Police Under Attack
America faces a critical question right now. Many people—including some in very high office—are accusing law enforcement of racism and heavy-handedness. Police are under increasing scrutiny.
President Barack Obama has said he wants to make the issue of race and law enforcement a priority for his remaining time in office. What will be the outcome of that effort? You can know just by looking at what has come from his previous statements and actions on this matter.
It would be overstating it to say there is no racism among America’s law enforcement officers. But there are some few people who are scrutinizing and magnifying this issue for evil purposes. They are using it dishonestly to explain or excuse some terrifyingly dangerous behavior. They are stirring up emotion and anger—but none of it is truly intended to solve the problem.
The results are inciting evils that are quickly becoming far worse than those they purport to solve! The nation’s police are being undermined in ways that will prove devastating to our cities in particular.
America’s law enforcement is under attack. On one side people in communities are developing a mistrustful, hostile, antagonistic attitude, yelling at police, assaulting and even killing officers in some cases. Police are pulling back from doing their jobs for fear of attack, or losing their jobs or going to prison for doing anything that could be perceived as racist. On the other, the federal government is undermining local law enforcement and stripping it of power in an effort to centralize policing power on the federal level.
You need to recognize just how dangerous these trends really are.
On the Wrong Side
Many law enforcement professionals were deeply disturbed by the president’s remarks. Without facts, the president injected himself into this delicate situation, maligning the police with ugly statements and turning this into a very public race issue.
In 2012, a neighborhood watch volunteer killed a black 17-year-old, Trayvon Martin, and was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges. Protests were held across the nation. Accusations of widespread racial profiling flew; the entire justice system was broadly criticized for its inherent racism. Once again the president inserted himself into a tense situation. “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon,” he said at a White House press conference. Later the president used the incident to talk about the difficulties of growing up as a black man in America, and how the police disproportionately target African-Americans. “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” he said.
Last summer, a white police officer fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Violent protests started immediately, before the case could be heard in court. Then they intensified after the policeman was acquitted. President Obama publicly criticized the police for coming down too hard: “There’s also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights,” he said. He also accused police of “bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs.” He ordered a review of the military hardware being shipped to state and local police.
In all three of these situations, the president was proven publicly to be on the wrong side. His false and provocative remarks have increased people’s mistrust of police. They have further eroded the loss of faith in the justice system. They have increased tensions rather than settling them down.
The president uses every opportunity he can to reinforce the black community’s sense of grievance.
He says he wants to make solving this issue a priority during the rest of his term. But what have been the results of the statements he has made and the actions he has taken so far?
Softening Enforcement
As I wrote in last month’s cover story (“‘Your Cities Are Burned With Fire’”), many politicians and media figures see the violence hitting our cities as being justified. They want to limit the police’s power and ability to control these situations. And they are succeeding.
In the Baltimore case, the state attorney criminally indicted six police officers who were involved in the incident with Freddie Gray. Now more and more police officers are afraid to enforce the law. They know that if they get caught in the wrong situation, or they do something that might be perceived as racist, they could lose their jobs or face criminal prosecution.
The results shouldn’t surprise any of us. Baltimore police are arresting fewer than half the number of people they arrested last year. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said his officers feel “confused and unsupported” after those six indictments.
On top of that, arrest rates are also declining because of interference from residents, who are behaving in increasingly bold and aggressive ways against the police. “When officers pull up, they have 30 to 50 people surrounding them at any time,” Batts said. Such interference makes it dangerous for a policeman to attempt arrests.
These people are not just against white police; they’re against black ones as well, because half of the policemen in Baltimore are black.
What happens when fearful police pull back? Criminals run amok!
In Baltimore now, crime rates are soaring. May was the city’s deadliest month in 40 years—with over 100 non-fatal shootings and 43 homicides. This is a major spike over normal levels.
Baltimore resident Antoinette Perrine said that while police used to “sit on every corner,” now they are “nowhere” to be found. She is now “afraid to go outside.” She said it is so chaotic “people are afraid to let their kids outside.”
One officer, speaking anonymously to Sean Hannity, said: “After the protests, it seems like the citizens would appreciate a lack of police presence, and that’s exactly what they’re getting.”
These are the kind of effects you get when you undermine police authority, when you inflame bitterness, when you equate thuggery with a noble quest for justice.
Attacking the Police
Authorities in Ferguson, Missouri, said that during the protests and riots, it was common to hear shouts of “kill the police” from the crowds. During one protest in March, a man began shooting toward a line of about 25 police officers who were attempting to contain demonstrators. One officer was shot in the face and another in the shoulder.
Phillip Goff, director of the ucla’s Center for Policing Equity, said police officers are now “generally concerned that the way the nation is talking about this is going to cost one or more of them their lives.”
Isn’t that fear justified?
In December, two New York Police Department officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, were shot dead by a black man as they sat in their marked patrol car. The murders were apparently revenge for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, men who died in confrontations with the police.
