Supporting the thin blue line

Update: the event has been bumped back to Saturday, January 10 due to the predicted weather.

First of all: a happy new year to all my readers, near and far.

I’m going to be curious how well this does. It’s not often I talk about events from “north of the border” but the 9-12 Delaware Patriots are holding a rally to support law enforcement:

The statewide 9-12 Delaware Patriots, a grassroots, non-partisan, Constitutionalist group has voiced concern with recent developments across the country concerning race relations and law enforcement, said Executive Director Karen Gritton.

On January 4th this community group will show their support for the Rule of Law and for those who protect and defend our Constitutional rights by organizing a peaceful rally on Route 13 just south of the Dover Mall. Citizens are encouraged to join the 9-12 Delaware Patriots and other like-minded groups to show their support for local law enforcement. Participants will assemble at 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. and signs of support are encouraged. Many will be wearing blue to show their support.

The 9-12 Delaware Patriots focuses on protecting the individual Constitutional rights of all people regardless of their differences and will use this opportunity to show their appreciation for the dedication and bravery of local law enforcement. The 9-12 Delaware Patriots encourages an open dialogue between religious leaders, community leaders, and local law enforcement toward peaceful progress and improved race relations.

Regular meetings of the 9-12 Delaware Patriots are held the first Tuesday of the month in Dover, DE and the second Thursday of each month in Millsboro, DE.

Something tells me this will indeed be a relatively peaceful protest, unlike those who disrupted the Salisbury Christmas Parade to make their point (and were arrested for their trouble.)

Yet here we are again, talking about a divide in society as I complained about last year. And this 9-12 Delaware Patriots demonstration comes at a time when police are openly being targeted for assassination after the New York incident where two police officers were murdered in cold blood by a Baltimore man, who also shot his ex-girlfriend before going to New York and eventually killing himself after gunning down the police officers. Simply put, there’s little respect for the law (or societal mores, as these incidents demonstrate) anymore in some quarters.

Yet a good deal of that lack of respect for law enforcement comes from the libertarian side, too. While the group Cop Block has gone out of its way to note they don’t support the murder of police officers, it’s painted as representative of a segment of society which undermines the authority of law enforcement officers. Naturally, there are some who abuse their privilege as officers of the law and too many times lately tragedies have occurred. But the first rule of a police officer is simply to make it home alive, and being on hair trigger alert because some in aggrieved communities talk openly about “putting wings on pigs” is probably going to lead to many more innocent lives lost.

Figuring out whose hands the blood is on is important to the families who lost loved ones, but for the rest of us it’s a matter for a legal system that is already far too overburdened. So let’s see if we can make this the year we all take a couple steps back from the brink, inhale a deep breath, and try to begin fixing the real problems: respecting authority while making authority worthwhile of respect. Both sides need a crash course.