Politically, this isn’t a problem. We oppose them in words, both written and spoken. It’s the American way: debate. I do it all the time. But a New York Times column over the weekend suggests that in some circles, resentment of cop haters has reached “a new phase of intolerance” that is resulting in retaliatory vengeance against them. The column cites three cases in New York City.
• A teacher at a Catholic girls’ school. The school had scheduled a “dress down day” in which the girls could shed their uniforms and wear blue, in commemoration of two NYPD officers who were killed in the line of duty last month. The teacher tweeted that she “would be intentionally dressing up” and she added the hashtags “BLM” and “Abolition” (as in “abolish the police”). She was promptly fired.
• A second teacher, at a private prep school in Coney Island. On his Instagram account, he referred to a funeral for one of the slain officers—a funeral attended by “a throng of police officers.” The teacher wrote, “NYPD SUV drives into a crowd of protesters. Ideal conditions for reciprocity.” It seems that a police vehicle “accelerated toward a barricade, knocking people down behind it.” The people knocked down were attending a George Floyd protest; some interpreted the teacher’s remark as calling for retribution against the police. The teacher insisted that he’d been misunderstood, and he went on to express “deep regret” for his comments. He was fired.
• An actress. According to the Times, “She vented and cursed about street closures for police funerals in a since-deleted TikTok video in which she pointed out that ‘We don’t shut down the city’ for those who are killed by the police.” The production company she worked for fired her.
These three cases raise the interesting question of just where the intersection of free speech and incendiary rhetoric lies. Were these three people victims of “cancel culture” at its worst? If so, it would be ironic, since we generally think of cancel culture as coming from the Left. Or, on the other hand, were their comments so beyond the pale that they deserved to pay a certain price?
As offended as I am by the comments of all three, I think that their employers probably went too far in firing them. These questions of supporting or opposing cops are among the most emotional we face here in America. People get very upset on both sides; there is the temptation to want to silence those you disagree with, or at least punish them in some way. I get it. When I read some of the stuff Cat Brooks writes, my blood starts to boil. At the same time, it’s important for me to put my emotions aside and be rational.
I know one thing for sure: free speech is vital to our democracy. We need only to look at the censoring of school libraries in Texas and elsewhere to realize that clamping down on free speech is the province of fascist authoritarians and religious fanatics. As much as we oppose cop haters, we can’t allow ourselves to turn into the very thing we loathe. Let's fight them with all our might, in the court of public opinion. Let’s shame them, for they deserve to be shamed. But to fire them for expressing their opinions, however repellent? No.
Steve Heimoff