Joe Imperatrice, the Founder and President of Blue Lives Matter, joined “Fox and Friends” to weigh in on the paranoia police are feeling right now when they put on their uniforms.
Officers are “definitely on edge,” he said, and feel like they are being targeted 24 hours a day.
“A lot of guys are paranoid,” he said. “A criminal can look like anybody.”
Car stops are the most dangerous, Imperatrice explained, because the officer approaching the driver doesn’t know what’s inside the car. They could be walking straight into an ambush.
Imperatrice’s remarks come the morning after another tragedy Thursday night in San Diego, where an officer was killed in the line of duty and another was seriously injured. The officers were part of an elite gang suppression unit. Details are still emerging so we do not yet know whether this was another battle in the War on Cops.
The “Fox and Friends” anchors asked Imperatrice to respond to Americans’ new distrust of police.
“Many people feel the need to tell police how to do their job,” he said. “Give us the benefit of the doubt.”
Just “let them do their job,” he added. “Believe in them a little bit.”
Imperatrice also responded to the behavior of the Black Lives Matter activists Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention, where they interrupted a moment of silence dedicated to the nation’s fallen officers.
“It’s very disrespectful,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s very hurtful. These are people that lost their lives protecting the community.”
They were doing it to get attention, Imperatrice argued.
"You don’t do something like that.”
Why all the tension between police and civilians?
“It’s about accountability,” Imperatrice said. “No one’s willing to say, 'I’m wrong.'”