“By demonizing the police,” right-wing commentator Tomi Lahren screeched this week while scolding celebrities for raising awareness about police violence, “you’re putting the communities you claim to care about at risk because it’s our officers who protect those communities and all communities.”
As it turns out, cops are putting communities at risks all by themselves. Here are ten instances just from the last few weeks that show cops are earning their bad reputations:
1. A New Jersey police officer was arrested Friday amid charges of selling narcotics out of his police car. While the entire premise of the drug war and prohibition is highly questionable, so is a sworn officer of “the law” directly breaking it. This is not an uncommon occurrence, as officers around the country have made a habit of dealing substances they throw people behind bars for possessing or selling.
2. Late last week, an LAPD officer was arrested on suspicion of three counts of murder and three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and drunk driving causing injury after he drove drunk and caused a fiery crash that killed an entire family. This, too, is a pattern among officers, and while this particular officer was fired, some are allowed to return to their jobs despite flagrantly endangering the public.
