Beleaguered And Besieged, Police Try To Come To Grips With A Nation’s Anger
LAPPL News Watch
June 11, 2020
The crowds have thinned and the smoke has cleared, with more than a week
of nationwide protests leaving in their wake a nation increasingly
resolved to change a broken law enforcement system.
But they also have
left police officers badly shaken, and in some cases physically bruised.
Nationwide, police leaders say the rank and file are struggling to come
to grips with the level of animus they encountered on the streets, as
epithets, bricks and bottles all came hurtling their way.
Police have
been targets of protest many times before, of course. But never quite
like this.
“I’ve had members say they feel like a Vietnam veteran
returning home to a country that hates them,” said Robert Harris, a Los
Angeles police officer and director of the force’s police union. “It’s
not that our members expect thank-yous. It’s the difficulty in knowing
that the protesters want to be treated with equality and fairness and
respect, and what they’re protesting for isn’t afforded to the officers
themselves.”
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