about what he said.
Barr presented the awards in Washington, D.C., at the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Department Building to law enforcement officials from a variety of levels and departments across the country for their outstanding performances.
During his speech, Barr compared the treatment that law enforcement officials receive today to the treatment that U.S. soldiers from the Vietnam-era received when they returned home from the war and were often met with disdain and disrespect. Here is the portion of his remarks that angered the Left [emphasis added]:
… I remember, a long time ago when the first Gulf War was fought and the 24th Division rolled out of Fort Stewart, Georgia, and there were people cheering along the highway as they drove off to the port of embarkation. And then of course when the troops returned in victory there was a ticker tape parade in several cities, including Washington, DC, and rightly so. But when police officers roll out of their precincts every morning there are no crowds along the highway cheering them on. And when you go home at the end of the day, there’s no ticker tape parade.
Now one of the reasons is that we’re fighting in law enforcement a different kind of conflict. We’re fighting an unrelenting, never ending fight against criminal predators in our society. While there are battles won and lost each day, there is never a final resolution. A final victory is never in sight. And yet we, and you, continue to perform your duty of protecting the community day in and day out and that takes a very special kind of courage to wage this kind of fight. A special kind of commitment. A special kind of sacrifice.
You know in the Vietnam era, our country learned a lesson. I remember that our brave troops who served in that conflict weren’t treated very well, in many cases, when they came home. And sometimes they bore the brunt of people who were opposed to the war. And the respect and gratitude owed them was not given. And it took decades for the American people to finally realize that. And I’m very happy today when, I’m at an airport, and troops come through, coming back or being deployed. Everything stops and they get a round of applause because people recognize that that’s the right thing to do for these people who are serving us.
But I think today, American people have to focus on something else, which is the sacrifice and the service that is given by our law enforcement officers. And, they have to start showing more than they do ― the respect and support that law enforcement deserves. And if communities don’t give that support and respect, they may find themselves without the police protection they need. …
Those on the political Left immediately accused Barr of being a racist and stated that his remarks were aimed at minority communities, even though he made no mention of race or any community in particular.
Leftists tweeted out news articles from The Washington Post and HuffPost, which cited the far-left group American Bridge, which stated: “The Attorney General isn’t being subtle and that shouldn’t surprise us considering this administration’s record. When it comes to communities of color, he sees justice and equal protection under the law as subject to conditions. Barr’s words are as revealing as they are disturbing ― flagrantly dismissive of the rights of Americans of color, disrespectful to countless law enforcement officers who work hard to serve their communities, and full of a continuing disregard for the rule of law.”
While Barr could have added more context to his remarks to avoid the attack from critics, neither HuffPost or The Washington Post bothered to include any research about current police recruitment levels in the United States in their reports on Barr’s comments.
Instead of immediately jumping to accusations of “racism” to explain Barr’s comments, a look at statistics on police recruitment efforts provide important context for his remarks.
In December 2018, The Washington Post wrote a report titled “Who wants to be a police officer? Job applications plummet at most U.S. departments” in which the outlet provided some eye-opening information:
Nationwide, interest in becoming a police officer is down significantly. In Nashville, job applications dropped from 4,700 in 2010 to 1,900 last year. In Seattle, applications have declined by nearly 50 percent in a department where the starting salary is $79,000. Even the FBI had a sharp drop, from 21,000 applications per year to 13,000 last year, before a new marketing campaign brought an upswing.
And retaining officers once they’ve joined is getting harder, too. In a [Police Executive Research Forum] PERF survey of nearly 400 police departments, 29 percent of those who left their police job voluntarily had been on the force less than a year, and an additional 40 percent had been on the job less than five years. At a PERF gathering in Washington on Tuesday of police chiefs and commanders from across the country, many attributed their declining numbers to a diminished perception of police in the years after the shooting and unrest in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 and an increase in public and media scrutiny of police made possible by technology and social media.
The Post noted that Seattle Deputy Police Chief Marc Garth Green said that the pay is not the reason that police departments are having a harder time recruiting police officers.
“Number one is validation,” Green said. “The validation that they’re putting their life on the line. There’s no respect for that.”
Green made the exact point that Barr made on Tuesday night, yet media publications did not note any of this, which completely changes the context of Barr’s comments.
Needless to say, documented bigots like Democrat Pennsylvania State Rep. Brian Sims, who bullies little girls who protest Planned Parenthood, immediately jumped on the outrage bandwagon, tweeting: “REMOVE BARR: What if they’re protesting because they’re already not getting the protection they need? What if they protesting because the protection they need is from those who are supposed to be protecting them? Don’t answer. We already know.”
MSNBC “legal analyst” Mimi Rocah tweeted: “These are despicable & dangerous comments from the AG, who leads law enforcement. Everyone, no matter your party, should denounce this immediately.”
MSNBC contributor Joyce Allen tweeted: “I’ve been to this awards ceremony in past years & watched police officers from my community, who take their oaths to serve seriously, receive awards for working to deserve community trust. Barr’s views have no place in law enforcement.”
Democrat Rep. Mark Pocan tweeted: “Instead of addressing the very real problem of police violence against communities of color, the AG of the United States has a message for communities of color: you don’t deserve police protection. Silencing accountability with threats is injustice.”