Last July, an Indianapolis police officer was fatally shot by an assailant with an AK-47-type assault rifle. Less than two weeks later, Lawrence Campbell killed a rookie New Jersey police officer by shooting him in the head. Other officers returned fire at Campbell, killing him. The Associated Press noted that the memorial that neighborhood residents built for Campbell, the killer, was larger than the one made for the murdered officer. Campbell’s wife said her husband should have killed more police officers if they were going to “shoot him like a [expletive] dog.”
Why is all this happening? Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said in December he believes it is the result of “propaganda, starting with the president, that everybody should hate the police.” Giuliani said black leaders, especially, have incited “strong anti-police hatred in certain communities.”
Can anyone disagree? Those who insist that this hate-mongering and violence are somehow honorable need to look honestly at the outcome of such deadly reasoning!
‘Far From Equal’
The president’s wife is beating on the same drum that he is. In May, First Lady Michelle Obama used a commencement address at Tuskegee University, a historically black school, to speak about the trials of being black in America.
Her race affected the 2008 presidential campaign, she said: “As potentially the first African-American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations, conversations sometimes rooted in fears and misperceptions of others.” She and her husband, she said, “both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives.”
This is the first lady, who is in office because her husband won two nearly overwhelming national election victories. But she says they have been slighted their entire lives, and she is really upset about that.
What slights is she talking about? “The folks who cross the street in fear of their safety; the clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores; the people at formal events who assumed we were the help—and those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country. And I know that these little indignities are obviously nothing compared to what folks across the country are dealing with every single day—those nagging worries about whether you’re going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason ….” I tend to think that many times they won’t get pulled over even if there is a reason, because policemen know what might happen.
Mrs. Obama continued, “The fear that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds; the agony of sending your kids to schools that may no longer be separate, but are far from equal ….” America hasn’t even come close to equality, she says. This country is filled with all kinds of white racism. (She doesn’t give one mention to black racism.) We’ve come a long way, but there’s a long way to go, she says.
She doesn’t show even a scintilla of gratitude. This couple has become wealthy in America. They have been given just about everything a country could give them. Why would she say things like that? What is she trying to accomplish with such statements?
She went on to speak of “the realization that no matter how far you rise in life, how hard you work to be a good person, a good parent or a good citizen, for some folks it will never be enough.” The crowd broke into applause at that statement.
If you were sitting in that audience of mostly black people, and she said, Even if we’re nice and have good families and everything like that, it’s never enough for some folks, what are you going to do? How are you going to deal with that?
The first lady is feeding a growing sense among African-Americans that this is an appalling problem that simply cannot be solved through normal means.
“[T]hose feelings are playing out in communities like Baltimore and Ferguson and so many others across this country,” she said. Again the crowd applauded. What is she saying here? These “feelings” are leading to riots, looting, burning and attacks on the police—and she is essentially excusing that behavior because of the way African-Americans have been treated!
What about the fact that this nation has voted in a black president who has installed blacks in almost all of the power positions? Where is the appreciation and the gratitude?
Stop and think for a moment. Policemen are being shot because of words like this! These are dangerous statements!
What are we dealing with here? More and more people, especially in the black community, are speaking of the need forrevolution—evenrace war.These comments from Mrs. Obama feed into that movement. This was not a speech of love.
When you keep talking that way and telling people that, you are going to have riots and cities are going to burn. And as I wrote in the cover story of last month’s issue, biblical prophecy says that burning is going to grow worse and worse!
Many African-Americans don’t buy into this drivel. You have to give them credit for that because they are taking a lot of heat for that position.
God loves every human being on Earth, and He has a wonderful plan to save every single person he possibly can. He expects us to love each other no matter what race.
But there is a devil, and he is a liar and a murderer—and he is the god of this world! (John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 4:4). He rules! And whether people like to hear it or not, this administration is leading people—including African-Americans—to their death! These leaders think they know where their actions are leading, but they are woefully wrong.
Seeking the Truth
Consider this statement from President Obama: “What I think the people of Baltimore want more than anything else is the truth.” He is saying, These are wonderful people. They may be tearing down and burning businesses, but I’m telling you, mainly what they want is thetruth!
Is that true? The rioters themselves said, If we don’t get the verdict we’re looking for, you’re going to have a lot worse riots than you’ve had so far.
When the president says they just want the truth, doesn’t that mean there must be white people and policemen, both white and black, who won’t give them the truth?
What do you think will happen when the president and the first lady make statements like this? It’s all about destruction!
I didn’t hear one person comment about the president’s statement. But it is satanic to the core! How many mobs have you seen that sought truth? That is just outrageously wrong.
Here is some truth: Most of the $800 billion of the president’s economic stimulus money went back to the Democratic Party in indirect ways. Much went to unions, which would also come back to the Democratic Party. Almost $2 billion went to Baltimore. What good did it do?
Baltimore has a black mayor, a black police chief, a black district attorney, and more black policemen than white ones. The man they arrested, Freddie Gray, had used drugs for years, committed numerous crimes, and was caught running from the police, apparently with an illegal knife.
Here is some more truth: Ninety percent of the homicides in Baltimore are committed by blacks. Are the federal authorities really working to solve that problem? If it is the policemen’s fault, or the white people’s fault, then how come 90 percent of the murders are mostly by blacks on blacks?
