PoliceOne.com
Retired police officer and former SWAT team member at the La Crosse, Wisconsin Police Department, where he served for more than three decades; author of several books, including SWAT: Blue Knights in Black Armor and Destiny of Heroes,” he writes for PoliceOne.com
Backlash in Blue Eric Garner in New York, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Tamir Rice in Cleveland are just a few of the African Americans whose deaths at the hands of police last year sparked a nationwide protest movement. The unrest and anger over police brutality and racial profiling has recently spilled over into threats and violent attacks by individuals against police on the beat -- including the shooting deaths of two Brooklyn officers three weeks ago. Once on the defensive, now police across the country are aggressively speaking out, in pro-police rallies, a drastic slowdown in New York in arrests, and a social media campaign, Blue Lives Matter , in support of law enforcement. What will this new phase in the national debate over race and policing bring?
Police and Race in America Last Friday in Beverly Hills, California, TV producer Charles Belk—a 51-year old black man—was on his way to a pre-Emmy awards party. When he left a restaurant, he was stopped by police, handcuffed and taken to jail with bail sent at $100,000. After 6 hours, police reviewed videotape that proved Belk had not robbed a bank and released him 10 minutes later. Belk says it was all because he was “tall, bald, male and black.” Will policing ever be colorblind?
Cop or Soldier? Hard to Tell "War Comes Home": That’s what the ACLU called its report this week about the increasing militarization of police forces in the United States. According to the ACLU, SWAT-style raids are on the rise, even though they’re often unnecessary, and sometimes turn peaceful situations into violent ones. And these ultra-armed teams are often subsidized with grants from the Department of Homeland Security.
Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
