There's a war on cops going on and there's also a war against those who dare to defend them.
In case you've missed it, there's yet another controversy over how police handled a group of rowdy teenagers at a pool party in McKinney, Texas. After repeatedly asking a young black woman to leave the area, a white police officer (because every time a white police officer does anything to a black person it's racist, you know) threw her to the ground in an attempt to conduct an arrest. When two of the woman's male friends ran up behind the officer, he took his weapon out of his holster and pointed it at one of them.
The officer says he made a mistake and acted inappropriately. His police chief agrees. The officer has since resigned and apologized for his actions. There are many sides to the story and plenty of opinions about what happened to go around.
One person who had an opinion in favor of the officer, North Miami Senior High School Principal Alberto Iber, no longer holds his principal position and has been reassigned after writing a supportive comment, not even a whole post, on Facebook (That's right, in Miami, a city thousands of miles away from McKinney). From the Miami Herald:
The principal of North Miami Senior High School inadvertently injected himself into the racially charged national debate over police treatment of blacks with a social media comment — and it wound up costing him his position at the school.
The Miami-Dade County school district announced Wednesday that Alberto Iber had been removed as principal after going online to defend a white Texas police officer who waved a gun at black teens while responding to a call about an unruly pool party.
In a brief statement, the district said employees are required to conduct themselves, both personally and professionally, in a manner that represents the school district’s core values. The district said a replacement would be named shortly and that Iber would be reassigned to administrative duties.
The incendiary comment that required Iber's reassignment?
“He [the officer] did nothing wrong. He was afraid for his life. I commend him for his actions,” Iber wrote in a comment.
Support the police? Pack up your office, you're done. End of Discussion.
Miami-Dade County Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is calling Iber's comments insensitive.
“Judgment is the currency of honesty. Insensitivity — intentional or perceived — is both unacceptable and inconsistent with our policies, but more importantly with our expectation of common sense behavior that elevates the dignity and humanity of all, beginning with children,” Carvalho said.
Observing an officer was afraid for his life is insensitive and takes away the dignity of humanity? Commending an officer for wanting to protect his life is insensitive? What's unacceptable is essentially firing someone for making a harmless comment on social media about what's become a national issue and story.
This concept of punishing those who don't tow the "proper" narrative or hold the correct viewpoints through job loss or public shaming and harassment has become a problem in many areas of American society. My colleagues Guy Benson and Mary Katharine Ham just wrote a book about it, End of Discussion, and detail how this type of mob thought rule is terrible for the country.
Preventing "insensitive" comments is the new intolerance.
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