Allen Johnson: News flash: Booing heroic officers isn't 'backing the blue' (2024)

Bless her heart, the conservative provocateur Candace Owens sent me an email last week, warmly addressing me as “Friend.”

She began her missive to me with a bold-faced sentence:

“I am so grateful for our police officers.”

She went on:

“As an American who believes in law and order, truth, and justice, I have always stood with the public servants who protect our communities.

“Please join me in thanking uniformed men and women by signing our ‘Back the Blue Petition’ and letting brave officers know that we are grateful for their service and sacrifice.

“Unfortunately, a few years ago, radicals began propelling criminals into heroes overnight and campaigning to ‘defund the police.’

“That’s one of the reasons I founded BLEXIT — an organization focused on shifting the culture in Black America as well as educating and uplifting minorities through educational programs and acts of community service.

“Around the nation, our BLEXIT chapters have supported local officers, while so many others have turned their backs on those who serve our communities.”

I was moved by Owens’ message (and, frankly, touched that someone so famous had included me on her mailing list) . But, before signing her petition, I did have a few questions. So first I sent her an equally warm and personal reply:

Friend:

Thanks for your email. I, too, believe we should support our police and I, too, decry the phrase “Defund the police.”

As someone who writes sentences for a living, I can think of a hundred ways to better express what I think most of us in the Black community were trying to say:

Reform the police.

Rethink the police.

Reimagine the police.

Improve the police.

And so on.

“Defund the police” as a goal, motto or rallying cry was dumb and reckless and in the end not only not helpful, but hurtful to the cause of fair and just policing.

As for your own choice of words, I do have to wonder: When you referred to “propelling criminals into heroes overnight,” I certainly hope you weren’t referring to the likes of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

In case you forgot, Floyd may not have led a perfect life (who among us has?) but none of his missteps warranted him slowly dying under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

As for Breonna Taylor, she had done nothing wrong. Yet, she died in her own home, in her own bed, in 2020, when seven plainclothes Louisville police officers broke into her apartment and opened fire as her boyfriend attempted to defend the two of them from what they perceived as armed intruders in the middle of the night.

I could mention other cases ... for instance, the six self-described “Goon Squad” officers who were sentenced in March to prison terms ranging from 10 to 40 years for torturing and abusing two Black men in Rankin County, Miss.

Further, this shouldn’t be an either/or proposition. I consider myself pro-police and pro-social justice.

As I’ve written numerous times before, my brother-in-law is a retired Greensboro police captain.

A former chief of police in Greensboro grew up as my next-door neighbor and it pained me to see protesters pelt him with water bottles in his current job as UNC-Chapel Hill’s police chief.

It pained me more deeply — and angered me — when a local officer I did not know — Sgt. Dale Nix – was killed during the theft of $83 worth of beer from a gas station convenience store on Dec. 30

Finally, I hope you’re also sending your email to some Republican members of the Pennsylvania legislature, who recently booed and hissed at a pair of former Capitol Police officers who defended Congress against the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters.

Eight to 10 of the lawmakers walked out.

“We talk about backing the blue, but people turned their backs on the blue yesterday,” Rep. Jordan Harris, a Democrat, told The Washington Post.

This was beyond shameful.

Outnumbered and overwhelmed, these men put themselves in harm’s way to protect others.

One of them, former Officer Harry Dunn, was pepper-sprayed and injured during hand-to-hand combat with rioters. The other, former Sgt. Aquilino Gorrell, injured his hands while fending off an attacker who was swinging a PVC pipe at a fellow officer who was not wearing a helmet.

Some Republicans say the officers’ appearance was “a political stunt,” since both men oppose the reelection of Donald Trump. But since when did “backing the blue” depend on whom they’re voting for in November?

When I call police, I’m don’t care whether the officers are Republicans or Democrats. Do you?

I also hope we can both agree that the Jan. 6 riot was anathema to “law and order, truth, and justice.”

Thanks again for reaching out. I look forward to hearing from you.

Warmest regards,

Allen