In an impassioned speech on Tuesday, Mike O’Meara, president of the New York Police Benevolent Association, ripped politicians and the press who have vilified police officers as thugs and criminals over the past two weeks.
Holding up a police badge, O’Meara said that the actions of police in Minneapolis should not be a stain on the badges of other police officers.
“This isn’t stained by someone in Minneapolis. It still has a shine on it. And so do theirs. So do theirs,” O’Meara said as he gestured to the scores of police officers standing behind him.
O’Meara then pleaded with Americans to stop treating police officers “like animals and thugs,” demanding that cops be treated with some respect.
“Stop treating us like animals and thugs,” he said. “And start treating us with some respect. That’s what we’re here today to say. We’ve been left out of the conversation. We’ve been vilified. It’s disgusting. It’s disgusting. Trying to make us embarrassed of our profession.”
O’Meara then stated that the vast majority of interactions with police are overwhelmingly positive and called to mind the police officers, many of whom were black men, that were killed in the riots.
“375 million interactions, overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly positive. Nobody talks about all the police officers that were killed in the last week in the United States of America, and there were a number of them,” said O’Meara.
O’Meara concluded by condemning the actions of Officer Derek Chauvin of Minneapolis and noted that he, O’Meara, is still proud to be a cop.
“We don’t condone Minneapolis. We reject what he did as disgusting,” concluded O’Meara. “It’s disgusting. It’s not what we do. It’s not what police officers do. Our legislators abandon us. The press is vilifying us. Well, you know what guys, I’m proud to be a cop and I’m going to continue to be proud to be a cop until the day I retire.”
WATCH 🚨 New York police boss Mike O'Meara went off on the media today:
"Stop treating us like animals and thugs and start treating us with some respect … Our legislators abandoned us. The press is vilifying us. It's disgusting." pic.twitter.com/CXOPARKff7
— August Takala (@AugustTakala) June 9, 2020
In the wake of protests across the nation, some of which devolved into riots, the conversation has shifted from police reform to a full-blown campaign to “defund the police,” a position so extreme that even presidential candidate Joe Biden has distanced himself from it.
“No, I don’t support defunding the police,” Biden told “CBS Evening News” on Monday. “I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community.”
Democrats, knowing that “defund the police” could be political suicide, have since begun trying to shift the conversation toward reform. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MN) said she supports the “spirit” of the “defund the police” movement but not the act itself.
“It’s really about reprioritizing and rebuilding communities, not just policing. That this is really about where do we, where do we prioritize our resources,” Gov. Whitmer said. “You look at budgets and they’re focused on policing — they should be focused on education, transportation, access to health care, access to skills, and leveling the playing field.”
“I think you do all those other things, you don’t need all the money that’s going to the police departments. So, yeah, I mean, the spirit of it, I do support that spirit of it.”
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