Philly Area Cops Freak Out Over Editorial Cartoon Depicting Children Asking Santa to Protect Them From Cops
I don't like editorial cartoons. I really don't like them (Friday Funnies excepted). Nick Gillespie explains the problem better than I can. Even, or especially, in situations where important issues come to the attention of the mainstream media. The recent attention paid to incidents of excessive use of force by police are no exception. I particularly didn't like this cartoon depicting the Statue of Liberty lying on the ground saying she can't breathe. When was the last time an immigrant saw the Statue of Liberty on their way into America? More likely to see a cactus or a coyote. I don't know for whom the Statue of Liberty is a non-ironic symbol of "American values."
But this cartoon, depicting a group of children asking Santa Claus to protect them from the police for Christmas, I liked. Maybe I'm partial to Santa, though that didn't make this different Santa/police violence cartoon any less cringe-worthy. But when the former cartoon ran in the Bucks County Courier Times, police officers in the Philadelphia area were not amused. Local police union president John McNesby wrote a bullying letter to the newspaper. Via Philly.com:
You owe a public apology to every law enforcement officer and their families. What's more, you owe a particular apology to the families of those officers who gave their lives to ensure that people like you could remain safe while you defame their memories.
There is a special place in hell for you miserable parasites in the media who seek to exploit violence and hatred in order to sell advertisement.
Two thoughts: (1) unless McNesby has a particular fallen officer in mind, I'm not aware of any cop dying in the line of duty to protect the Courier Times from an assault on their headquarters and (2) I don't know what the moral issue is with selling advertisements to willing advertisers, but I'm sure there's a special place in hell for those who seek to exploit fear and crime in order to avoid responsibility for misconduct while demanding respect for doing a job they're paid to do.
And a third thought: what a bully this McNesby sounds like. This is the kind of person the police choose to represent them to the public. And so many in the public continue to ignore the role of police unions in police violence.