Radley Balko -
"I can't tell you how many times in the last four years someone has written to me on social media or over email, "I think you do great work but you're wrong about Trump." Or, "I support your work on cops, but you're suffering from TDS."
Here's the thing: If you support Trump, you don't support my work. The two are mutually exclusive. Trump actively undermines everything I do professionally.
He also makes my job more difficult. His incessant "enemy of the people" and "fake news" bullshit make my work -- and my life -- more fraught, stressful, and exhausting. I regularly get death threats now. I didn't before 2016. I get people insulting my wife and family, and wishing violence upon them. I find my job rewarding and fulfilling. So I continue to do it. This isn't a complaint. It's a fact. Trump has made my job more taxing.
Every police shooting is now binary. You signal your politics by either criticizing the cops or by criticizing media coverage of the incident. Every misstep, inconsistency, or misreported detail is evidence of a conspiracy, proof that the police were justified, and more evidence that the media/BLM/Soros are lying...
Twice in just the past month, Trump has praised police violence against journalists...
Trump has openly suggested that if necessary, police officers (along with "bikers" and the "military") will use violence to keep him in power. He claims to be in favor of letting states and cities set their own policing policies, but he has actively undermined and attempted to punish cities that tried to implement their own reforms.
Trump openly boasts about the police unions who have endorsed him. He did it again last night. He couldn't be prouder...
Trump's DOJ strangled any hope of real forensics reform in its infancy. He killed the modest changes Obama made to curb asset forfeiture abuses. He also overturned Obama's restrictions on how the Pentagon gives away surplus military equipment to police agencies. He has ended federal investigations of police departments with patterns and history of abuse, excessive force, and unjustified shootings. He even ended a program where police agencies could *ask* the federal government to help them implement policies on de-escalation and less aggressive policing. He then diverted those funds to anti-gang and drug enforcement...
And yes, I know Biden has been bad on this stuff for most of his career. I'm often the person people cite when they make that very point. But Biden doesn't glorify police violence. He doesn't encourage violence against and hatred of journalists. There's no comparison. One candidate is a career politician whose positions on these issues has been about on par with the Democratic party's history -- which is to say pretty bad. The other is a dangerous demagogue who boasts of "unleashing" law enforcement, and has made it clear that if it were within his power, he'd end the free press.
So please don't claim to support both Trump and me and the work I do. It's fucking insulting."
"I can't tell you how many times in the last four years someone has written to me on social media or over email, "I think you do great work but you're wrong about Trump." Or, "I support your work on cops, but you're suffering from TDS."
Here's the thing: If you support Trump, you don't support my work. The two are mutually exclusive. Trump actively undermines everything I do professionally.
He also makes my job more difficult. His incessant "enemy of the people" and "fake news" bullshit make my work -- and my life -- more fraught, stressful, and exhausting. I regularly get death threats now. I didn't before 2016. I get people insulting my wife and family, and wishing violence upon them. I find my job rewarding and fulfilling. So I continue to do it. This isn't a complaint. It's a fact. Trump has made my job more taxing.
Every police shooting is now binary. You signal your politics by either criticizing the cops or by criticizing media coverage of the incident. Every misstep, inconsistency, or misreported detail is evidence of a conspiracy, proof that the police were justified, and more evidence that the media/BLM/Soros are lying...
Twice in just the past month, Trump has praised police violence against journalists...
Trump has openly suggested that if necessary, police officers (along with "bikers" and the "military") will use violence to keep him in power. He claims to be in favor of letting states and cities set their own policing policies, but he has actively undermined and attempted to punish cities that tried to implement their own reforms.
Trump openly boasts about the police unions who have endorsed him. He did it again last night. He couldn't be prouder...
Trump's DOJ strangled any hope of real forensics reform in its infancy. He killed the modest changes Obama made to curb asset forfeiture abuses. He also overturned Obama's restrictions on how the Pentagon gives away surplus military equipment to police agencies. He has ended federal investigations of police departments with patterns and history of abuse, excessive force, and unjustified shootings. He even ended a program where police agencies could *ask* the federal government to help them implement policies on de-escalation and less aggressive policing. He then diverted those funds to anti-gang and drug enforcement...
And yes, I know Biden has been bad on this stuff for most of his career. I'm often the person people cite when they make that very point. But Biden doesn't glorify police violence. He doesn't encourage violence against and hatred of journalists. There's no comparison. One candidate is a career politician whose positions on these issues has been about on par with the Democratic party's history -- which is to say pretty bad. The other is a dangerous demagogue who boasts of "unleashing" law enforcement, and has made it clear that if it were within his power, he'd end the free press.
So please don't claim to support both Trump and me and the work I do. It's fucking insulting."