In July, Nassau County Republicans held a series of events to defend what they claimed were attempts to smear police amid calls for policing reforms in protests led by Black Lives Matter.
The protests followed the widespread viewing of videos of a white Minneapolis police officer killing George Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes on a city street in broad daylight.
Floyd’s death was the latest in a series of incidents in which unarmed Black men were killed by police officers.
Nassau Republicans responded by launching “the Blue Ribbon campaign” to support police.
“The Blue Ribbon campaign is in response to the attempt by extreme groups to vilify all police for the actions of a tiny few,” Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) explained an interview with Blank Slate Media. “It is intended to show our men and women in law enforcement that we as a county and community appreciate the professionalism, dedication and courage of the overwhelming majority of men and women in blue.”
Republican state Assemblyman Ed Ra said in an op-ed article in Blank Slate Media that he was “deeply concerned about the damaging rhetoric, radical actions and misguided policy proposal we’ve been hearing from the left. It seems that for every measured step forward we take, there are radical voices demanding we carelessly leap in the wrong direction.”
Ra also cited efforts by some, outside Nassau County, who had called for the defunding of police.
He later joined Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin, a Republican, along with Nassau County Police Benevolent Association President Jim McDermott in calling upon the state Legislature to approve “hate crimes” legislation for anti-police graffiti and other acts that target law enforcement officers based on a bias against the crime fighters.
The response of Nassau County Republicans and the Nassau County PBA was part of a nationwide campaign to “Back the Blue.”
In hindsight, this was strange when viewed against the relative silence of Nassau County Republicans following the attack of an armed mob incited by then President Donald Trump on the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The insurrection, which was intended to stop members of Congress from certifying the election of Joe Biden as president, included threats against the lives of then Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress. Five people died as a result of the assault, including Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who sustained fatal blows to the head while trying to defend the Capitol from rioters.
A second Capitol Police officer and a D.C. police officer who responded to the attack have since committed suicide.
But the price paid by police in the assault does not end there.
“I have officers who were not issued helmets prior to the attack who have sustained head injuries,” Gus Papathanasiou, the U.S. Capitol police union chairman, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “One officer has two cracked ribs and two smashed spinal discs and another was stabbed with a metal fence stake, to name some of the injuries.”
At least 81 Capitol Police officers were assaulted during the siege of the Capitol, according to filings by federal prosecutors.
The Washington Post reported that “about 65 D.C. police officers also suffered injuries on Jan. 6, including several concussions from head blows from various objects, including metal poles ripped from inauguration-related scaffolding and even a pole with an American flag attached.” One officer lost an eye.
And since Jan. 6, 38 Capitol Police employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, almost entirely officers and supervisors who responded to the riot, Papathanasiou was reported saying.
So where is the outrage from Nassau County Republicans? Where are the events decrying violence against police officers?
Nicolello said following the attack that “the individuals who ‘stormed’ the Capitol should be ashamed of themselves; the ones who committed criminal acts should be prosecuted.”
Since then, nothing.
The same for Ra, who following the attack said, “People who resort to violence and vandalism undercut the core of our democracy.”
How is one supposed to interpret the difference in responses?
Well, during the summer many of those protesting were Black people demanding to be treated by police the same as white people.
But in the attack on the Capitol, the people assaulting the police were overwhelmingly white. Many if not most belonged to far-right groups, including white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
Does race have something to do with the Nassau Republicans’ lack of response? If so, that would seem to confirm the claims of Black Lives Matter protesters of systemic racism in the criminal justice system.
Or perhaps politics is involved. The thugs who attacked police at the Capitol were seeking to overturn the election on behalf of Trump.
Trump is a Republican and the Nassau officials are Republicans.
Does politics explain the Nassau Republicans’ silence on the mass assault against police at the Capitol?
If that’s the case, do Nassau Republican officials believe that enough Nassau County Republican voters support the rioters or Trump or both that they are politically afraid to offend them?
Or do Nassau Republican officials agree with Trump’s baseless claims that the election is rigged?
Nassau Republican officials have also been noticeably silent on the issue of whether they believe Biden was elected president in a free and fair election. Why?
Another explanation is that this summer’s campaign on behalf of police was simply based on local Republicans kowtowing to an interest group that has supported them politically for decades while becoming one of the best-paid police forces in the state.
The Nassau Republicans’ silence is consistent with the national party.
Only 11 House Republicans voted to impeach Trump for inciting the riot at the Capitol, while more than 140 House Republicans and 10 Senate Republicans refused to certify Biden’s election.
Many of the Republican representatives also responded to demands for police reforms by claiming the police were being unfairly criticized.
But perhaps we’re wrong to imply that Nassau Republicans are hypocritical, that their support of police is not as strong as they claim and they are not the patriots that they would like us to think they are.
Perhaps one of the next events held by Nassau Republicans will be to celebrate President Biden’s election victory, the U.S. Constitution and the principles upon which it is founded. That would be very reassuring.
