Government

Do Heroes Have Something To Do With Jan. 6th?

From now on, when folks say they're here to 'Protect and Serve,' please clarify who and what.

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Whether you’re two Jewish men trying to make sense of the world around you or you’re doing your part to fight racism, the parts of ourselves we see in heroes and our aim to embody their ethos say a lot about us. Which is why far more people should have been surprised when police officers started to broadcast their love of The Punisher, a vigilante ex-cop who is known for doing whatever it takes, even if it’s the occasional felony battery or weaponized use of a steamroller, to achieve his own set of goals. It should be of no surprise, then, that many cops are LARPing as Frank Castle both on and off the clock.

New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago PD have members that are part of the Oath Keepers, a far-right group that has had involvement with the Jan. 6th failed coup d’etat. Now to be clear, you should read the article. The number of cops on the roster are not overwhelming — of the three cities listed, Chicago had the largest number at 13. In addition, some folks appear to be on the list even after letting their membership lapse. But, it is still noteworthy. Who knows how many folks sworn to serve and protect are part of groups like the Three Percenters (also mentioned in the article) and other groups already classified as domestic terrorism threats. We know that members of far-right-leaning groups have actively encouraged law breaking and violence. Should these people really be the ones with badges doing traffic stops? And I would understand the move to push this off as an anomaly, but it looks like at least a couple people in the FBI ran the numbers and were suspicious of their findings as well.

Maybe I’m off my rocker, but as conversations about police, communities, and police in our communities continue to happen, it might be a good idea to pay attention to the narratives surrounding policing and who police choose as their representatives. Police job dissatisfaction is real and is only exacerbated by ongoing vaccinate mandates and related resistance to them. If we hit a point where we start to lower standards for what it takes to be an officer, can we make sure that they at least have heroes that, you know, uphold the law? The rule of law is already shaky enough as it is. Wouldn’t officers coming together as a whole to denounce groups their own government classifies as domestic threats (and making sure that their rank aren’t attending the group meetings on Tuesdays) at be a chance for a return to normalcy in the public eye? It’s an idea.

Just know if we hit the point where doctors start walking around with Thanos or Malthus tattoos in the middle of a public health crisis, I’m leaving the country.

Active-duty police In Major U.S. Cities Appear On Purported Oath Keepers Rosters [NPR]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. Before that, he wrote columns for an online magazine named The Muse Collaborative under the pen name Knehmo. He endured the great state of Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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