The standoff seemed go on for at least 45 minutes, yet no officer appeared to "de-escalate" the conflict, as called for in police guidelines. No one interposed themselves between two hostile camps. No one asked anyone to "move along" or "break it up." Instead, police permitted a tense confrontation between crowds which could have led to a bloody brawl, or worse.
After seeing Tweets and YouTube videos about the Covington Catholic School kids confrontation with Nathan Phillips and the Black Hebrew Israelites on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March for Life on January 19th, someone I know asked: "Where were the police?"
A very good question.
The standoff seemed go on for at least 45 minutes, yet no officer appeared to "de-escalate" the conflict, as called for in police guidelines. No one interposed themselves between two hostile camps. No one asked anyone to "move along" or "break it up."
Instead, police permitted a tense confrontation between crowds which could have led to a bloody brawl, or worse. It might have become another Charlottesville tragedy, had Nick Sandmann and the Covington Catholic students not kept their tempers under manful control.
I'm not a lawyer, but it looked like the boys were being assaulted and harassed for "standing while Catholic" and wearing MAGA hats. If anyone is a victim in this case, it appears to be Nick Sandmann, who had a drum banged in his face while being insulted for his race and religion.
So what does the police report show?
When I asked DC's Metropolitan Police Department, Public Affairs Specialist Alaina Gertz said: "Please contact US Park Police for this information."
US Park Police Public Information Officer Sergeant Delgado told me he didn’t know if there were a police report, he couldn't look it up because of the government shutdown's furlough--and there might not be a report at all, if no one called the police.
One wonders whether police no longer protect citizens from harassment or assault in public.
Violent conflicts in Charlottesville, Berkeley, and Portland may be the tip of the iceberg of police failure to "protect and serve" the public.
Here in Washington, demonstrators violently disrupted the Inauguration in 2016, chased members of the Trump administration out of restaurants, and attacked the home of Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson.
Senator Rand Paul was beaten up in Kentucky, after having been shot at with Congressman Steve Scalise and other Congressmen at a baseball game in Alexandria, Virginia.
Instead of calling for calm, protection of civil rights, and respect for all citizens, the media and some Democrats have added fuel to the fire--posting horrific memes about school shootings, burning down Covington, punching students, or putting Catholic boys in woodchoppers.
Racial taunts and epithets hurled at Catholic boys at the March for Life during the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend recall hateful insults spewed by Southern segregationists at African-American children in the 1960s.
Fanning flames of racial and religious prejudice was wrong then--and is wrong now.
Martin Luther King's own words stand in rebuke to Nathan Phillips, the Black Hebrew Israelites, and their media collaborators:
"In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."
Amen.
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