Mass Police Chiefs Rail Against Sen. Liz Warren’s Claim: US Justice System is 'Racist, Front to Back'

P. Gardner Goldsmith | August 15, 2018
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It appears that Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has a persistent problem with situational ethics.

Indeed, the woman who, when it helped her gain a race-weighted spot on the Harvard faculty, claimed that she came from American Indian heritage, but acts aggrieved and put upon to prove it, seems very ready to applaud police as so-called “First Responders” when it suits her purposes. The trouble is, when she speaks in front of a Congressional Black Caucus event, she also appears quite ready to call the entire US criminal justice system, “racist, front to back.” And some cops aren't happy about that.

As The Associated Press reports, while participating August 3 at a New Orleans-based Dillard University “Q and A” sponsored by the collectivist, Identity Politics-Fueled, Congressional Black Caucus, Ms. Warren seemed to have forgotten that in October of last year, she co-sponsored a Senate Resolution called, “Honoring the Nation’s First Responders Day”. Instead, she appeared to play the situational ethics game once more, seeming to pander and race-bait while in front of a group one could understand might be very sensitive to race and legal issues.

To quote the esteemed Senator, known in New England as “Fauxahontas” for her intransigency when it comes to proving her claim about being an American Indian:

The hard truth about our criminal justice system: It’s racist... I mean front to back.

Of course, Ms. Warren must not realize that when she is pandering to a crowd in front of her, there’s this technology called the Internet that will channel her flip broad-brush statements all over the world, and her words caught the attention of some cops back Massachusetts.

Yarmouth, MA, Police Chief Frank G. Henderson issued this stinging response as part of a detailed, heartfelt statement on Facebook:

As a police chief in your home state of Massachusetts, as well as the statewide association representative, I am extremely troubled by this statement. Labeling the entire criminal justice profession as “racist” spreads false and damaging information about our members… From the outside, it appears your statement was strategically placed to gather support for your position. 

That hits the nail on the head, and, as police understand the terminology, it perfectly fits Ms. Warren’s M.O.

Chief Henderson added:

As you may know, this is troubling to the law enforcement professionals in the state you represent. In recent months, we have seen the murder of two officers in Yarmouth and Weymouth. In only the last two weeks, two officers were shot in Falmouth.

And Chief Henderson is not alone in his natural reaction to Warren’s grandstanding statement. As Christopher Gavin reports for Boston.com:

In an Aug. 7 letter to Warren, Dudley Police Chief Steven Wojnar, also president of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, wrote that her statements create hostility toward officers and can hurt the relationships departments work hard to create with their communities.

It seems that more than a few people are upset by what appears to be Senator Warren’s attempt to play to a particular crowd, while badmouthing another group not in attendance.

It’s possible that if she had chosen her words more carefully, and tried to avoid the tendency of politicians to be inflammatory in order to win an audience she might have offered some points for consideration. According to the Associated Press:

(T)he Massachusetts senator identified some of the system’s failures: disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession; an overloaded public defender system; and state laws that keep convicted felons from voting even after their sentences are complete.

Despite the fact that this Senator who was critical of disproportionate arrests of African-Americans for petty drug possession was not in favor of decriminalizing marijuana possession and sale until about a year ago, perhaps we could give her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she has “grown” and really is concerned with creating legal reform.

But how often can one give her such benefit of the doubt before one simply gets the feeling that virtually everything she utters is tailored for her political benefit?

Heck, virtually everyone has a problem with the police on one level or another. Some have very deep, philosophical problems with the state and police, while others have practical trouble with the enforcement of drug laws, or immigration laws, or speed limits. Some believe that police disproportionately target African American citizens, or that the courts dispense more severe sentences to minorities before the bench. Others argue that those troubles stem from recidivism and poor legal representation due to lower living standards and that black Americans are statistically cited as being involved in more violent crime than whites. Some blame the lack of fathers for the crime differentials and, thus, the differences in arrests and the courts.

But to call the entire legal system racist, from “front to back” is not only incorrect, it’s opportunistic and outrageously myopic, a sloppy, “act in the moment and be flamboyant” expostulation that is the mark of a slippery, ethically challenged individual.

Then again, Ms. Warren doesn’t often recognize individual rights, so perhaps that term, “individual” might bother her.

She’d much rather pander to “Identity Politics” while thinking it helps her gain applause.

It seems very few are applauding, Senator Fauxahontas. Because people can recognize race-baiting when they see it.

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