How much value do you put on truth? This is not a time to be ruled by emotions. We need to be ruled by the truth of God.
Taking Control Over the Police
The federal government is fueling people’s mistrust of their local police forces, playing up the seriousness of these problems. One reason is that this administration is positioning itself to step in and solve them—while taking more power to itself.
On April 28, the Japanese prime minister was visiting the White House to forge an important bilateral trade deal. At a joint press conference during the question-and-answer section, President Obama chose to take the focus off trade and talk about the issue of policing. He said there are a handful of bad cops that need to be weeded out from police forces across the country. “Now, the challenge for us as the federal government is that we don’t run these police forces,” he said. “I can’t federalize every police force in the country and force them to retrain.”
It is odd that the president took the spotlight off this trade deal to talk about America’s police forces—especially if, as he says, there are only a handful of bad cops. But it makes complete sense when you realize that the White House and Justice Department are pushing to do the very thing the president says he can’t do: control local police forces.
White House insider and civil rights leader Al Sharpton expressed it best two days later when he told a crowd of reporters in Baltimore, “We need the Justice Department to step in and take over policing in this country. In the 20th century, they had to fight states’ rights …. We’re going to have to fight states …” (emphasis mine).
He is advocating a diabolical tyranny!
This isn’t just sloganeering. If you pay attention, you can see how it is being done. First, local police forces are being discredited. In a series of these high-profile race-related cases—Trayvon Martin, Ferguson and Baltimore, as well as the case of Eric Garner in New York—the Justice Department has conducted its own investigation. The implication is clear: Local police forces cannot be trusted because they are racist. After these investigations, even if no wrongdoing was found, Justice Department investigators unearthed other data they said confirmed that police departments were racist against blacks and minorities—even departments with many black officers and in cities primarily run by black officials.
The Department of Justice says that because black people are charged with more crimes than would be expected based on their population, that proves police racism. It says this is due to “implicit” or “unconscious” bias by officers unaware of biases in their actions. They are supposedly subconsciously biased.
The federal government is also making police departments in cash-strapped neighborhoods dependent on federal handouts. Last December, after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, President Obama said he wanted to make sure police were using their surplus military and military-type equipment properly. He also proposed over $300 million in federal funding for local police forces to buy equipment like body cameras.
The implication is that if police departments want federal money, they must toe the official Justice Department line and adopt its policies. And they must open themselves up to Justice Department advisers, whom many see simply as witch-hunters and agitators.
Here is some more truth: The president has people moving into cities and taking over police departments in order to straighten them out! The federal government is getting more and more control. It has a stranglehold on the police even now. The Obama administration seems to view each new prominent race-related police story that explodes into the news as an opportunity to seek more control.
They are tearing down the police, the nation’s last line of defense. They have already torn it down to a great extent. Do you know what comes after that? As I wrote last month, our cities will be burned with fire (Isaiah 1:7). That nightmare is already starting, and could break out and spread throughout the nation overnight!
‘Because of Transgression’
As I wrote in my booklet America Under Attack (request a free copy), Satan the devil is working to tear down the United States. That is his goal. He and the demons have been cast down to Earth, they know they have only a short time left, and they are full of wrath (Revelation 12:12).
As that booklet explains, a technique that the devil has used time and again throughout history is to empower a leader who is able to do his damage from within. Believe it or not, this is exactly what is happening to the U.S. today. I urge you to get a copy of America Under Attack for proof of this truth.
Why would God allow this to happen to the United States? Believe it or not, God does not put the primary blame on a political leader, the way that so many commentators tend to do.
In one of the Bible’s prophecies of this calamity, it explains the reason why this destructive leader is able to come to power. It is a prophecy of a time when this happened within the Church of God to destroy it from within, but the same principle applies to the United States in this end time. It is in Daniel 8:12, which says that this individual was empowered to do his destructive work “by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.” This prophecy is explained in America Under Attack.
God is allowing this attack “by reason of transgression”—because of the terrible sins of the people of America!
The U.S. has sinned and turned away from God about as far as it possibly could.
As we show in our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, America has a history with God. It has received wonderful blessings from God. Yet look at how our nation is living today. God says we have become like wicked Sodom and Gomorrah! (Isaiah 1:10). He is disgusted with our morals and our spiritual lives! The nation’s conduct has gotten so bad that, as I wrote last month, God says,Even when you lift up your hands and pray to me, I will not answer you! (Isaiah 1:15). He is talking to America! He warns that our cities are going to burn with fire (verse 7), but says that when we ask for His help, He will refuse!
All of this is happening because of transgression. When we are caught up in sin, God will not protect us against the devil—and we don’t stand a chance against him and his demons without God’s protection. Satan is simply too powerful.
So now, a man is leading this nation to its death, but the people deserve the blame most of all. God allows it to happen, and He blames—not that man, or even Satan—but thepeoplewho are transgressing.
But in the end, these nation-destroying problems are actually correction from God to help us see our sins and repent of them. The same Bible that prophesies of our cities burning shows that ultimately, all this suffering will help bring this nation to its senses and prepare us to submit to God once Jesus Christ returns to this Earth. Thank God for that!