It has been two days since a partnership between the 49ers and eight law enforcement labor unions was announced. This peculiar collection of organizations all signed a “pledge for a more understanding and safer America.” As a cop, this move absolutely baffles me. When I got home from work the day this was announced, I filmed a video (video below) talking about it. Here is is two days later and I am still having trouble discussing this without my blood pressure noticeably rising.
Why exactly am I so upset by this move? Let’s examine this whole concept first, and to do that, we must look at the pledge being signed. Here is the complete text of the pledge that was signed:
“We believe that the duty of law enforcement professionals does not end with responding to a call for service. The duty of law enforcement must also include actively participating in bringing our nation together and working to foster a more understanding and compassionate national dialogue around community and police officer relations.”
“We believe that professional sports teams should utilize their capacity to reach millions of Americans to promote initiatives that help law enforcement professionals and the citizens they serve understand their respective experiences and listen to one another with an open mind and heart.”
“As such, those signing this pledge will dedicated the necessary resources to strive to make every encounter between an American police officer they serve to be grounded in mutual respect; to advocate for commonsense (sic) local, state and federal legislation that will contribute to the safety of all Americans, and work together to improve the national dialogue around race, policing and violence prevention.”
“The undersigned do pledge:
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To keep our citizens and our police officers safe, we will work with our local, state, and federal legislatures to ban “bump stocks” and any other mechanism that allows the conversion of a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon; armor-piercing bullets; and gun silencers.
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To advocate for additional mental health services to deliver the necessary care, medication and programs to those in need.
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To partner with professional sports franchise teams, corporations, faith-based and community based organizations to produce, promote and distribute a series of public service announcements designed to improve police and community relations.
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To engage in a constructive dialogue around issues critical to improving the health and welfare of all our residents”
Since the pledge can really be split into two main topics, I will examine them one at a time. The first part of this pledge is the “more understanding” goal of the pledge. You know, that misunderstanding that originated with a 49er player, Colin Kaepernick, when he began disrespecting the flag and the country because of his baseless, negative opinions of law enforcement. You know, the guy who wore anti-police pig socks; the guy who donated $25k to a “charity” that honors a convicted cop killer; the guy who started a trend in the entire NFL of millionaires protesting “police brutality and racism.” That is apparently the “misunderstanding” that we are going to deal with, the misunderstanding started by the 49ers, spurred on by the 49ers and the rest of the NFL, the misunderstanding that neither the 49ers nor the NFL have done anything to try and correct thus far, the misunderstanding that has football stadiums around the country empty on game days, the misunderstanding that has the NFL reeling from their financial losses due entirely to their complete mishandling of this whole situation.
These rich, privileged athletes, men who get paid millions to play a game, are out there spreading lies that have been created by Black Lives Matter, a very anti-police organization. You see, most of America understands that when you point to situations like the following as a reason to protest police, you have no argument:
“In early 2016, I began paying attention to reports about the incredible number of unarmed black people being killed by the police. The posts on social media deeply disturbed me, but one in particular brought me to tears: the killing of Alton Sterling in my hometown Baton Rouge, La. This could have happened to any of my family members who still live in the area.”
Alton Sterling was a convicted felon who was threatening people with a gun in front of a convenience store, and when the cops contacted him, he fought the cops and was shot while reaching for the loaded handgun in his waistband. That is absolutely not “unarmed black people being killed by the police.”
So why on earth would law enforcement labor unions partner with the very people furthering the lies perpetrated against our profession? This makes absolutely no sense. This is a perfect example Stockholm Syndrome. If the 49ers had done something, anything that qualified as an apology, and then took steps to right their wrong, then I could see, at some point down the road, working with them to clear up their misunderstanding, because let me be clear, the misunderstanding is 100% on them, but that has not happened. What has happened is that the 49ers dangled a shiny carrot (money) in front of a bunch of politically minded union presidents and they bit. However, most of the working cops, the people on the streets doing the actual cop work are not so willing to forgive and forget, especially something as damaging as these NFL protests have been, not only to law enforcement specifically but to the entire country.
The second part of this pledge is nothing but a steaming, unfounded pile of leftist crap being used to push an anti-gun agenda, which is sadly not surprising since unions typically kiss up to liberal politicians. But in reality, gun control is something that no law enforcement labor union should ever be involved in pushing. We, law enforcement, are complaining about how the public perceives us. We have a HUGE public image problem right now (thanks in part to the 49ers), and so the solution these union leaders see to that problem is to publicly call for the infringement on the rights of Americans? To quote the great Pepper Brooks, that is a bold strategy.
