Real data matters

In a recent op-ed for the Carmichael Times, Republican Sen. Ted Gaines wrote himself into a false equivalence by arguing the public can’t care equally about dead cops and killed civilians.

“Driven by the media’s hysterical coverage of any shooting death that fits their political narrative of minority oppression at the hands of police, we’re trending into and [sic] upside down world where the protectors are viewed as predators,” Gaines wrote in the guest commentary, which he titled (surprise) “Blue Lives Matter.” “That’s wrong. It’s the open, politically inspired murder of police that is the real ’hate crime’ epidemic.”

Um, Ted? Yeah, Math would like to meet you at Camera 3.

According to the Washington Post’s database on police shootings, 925 people have been shot and killed by law enforcement officers so far this year.

By comparison, Officer Down Memorial Page says 62 peace officers have been killed in gunfire attacks this year. That’s not a small number, but it puts the two epidemics in perspective. Or should, anyway.

Doubling down on Gaines’ flawed logic, Assemblyman Jay Obernolte introduced legislation on December 5 that would extend hate-crime protections to California peace officers. But the Hesperia Republican’s bill could have far-reaching consequences.

California’s current hate crime law allows up to three additional years in state prison for anyone convicted of targeting a person who belongs to (or is thought to belong to) a protected class. But the law doesn’t just apply to felonies, it extends to misdemeanors, too.

Under Obernolte’s proposal, what happens if someone from the LGBTQ community resists arrest while protesting, or an activist has some choice words for officers raiding a homeless encampment? Hell, what happens when a privileged white male mouths off about a speeding ticket? Will the cops be able to ladle on a hate crime charge?

Obernolte’s bill doesn’t say.

Instead, he and his brother from another chamber would rather engage in a tired game of wedge politics, by pretending that we can only care about cops or civilians—not both. Gaines pushed that binary choice in his column, arguing that anyone who gets upset about questionable police killings—many of which have been recorded and shared on social media—is putting officers in danger. Red Ted even offered a name for his hypothesis: the “Ferguson effect.”

“Police around the country, fearful of becoming a media story, or tired of the jeering, snarling mobs that now surround and confront them in the course of their duties, have predictably began interacting more cautiously and less frequently with the public, to dire effect,” Gaines wrote.

Gaines’ “snarling” rhetoric and lack of compassion for anyone who doesn’t look like him is the real problem here.

It’s true that ambush attacks on law enforcement are on the rise—from three in 2015 to 14 so far this year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Yet, overall law enforcement deaths are down 14 percent since 2006, according to Officer Down.

As someone with relatives who wear and wore the badge, I’m all for making the job safer. But that goal doesn’t have to come at the expense of holding bad cops accountable. In fact, I’d argue we make law enforcement more dangerous when we let its crooked operators dodge justice. That’s how an entire profession gets labeled corrupt, when its machinery knowingly protects actors who have violated the public trust.

That means there’s common ground for the good cop just trying to do her job and the unarmed black male just trying to stay alive: They should both fear bad police.

But Gaines would rather divide and conquer. And why shouldn’t he? His side won with that cynical tactic. He’s shoveling the same shackles-and-jackboots rhetoric that helped elevate Donald Trump to the White House despite historically low crime rates.

But even in this post-facts, post-ethics world—where “stop and frisk” could be the name of our p---y-grabbing perv-in-chief’s dating philosophy—that doesn’t make them right. It makes them bullies.