Holly MatkinWashington, DC – Black Lives Matter (BLM)’s DC chapter took to Twitter over the weekend to complain about police automatically being hailed as “heroes” when they are shot in the line of duty.
BLM fired off a series of tweets following the Jan. 23 shooting of a DC Metro Police Department (MPD) officer in the Petworth neighborhood, FOX News reported.
Many of those tweets have since been deleted.
The officer was transported to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries and has been treated and released to recover at home.
A search for the gunman remains ongoing.
The situation was still unfolding when BLM DC began issuing tweets scoffing at the shooting and warning about the spread of “copaganda,” FOX News reported.
“Look at the reaction and coverage tonight. Tear jerker press conferences and proclamations of heroes coming soon,” one post read. “Being Black in DC is more dangerous than any job.”
BLM went on to complain about the “difference in how people talk and act when an officer is hurt vs when they hurt a Black person.”
“No one asks what the cop did wrong,” the group lamented.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” BLM DC wrote, according to the New York Post. “Let’s wait till we have all the information (isn’t that what y’all tell us). Oh yeah, and that he had a gun (because cops carry guns).”
The group then asked if the media will “post a picture and list every mistake they’ve made since kindergarten,” according to The Post Millennial.
BLM DC described the city as “an occupied police state” on its website and said the MPD was “never meant to protect” people of color.
“Policing and the system under which police work exists is bound to the enslavement, degradation, and murder of Black people and was never meant to protect us, but instead to exploit our bodies and labor to fill prisons and bolster capitalism,” the website declared. “No amount of feel-good videos can deny that truth — no dancing, ice cream peddling, dance videos, BBQ eating COPAGANDA can change that.”
MPD is a majority-black police department, with black officers making up roughly half of the force and white officers being close to one-third of the department.
BLM DC further blasted the MPD after the barricaded suspect accused of shooting the officer managed to escape.
“So … it’s just concluded? No incident or arrests huh?” the chapter tweeted. “Interesting. Make it make sense.”
Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund President Jason Johnson said the group’s comments were “childish” and self-serving, FOX News reported.
“BLM is more concerned with promoting extreme anti-police rhetoric than in improving conditions for black Americans,” Johnson told the news outlet. “Polling consistently shows that blacks bear the greatest burden of violent crime victimization. BLM’s childish tweets ignore the fact that the majority of black Americans appreciate the work of law enforcement and would actually like to see more policing, not less.”
Houston Police Officers’ Union President Douglas Griffith agreed, and said the comments are “nothing new” for BLM as a whole, FOX News reported.
“As far as I’m concerned, they’re irrelevant,” Griffith said. “Most people see through their, for lack of a better term, BS. It’s all about money for them. They’ve proven that time and time again they really don’t care about Black lives. If that was the case, they would be out there protesting all shootings, not just those by police. It’s silly to even give them any credit for anything, knowing what their agenda is.”
Anti-police rhetoric and soft-on-crime political agendas are fueling violent attacks against police across the country, National Fraternal Order of Police President Patrick Yoes told FOX News.
“The recent erosion of respect for law enforcement coupled with public figures spewing anti-police rhetoric have fueled more aggression towards police officers than what has been seen in previous years —undoubtedly emboldening violent criminals to commit brazen acts of violence against law enforcement,” Yoes said.
“The attacks on law enforcement are a harsh reminder that our officers are not just in harm’s way due to the dangerous nature of their profession, but that they are the targets of cowardly individuals whose sole motivation is to injure or kill a law enforcement officer,” he added.
When elected officials endorse and promote “pro-criminal, revolving-door policies” that favor the interests of violent criminals over citizens, chaos will ensue, Yoes told FOX News.
“Law-abiding citizens are seeing the real-life consequences,” he said. “These decisions — failures to prosecute violent offenders for their crimes or, even worse, releasing repeat offenders arrested for crimes who show a propensity for escalation of violence — make our communities less safe. These rogue prosecutors are putting innocent lives at risk. When there are no consequences for breaking the law, more people will break the law and crime will increase.”
Law Enforcement Officers Security and Police Benevolent Association (LEOS-PBA) Director Steve Maritas told FOX News he believes the nation’s criminal justice system is “fundamentally broken.”
“Criminals are now targeting law enforcement officers nationwide without fear,” Maritas continued. “As more and more law enforcement officers are either being killed, shot or attacked on our streets, the nation will get to know these heroes.”
Referring to them as “heroes” is entirely accurate, regardless of BLM’s claims to the contrary.
“Despite the risks, these law enforcement officers continue to put their uniforms and badge on each day to protect you and me, knowing that this could be the last days of their lives,” Maritas said. “They are truly heroes.”
