When the Ferguson race riots first broke out, the media made much of the "militaristic" police. Some on the "right", shamefully joined in those attacks. At least until the tide clearly went against them.
There is a reason that police have to armor up. And when police are told not to protect themselves so they don't look militaristic, the Black Lives Matters killers have an easier time getting at them.
That's what the report about the Black Nationalist massacre of police officers in Dallas tells us.
The I-Team has learned the officers assigned to the rally in downtown Dallas last July – where five officers were killed and nine wounded – were told not to wear certain heavy protective gear because it would make them look too “militaristic.”
“They were told not to wear their heavy gear,” which, if worn, may have “stopped some of those rounds,” Mike Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association, told the I-Team.
Mata, in an exclusive interview, said that, while all of the officers were believed to have been wearing standard-issued protective vests, many had with them better protective gear – stronger, thicker body armor and helmets – but had to keep them in their patrol vehicles.
“They didn’t want the police department to look militaristic to the community, look aggressive, incite any type of trouble,” he said.
For the same reasons, according to Mata, the officers were not allowed to “arm up” with powerful long rifles – a weapon much like the one Micah Johnson had when he ambushed them, marking one of deadliest attacks on law enforcement in history.
Mata told the I-Team the protective gear and rifles left in patrol vehicles that night may have saved lives and prevented severe injuries.
“A lot of those shots, and a lot of those wounds …were chest shots, lower abdomen wound shots, and those heavy vests would have covered them,” he said.
The officers’ inability to wear the additional gear has angered officers and their families, Mata said.
He said the widow of slain Officer Lorne Ahrens later gave her husband’s heavy vest – unused that night – to his partner.
Lives could have been saved. That's the bottom line.
Black Nationalist terror was part of the original reason for the militarization of some police forces. It continues to be a serious issue today. And as long as police officers have to face domestic terrorists in the streets, backed by our intellectual elites, they have to be prepared for violence. Disarming police under the guise of community perception costs lives.