Understanding Republican Policing Terms

There are a lot of words that you will hear Republicans say when they talk about policing and Black Lives Matter, that have a special meaning that is not immediately obvious. It is important to recognize these words, so you will know what they are actually talking about. Here are some that took me a while to pick up on.

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN – This comes from fans of the 2009 movie “Law Abiding Citizen”, where a guy dressed as a cop kidnaps and tortures someone. When someone says “I am the majority of law-abiding citizens”, what he means is he is a psycho sadistic vigilante who thinks he can disregard the law as being not good enough for him. He believes the fact that other people have sinned, gives him license to indulge his impulses. Think Bryan Riley, the guy who killed a family in Lakeland because God spoke directly to him with an amber alert, or the movie “Frailty”.

HANDCUFFING THE POLICE – This comes from Heather McDonald’s 2016 book “The War on Cops”. People who say “handcuffing the police” believe police need to be allowed to lie to imprison anyone they find distasteful, or else rapists and carjackers will come for your family. They will claim statistics prove that lawyers and the Bill of Rights result in an increase in crime and cost lives. They ignore that in countries where police have the absolute power they advocate, they deliver a terrible corrupt product like any unregulated monopoly. They just beat confessions out of innocent people to humor the mob, without actually solving crime. Think Andrei Chikatilo, who murdered 56 people while police in the USSR killed innocents for his crimes.

CONSTITUTIONAL SHERIFF – This is a sheriff who believes you have a Constitutional right to shoot black people in the Second Amendment. Or, if there is a possibility a black person might have a gun, then you have a right to shoot that black person based on the possibility he theoretically could have a gun. Think Philando Castile.

FALSE CONVICTION – Republicans will say there are no false convictions, or they are very rare. What they actually mean is that there are a ton of false convictions, but they are fair because they are the innocent person’s own fault. Like suppose you hang out with people who do drugs, or you live in a bad neighborhood, then don’t be surprised if police pick you up also, and plant drugs on you. See, it is a fair conviction, because it is your own fault. Sure, police lied, but you were doing something you shouldn’t have been doing. It is basically “When police lie, it is a direct and inevitable consequence of other people’s poor life decisions.” So you get what is coming to you, despite no legislator ever openly campaigning on that platform, or passing an actual law that says you get a life sentence for hanging around criminals.