Warren must end vile rhetoric

There is seemingly no end to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s attacks on law enforcement.

Last year it was ICE she targeted for expulsion, saying that it should be replaced with “something that reflects our morality.” She bellowed to a boisterous Boston City Hall Plaza crowd that, “This is about children held in cages. This is about babies scattered all across this country.”

That screed included incendiary lines about ripping parents from their families, putting children in cages and treating “rape victims and refugees like terrorists.”

Just days later, a Cambridge man offered to pay $500 to anyone who would kill an ICE agent. Law enforcement officers — the same ones Warren derides routinely — apprehended and charged the man.

Unhindered by critical pushback in the media or the reality in the streets that included the tragic murders of two Massachusetts police officers in 2018, Warren forged ahead, exclaiming at a historically black college in August, “the hard truth about our criminal justice system: It’s racist … I mean front to back.”

Now, as the Herald’s Joe Dwinell reported, Massachusetts police chiefs are blasting Warren for the second time in a year. This time over an apocryphal rewriting of the shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014. The unarmed 18-year-old black man’s shooting by a police officer was ruled an act of “self-defense” by the U.S. Department of Justice. Witnesses corroborated the the officer’s testimony that Brown was charging at him after already trying to wrestle away his gun.

But last week Elizabeth Warren tweeted something very different:

“5 years ago Michael Brown was murdered by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael was unarmed yet he was shot 6 times. I stand with activists and organizers who continue the fight for justice for Michael. We must confront systemic racism and police violence head on.”

The Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association wrote to Warren Tuesday saying her Friday tweet that black teen Michael Brown of Ferguson, Mo., was “murdered by a white police officer” is “appalling.”

“This is about one issue: I don’t want to see another officer unnecessarily murdered. It’s that simple,” Yarmouth police Chief Frank G. Frederickson told the Herald. “This hurts, and every chief feels the same way.”

“This is not about politics. This is about standing up for our officers,” Frederickson said.

Hamilton police Chief Russell Stevens, president of the chiefs’ group, wrote in his letter to Warren that what she tweeted was “based on false information” and the DOJ ruled “Michael Brown was not murdered.” He urged her to read the report.

“Your reckless tweet will only serve to create hatred towards Police Officers and place them in danger of more assaults and perhaps death,” Stevens added in his letter. “Having had two Police Officers murdered in your own state, in the past 18 months, we expect our elected Officials to condemn the murder and assaults of Police Officers. Instead on multiple occasions, you choose to fan the fires of divide for your own political gains. Shame on you!”

Law enforcement is under assault in this country. Several ICE facilities have been attacked this year. On Wednesday, six Philadelphia police officers were shot in the line of duty during a standoff. Those same police also had to deal with being taunted by some bystanders, who laughed and yelled at them in the midst of the gunfire.

Sen. Warren must stop using dangerous and false rhetoric immediately.