The election was a mixed bag. Biden lacked the coattails to produce the predicted “blue wave” in down-ballot races. Democrats lost seats in the US House, failed to win a Senate majority or reverse Republican domination of state legislatures and governorships. Swing voters seem to have voted against Trump’s persona rather than Republican policies and have rejected the agenda of Bernie Sanders, AOC and the rest of the Democrats’ radical left-wing faction.
That includes the virulently anti-police mentality of the militant Black Lives Matter organization and its avowedly Marxist founders. Reasonable police reforms are supported by the great majority of Americans. But the demands of some who march under the BLM banner carrying signs that literally call for “abolishing” the police have alienated most rational voters. That some pundits and politicians on the left echoed this idiotic notion is dumbfounding.
The “thin blue line” is what protects us from chaos, plunder and terror. Imagine the south side of Chicago with no police. Who would protect law-abiding black residents from gangbangers and other criminals who prey on them, if not for the presence of white and black cops.
Here’s a typical scenario in a dystopian community that actually abolished the police. You call 911 and desperately plead with the dispatcher for help, “Three armed, crazed, drug addicts have broken into my home. I’ve barricaded myself in the bedroom. They say if I don’t open the door and submit to their lewd desires, they’ll kill me. Please send some cops immediately.”
The dispatcher answers, “Sorry, our police force has been abolished. We no longer have any cops, And the social workers that replaced them are over burdened. I can schedule you for a social worker house call in two weeks. But under their union contract, they can’t enter your premises and expose themselves to risk of injury. You’d have to be attacker-free.
It would be a similar drill, for murders, kidnappings, car thefts, robberies, domestic violence, assault and battery, rape and speeding tickets. And with no police, donut shops would be put out of business.
There’s an abundance of police television series on TV. They’re very popular with viewers. And they’re virtually all pro-cop and anti-robber, as am I. My favorite and a big ratings success is Blue Bloods, now in its 11th season, filmed on location in New York City. It’s a family affair, with a history in NYC law enforcement. Tom Selleck, a rare Hollywood conservative, is the star. He plays Police Commissioner Frank Reagan who’s joined in every episode for Sunday dinner by his father, a former Commissioner, his sons who are currently cops, his daughter who’s an assistant DA and his daughter-in-law who’s also a cop.
The show follows the family’s experiences, trials and tribulations, taking on controversial issues and NYC politics with a balanced approach. Blue Bloods isn’t a documentary. It’s a TV police drama. In general, it portrays cops as heroic, honest and dedicated. But it also deals with bad cops who abuse their authority and break the law. Because of COVID, the last season of the show was cut short and the new season was delayed.
In that intervening hiatus, police in the real world have been the target of legitimate criticism in some cases and unjustified attacks in others. It’ll be interesting to see how this affects the show. Will the show runners get defensive and pander to the anti-cop angry mob, retreating into political correctness? There was a bad omen in the first episode of the new season where Whoopi Goldberg plays Regina Thomas, a radical city councilwoman, and harangues Frank Reagan in a hysterical rant. It’s reminiscent of the political tirades Whoopi spews on the panel of lamebrains like Joy Behar, on ABC’s daytime program The View, surely the stupidest, most grating chat show in TV history.
Denver’s version of Regina Thomas is a snarling councilwoman, Candi CdeBaca, a cop-hating Marxist revolutionary recently caught on video at a protest screaming profanities at Denver cops: “They don’t know s—! They’re f—ing guard dogs. They’re f— guard dogs. They’re just animals like pit bulls.”
The narrative of an oppressive, systemically racist police force has been grossly exaggerated by leftist activists and the liberal media. Cops have been pelted and verbally abused by raving demonstrators. Other cops have been assassinated. Some police budgets have been cut and mayors have metaphorically handcuffed them. There’s been a surge in police resignations and early retirements. If the thin blue line gets any thinner our society will be in peril.
Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for CompleteColorado.com.
