CHARLOTTE, NC - News flash for police officers across the country…Kamala Harris is a “tough former prosecutor” deserving of your support, while Donald Trump is a “convicted felon” who is not. At least so says Sheriff Clarence Birkhead, a lifelong Democrat who also happens to be sheriff in Durham County, North Carolina.
Last week, the largest police union in the country, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), announced their endorsement of former President Donald Trump in his election bid against Harris. In endorsing Trump, the FOP called him a partner and leader while announcing the group’s support.
“Public safety and border security will be important issues in the last months of this campaign,” FOP President Patrick Yoes said. “Our members carefully considered the positions of the candidates on the issues, and there was no doubt—zero doubt—as to who they want as our President for the next four years: Donald J. Trump.”
After receiving the group’s endorsement at a FOP President's meeting in Charlotte, the former and hopefully future president pledged to “back the blue” while at the same time slamming Harris’s milquetoast law enforcement background. Harris has in the past supported defunding the police, a position to which Trump takes the opposite tack.
“We might over-fund the police,” Trump said.
Trump, who has been a victim of a Biden/Harris administration lawfare campaign against him, also asked attendees to pay attention to voter fraud after some questionable results came about in the 2020 presidential race. He reminded those in attendance that early voting gets underway soon.
“I hope you watch for voter fraud,” Trump said. “It starts early. It starts in a week…Believe it or not, they’re afraid of that badge. They’re afraid of you people. I hope you can watch.”
That lawfare campaign has led Trump to criticize partisan DAs and attorneys general who have used their office to target him for often nonsensical “crimes.” Harris and her surrogates have spun that criticism to imply that Trump is “anti-law enforcement,” which is entirely ridiculous. Trump has long supported police officers, and police officers know it.
As evidence of that, the former president said he was calling for “a strong death penalty for anyone who kills a police officer,” which drew cheers from the crowd of law enforcement professionals.
"During his first term, President Trump made it clear he supported law enforcement and border security,” Yoes said. “In the summer of 2020, he stood with us when very few would. With his help, we defeated the ‘defund the police’ movement and, finally, we are seeing crime rates decrease. If we want to maintain these lower crime rates, we must re-elect Donald Trump.”
That law enforcement support, however, doesn’t include politically elected sheriffs, including Birkhead, who hurried on to a conference call with reporters to gaslight the public, claiming that Trump “can’t be trusted to deliver on his promises to” law enforcement.
“He would waste precious time and money on his personal grievances instead of pouring valuable resources into communities like mine that rely on our federal partners,” Birkhead said.
Birkhead claimed to represent 100 other law enforcement "officials," although none were named.
To the shock of nobody, Harry Dunn, a former Capitol police officer who has parlayed the Jan. 6 Capitol siege into a career as a law enforcement “expert,” also took the occasion to slam President Trump.
“He doesn’t care that he put my life and the lives of my fellow Capitol Police officers in danger on Jan. 6,” Dunn said. “He only cares about getting power for himself.”
Dunn conveniently neglected the fact that in a speech that was still going on as the Capitol was breached, Trump told supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” go to the US Capitol “and make your voices heard.” At no point did Trump encourage violence by anyone.
Some of the criticism of Trump comes from far-left outlets such as HuffPo, where a “reporter” published a piece claiming Trump has promised to “pardon his followers who assaulted police at the U.S. Capitol.” That statement takes gaslighting to a nuclear level,
Trump has, in fact, specifically excluded those who assaulted police officers from those he has promised to pardon if he is elected in November. But it makes good headlines from a trash outlet such as HuffPo. The writer goes on to actually write that Trump’s “lies” led to “five officer deaths from the Capitol assault,” a blatantly false claim.
The writer, S.V. Date, then goes on to rail about Trump commuting the life sentence of a man who was convicted in connection with the murder of a police officer in New York State in 1990. Jamie Davidson, who was then 16, was sentenced in connection with the case, although he did not kill the officer. Trump commuted his sentence in the waning days of his presidency.
Date, however, does not mention other notable pardons, including those made by Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Clinton gave clemency to 16 members of Puerto Rican separatist group FALN for their role in a number of terrorist attacks, primarily in Chicago and New York City in the 1970s and early 1980s. One of those bombings seriously injured a NYPD detective.
Carter, meanwhile, granted pardons to four Puerto Rican terrorists who shot up the US Capitol, injuring five congressmen.
Meanwhile, heavily tattooed former US Capitol Police officer Michael Fanone, who has also parlayed the Capitol siege into a gig on CNN, also criticized the FOP.
“The truth is that FOP leadership is more interested in kissing the ass of a convicted felon who incites violence against law enforcement, then hails the perpetrators as ‘heroes’ and ‘patriots’ and promises them pardons.”
Neither Fanone, Dunn, nor Birkhead had similar complaints against Harris, who advocated for people to donate to a bail fund for Minneapolis criminals arrested for committing violence against police officers, as well as who burned down a police precinct in the city.
Neither Fanone, Dunn, nor Birkhead had similar complaints against Harris for her call to defund the police and dismantle ICE. None of the three criticized the Biden/Harris administration for allowing a foreign invasion at our southern border that has allowed criminal gangs into the country, some of whom have threatened to kill law enforcement officers.
None of the three criticized Harris for actually refusing to prosecute the death penalty against a suspect who killed a San Francisco police officer in cold blood, a move that even drew criticism from Democrats such as the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (C-CA).
The fact is rank and file police officers know without a doubt who among Trump and Harris truly has their back. One whose actions and deeds have shown that she is anti-cop and will always take the side of criminals. The other whose actions and deeds have shown that he is 100% behind the men and women in blue.
Political hacks and opportunists such as Birkhead, Fanone, and Dunn do not speak for a majority of police officers. As the largest police media company in the country, Law Enforcement Today hears every day from police officers on the street who serve and protect our country. And they overwhelmingly support Donald J. Trump's reelection as President of the United States.
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