Gliniewicz legacy should be end to 'War On Cops' myth

The 'Black Lives Don't Matter' claque that used the initial report of Police Lt. Charles Gliniewicz's murder to demonize President Obama and the entire 'Black Lives Matter' movement, have suddenly lost their voice. Gliniewicz was hoisted up as the poster cop targeted by lawless lowlifes being egged on by a black president and the folks protesting against excessive police violence against unarmed citizens. These weren't just fringe lunatics spewing hate fueled by G I Joe's alleged murder. Mainstream political leaders like presidential contenders Gov. Scott Walker, Gov. Chris Christi and Sen. Ted Cruz; police officials like San Bernadino Police Chief Rodney Jones, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, and International Association of Police Chiefs President Richard Beary; and media stars like Fox News Megan Kelly and the Chicago Tribune's John Kass have all piled on the president and the Black Lives Matter movement using Gliniewicz as a prop.  

 

Once Gliniewicz was exposed as a suicide covering years of theft and bad behavior, and possibly trying to frame 3 hapless passersby for his faked murder, these critics avoided any mea culpa whatsoever. The only one to speak out was Trib columnist John Kass who used his 'Gliniewicz was just a Bad Lieutenant' column to continue his vendetta against true police reform critics. He reiterated how cops justly called him after the report of Gliniewicz's murder moaning about how recent cop killings like Gliniewicz was promoted by 'death to cop' chants at Black Lives Matter protests. His most flimsy acknowledgement of bad cops was that they protect drug dealers or the mob, not gun down unarmed minorities. Kass still compares the dead cops as real as opposed to his belief that anti police protests are simply 'political' or 'hash tags for Twitter wars'. That was no apology; merely another shot across the bow.

 

Every one of the pols, cops and pundits like Kass promoting the myth of a War On Police to stifle Black Lives Matter should admit they got it wrong, wrong, wrong. If stripping away the mask revealing the anti hero Gliniewicz helps them get it right, that will be a fitting legacy for GI Joe.  

 

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn