Before officials on Wednesday said that Fox Lake Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz died of suicide, the Illinois police officer’s death spurred commentators and Illinois residents to rally against Black Lives Matter, placing blame on the group’s rhetoric for the deaths of police officers.
Police groups quickly compared Gliniewicz’s death to the shooting death of Texas sheriff’s deputy Darren Goforth and charged that police officers were under attack.
“There’s a hostile element within the community at large,” Jim Pasco, executive director of the national Fraternal Order of Police, told the Washington Post after Gliniewicz’s death in September. “There’s in many incidences a lack of support on the part of elected officials and police management. And there’s this ubiquitous social-media effort to discredit all police officers because of the extraordinarily rare misconduct by a very few.”
Ron Hosko, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, penned an op-ed in USA Today railing against the Black Lives Matter movement’s “dangerous” rhetoric in the wake of the deaths of Gliniewicz and Goforth.
“Despite the current lack of hard data and empirical evidence in both the murder of deputy Goforth and the broader spike in violent crimes across the country, concluding that both stem from the anti-cop themes from such protesters, liberal politicians and the mainstream media is hardly counterintuitive,” he wrote. “That movement, while having the opportunity to propound much needed, responsible themes on police reform, has too often drifted into the rhetoric of ignorance and hate.”
Members of the Fox Lake community mourned Gliniewicz’s death with signs showing support for police officers that read “Police Lives Matter” and “We Stand with Blue,” NBC Chicago reported.
“Out here today to show that police lives matter, every life matters,” Fox Lake resident Gina Maria told NBC. “I think it’s time we rally around our law enforcement and stop the madness.”
It´s a shame that their poster boy for the notion of picked-on police ¨ had been stealing and laundering … money over seven years from the Fox Lake Explorers Unit, which was supposed to teach youngsters about law enforcement.¨
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/1071605/officials-confirm-fox-lake-cop-killed
Yeah, it appears he was a real stalwart individual . This is what really pisses me off that policeman are held out to be these great people beyond reproach and how dare black folks protest being murdered on a daily basis by police and risk being labeled as terrorists for doing so. What a fucked up country this is.
This is me rolling my eyes, while saying with a smirk on my face…fuck law enforcement. They (law enforcement) want communities of color to extend to them the same benefit of the doubt that they fail to extend to communities of color themselves.
Fuck law enforcement, they have one job and one job only: protect white America from the darkies…fuck law enforcement. Modern day overseers
Chammy, I apologize, but I edited my post after you had replied.
My question to Gina Maria: What the fuck is so ‘mad’ about anyone protesting police brutality? You sound pissed because it’s black people who are protesting the police brutality. I’m white and you know what? Black Lives DO Matter! I’m glad attention is being drawn to the issue. As a nation, we are stronger and better if we are humane and fair to everyone no matter skin color or other possible identifiers. I do not hate policepersons. I want them to be good, honest and fair at doing their very important jobs. A lot of trust goes with that badge. Considering our history and many most-recent events, I can understand why many people have reservations about that trust. Even I am a bit more weary than I used to be – and that is rather frightening because it very well might inhibit me from coming forward with much-needed information or reporting a crime. Think about that – a lot of bad things happen when there is mistrust between a community and the law enforcement tasked with policing and protecting. I understand the apprehension and outright disgust many black Americans feel toward law enforcement in this nation. Things must change. Things really must change.