Do you ever wake up some mornings wondering what the leftists have done overnight to further damage traditional American values? The fatigue factor is real and can be demoralizing. It’s easy for those on the right to wonder if the fight, the eternal vigilance, is not only worth it but also even possible under the onslaught. In fact, how many people wonder if they should simply unplug and let others do the political fighting? It’s an understandable sentiment.
Then, by serendipity, a quote by Thomas Paine flashed on a website I was perusing: “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.” Simple, eloquent words reaching out across the centuries to encourage the original American revolutionaries’ posterity now fighting against those who would limit individual liberty. Those fighting to keep the American Experiment going as intended by its founders.
It is against this backdrop I bring you the following inspirational news story. I love it when any cop fights back against leftist nonsense and absurdity. But, when a top cop fights back, it’s even better because it has more impact.
Calling the ACLU “paper warriors,” Boston Police Commissioner William G. Gross lambasted the one-time venerable civil liberties organization. The Boston Herald reports Gross is taking the ACLU to task for suing Boston over how it handles its database of gang members.
The ACLU alleges, when investigating gang violence, the Boston Police Department (BPD) is being too secretive about its gang member public records. They further accuse the BPD of targeting minorities who “may not even belong to a gang.”
Um, wait…
Isn’t that why the BPD conducts criminal investigations into gang activity? To find out who is in a gang. How can the cops determine who belongs to a gang unless they investigate? What an absurd statement.
Let’s say, as a cop, I was looking for a bank robber described as a 30-year-old white male, tall, thin, and dressed in a black jacket and blue jeans. Would I have been wrong to stop a person matching this description because he may not even be a bank robber? But how do the cops know if they don’t investigate?
Just as if I’m rolling through a high-crime area frequented by violent gang members and known for drug activity. Remember, cops know their beats and who’s in them. They know the good guys (most of the neighborhood) and the bad guys (most of the crime in the neighborhood). If cops see some guy slinging dope on the corner with a suspicious bulge at his waistband and an MS-13 tattoo emblazoned on his neck, they’re not about to assume he’s out there signing up Democrat voters.
Remember the MS-13 motto: Mata, Viola, Controla (Kill, Rape, Control). Sweet, eh?
This shows the profoundly leftist political perspective the ACLU is coming from these days. Their knee-jerk reaction to law enforcement efforts to curb crime is to support the criminals over the cops. I’ve seen it in my city, it happens in Boston, and it happens in cities and towns across the nation.
Commissioner Gross accuses the ACLU of turning a blind eye to “atrocities” committed by gangs. Gross in a Facebook post stated:
No ACLU present when we have to explain to a mother that her son or daughter was horribly murdered by gang violence. No ACLU when officers are shot. No ACLU when we help citizens. Despite the paper warriors, we’ll continue to do our jobs.
Gross is dedicated to the elimination of gang violence in the Boston area such as that perpetrated by the infamous MS-13. In fact, according to Boston 25 News the BPD sent personnel to El Salvador to learn more about the gang. And, in another broadside against the ACLU, Gross wrote:
I sure as hell didn’t see the ACLU in El Salvador working to find a solution to our youth being inducted into the MS-13 Gang and the 18th Street Gang. Didn’t see the ACLU there or at any of our 22 programs and initiatives for our citizens and youth.
Though not specifically gang related, Gross added the ACLU did not offer condolences to Boston police after career criminal Angelo West shot Officer John Moynihan in the face in March 2015. Officer Moynihan was recognized for his efforts during the Boston Marathon Bombing. He was honored at the White House with the “Top Cop” award for his actions helping to save a transit police officer’s life during the search for the bombers.
The officer was conducting a traffic stop when Angelo West burst out of the driver’s door and began firing. He shot Moynihan point-blank in his face. The bullet lodged behind his ear. Miraculously, Moynihan recovered from his injuries. Boston police officers later shot and killed West during a shootout.
This wasn’t the first time West, a longtime violent offender, had shot at police officers. Kevin Cullen of The Boston Globe reported that while resisting arrest for alleged drug dealing, West pulled a gun and fired a bullet that went between the two officers’ heads. Fortunately, the gun jammed, and the officers arrested him. West was convicted and served his time in Walpole Prison (Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Cedar Junction). Unfortunately, for Officer Moynihan, not nearly enough time.
To reiterate and sum it up, Gross added, “No ACLU when officers are shot. No ACLU when we help. But always hiding and waiting for a slow news day to justify their existence.”
Commissioner Gross is not the only Massachusetts luminary lashing back against the ACLU’s diminishing credibility as the once true civil liberties conscience of America. Harvard Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz has also blasted the ACLU, an organization on whose board the legendary professor once sat, for its growing political slant to the left. And this from a self-avowed liberal Democrat.
In a July 2018 article, I wrote about Dershowitz’ reluctant change of heart. I quote the professor from a Newsmax article: “Since the election of President Trump, [the ACLU] has sunk to a new low, becoming a cheerleader for the violation of the civil liberties of those on the other side of the political spectrum.”
If this isn’t objective evidence of an ideological degradation of the ACLU from a true civil liberties organization to one that has chosen a political side, I don’t know what is. The ACLU deserves the pushback it’s getting from Boston’s top cop. I hope he knows just how much the rank and file appreciate such support. In fact, the ACLU, a part of the Trump Resistance, deserves its own resistance from anyone who still holds the quintessential American ideals of individual liberty, limited government, and equal justice—for all.