But hey, maybe I should take a closer look at what they are calling for before I completely dismiss their ideas. They want to ban bump stocks, or “any other mechanism that allows the conversion of a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon,” armor-piercing bullets and silencers (suppressors). In doing so, they are claiming this is only “commonsense.” So, since it is supposedly common sense and law enforcement unions are calling for their bans, the calls for these particular items to be banned must reasonably be based on their prevalent use in crimes, right? Well, as it turns out, not really.
One person on my FB page asked me for my reasoning for opposing banning these items. In short, because the Second Amendment, however my opposition really requires a much more in depth explanation as I realize not everyone out there understands how firearms work.
“Bump stocks” – They have been around, commercially available for about a decade. They have sold tens of thousands of them in that time, and since they were introduced, one person has misused them criminally, ONE. They are a novelty item and they provide zero tactical advantage, which is why no serious shooter has them installed on a gun that they might need to use as a go-to defense gun. It can be argued, and I would agree, that a good shooter with a dialed in bolt action rifle and a good scope properly sighted could have done far more damage in the same time frame that the monster in Las Vegas did with his large array of AR’s.
Hell, a bump fire stock is not even necessary to bump fire a rifle. I’ve bump fired just about every semi-auto rifle I own, including a couple of WWII rifles.
“Any other mechanism that allows for the conversion of a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon” – Complete and utter hyperbolic bull crap! A bump stock does absolutely NOT convert a semi-auto gun to full-auto. If a bump fire stock actually did that, the BATF would never have approved them as non-NFA items, but they did, twice, under Obama. The reason a bump stock is legal is that for each round that is fired, the trigger is activated manually by the user, just like any other semi-auto firearm. Much of the legislation that is being pushed as a ban for bump stocks aim to cover “any item that increases the rate of fire of a semi-auto rifle.” So, what exactly is the rate of fire of a semi-auto weapon? There is no standard as it only fires as fast as the user can pull the trigger. These laws are so ridiculously loosely worded that gun oil could be banned because a properly lubricated gun operates smoother and faster than a dry gun. So are they going to ban gun oil? There are countless videos that show how a rubber band can be used to assist in bump-firing a gun, or a stick, or a belt loop. Are they going to ban all of those?
‘Armor-piercing ammo’ – So, are we talking legitimate, designed to pierce hard armor armor-piecing ammo or are we talking out our butts like most anti-gun people do? You see, the anti-gunners want to ban any ammo that will pierce soft body armor (like what I wear at work). They throw out my profession as justification for that desire. The problem is, any full size rifle cartridge will piece soft body armor, even if it is not true ‘armor-piercing’ ammo. If they are talking about actual armor-piercing ammunition, I know of no case where legitimate, true “armor-piercing” ammo was used. In every case I could find when searching the internet, the ammo that is called “armor-piercing” was in fact just standard rifle ammo. This again is a non-issue as “armor-piercing ammunition” is not being used by people to commit crimes. There is no justification for banning it.
Silencers / suppressors – Yet another non-issue. They are almost never used in crime, they don’t actually silence a gun, they merely partially suppress the sound and in most cases, hearing protection is still required even when the firearm is equipped with a suppressor, they are already an NFA item requiring a background check and a tax stamp before you can even get one. The problem is that morons and idiots see them in the movies and think that is how they work. Need I point out that movies are make believe?”
In summary, when pushing for legislation, especially legislation that infringes on the constitutionally guaranteed rights of Americans, it should be imperative that one would have solid justification for doing so. In this instance, all of the items these traitorous union leaders and the 49ers are calling to ban, when examining the case from a logical (not emotional) point of view, there is no compelling argument to ban them.
In the last two days, ever since I first shared a news story about this incident on my Facebook page, I have been contacted by members of at least four of the eight unions that signed this pledge. Those members told me that every cop they knew was furious that their union participated in this. Several of them were talking about having an immediate call for the removal of their leadership because this move is completely against the views of the membership. I can tell you, if my union had been part of this, I would be leading the call for an immediate removal of anyone involved in the decision.
This entire pledge is completely moronic, and shows just how low these union leaders will stoop to support liberal objectives just so they can try and get those same liberals to throw a few scraps to the unions. Oddly enough, the liberals they are sucking up to are the very same liberals who are constantly, publicly attacking law enforcement.
To be quite frank, these unions signing this pledge reminds me of the Jewish Nazi collaborators from WWII, which leads me to wonder exactly what personal benefits the leaders of these unions must be getting in order to sell their membership down the drain like they have.
EDIT: When originally writing this, I neglected to name the unions that participated in this fiasco from the start. They included the San Jose Police Officers Association, Los Angeles Police Protective League, NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association, Oakland Police Officers Association, Long Beach Police Officers Association, Portland Police Association, Deputy Sheriffs Association of Santa Clara County and lastly, the Sacramento Police Officers Association.
This is the video I filmed the day this partnership was announced. A warning for those with sensitive dispositions, there are a few expletives in this video.