Blue, Black and Gray
He was supposed to be the new “Law and Order” President. He wrapped himself in the Blue flag of local police; tried to speak their language about suspects – “…it’s ok if you rough them up a little bit, don’t go too easy on them.” He has counted on their support, often surrounding himself with sheriffs and chiefs with stars on their shoulders around his “Resolute Desk” in the Oval Office.
Trump see himself as the “Cops’ President;” and many police officers return the favor with their support. They are the Blue.
It is the President’s pivotal issue: undocumented migrants, or as he would say, ILLEGALS! He made it the center of his campaign, raising levels of fear, hatred and even racism (“…if they’d only come from Norway…”) to mobilize his base to vote. Once in office, he encouraged Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the officers dressed in the black of ICE; to use mass roundups, trick the undocumented who are trying to follow the rules of the Homeland Security’s own Citizenship and Immigration Services division and deport them, and randomly “pick-up” the undocumented who are in every other way following US law.
ICE does perform a valuable service in removing those undocumented migrants who are dangerous criminals, and doing the hard work of protecting all residents of the nation. But they have also become the “point of the spear” of President Trump’s controversial view of immigration, and he has used them as props to further his policies. They are the Black.
Then there are the officers of the United States who enforce the laws, and protect us from foreign subversion. They are the FBI agents who follow the facts wherever they may lead, and who give their best analysis of what other nations may be doing in our nation. These officers are the core of maintaining and protecting our nation; they protect us from harm, both foreign and domestic.
They are the unannounced who have stopped major terrorist attacks since 9-11 and tracked down a madman living in a van building pipe bombs. Their successes are often not noted, but their failures are played out over and over on our TV screens. From a kidnapped child in Wisconsin, to a bank robbery in Reynoldsburg, to a Russian spy infiltrating the National Rifle Association; these officers in gray (suits) protect US.
Since even before he took office, the President has done everything he can to undermine their credibility with the public. He held their leadership up for ridicule and decimating their ranks, he has questioned their process, their motives, and their loyalties. He has tried to protect himself from investigation by attacking them; and tried to make them as much an “enemy of the state” as he has the media. They are the Gray.
And now the President has been joined by several Republican Senators. Lindsey Graham, new Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called for the FBI to be torn down and reorganized based only on information contained in a New York Times article. That article stated that the FBI felt they had enough evidence to open a counter-intelligence investigation into the President.
Graham, like all other Senators, doesn’t know what the FBI knows, or why or how they determined to act. He has taken his position on public information, and done so for public effect. Unlike the support enjoyed by the Blue and the Black, the Gray are under unrelenting attack by the President and his allies. Those attacks are meant for public political consumption; they hope that they can so damage the public perception of the Gray, then should the President actually face charges, he can claim he has been unjustly accused.
But the damage done goes beyond the relatively small group questioning Trump’s actions. It reaches to the agent on the street, knocking on the door for information, or making an arrest. Each FBI agent depends on the “aura” of their badge not only to get their job done, but also to protect themselves. Attacking “a Fed” has always carried a greater weight then other potential crimes; the denigration of their agency undermines their authority.
As a society, we call on all law enforcement, the Blue, the Black and the Gray, to do the hard work of protecting us from lawbreakers. It is often thankless; no one is appreciative of the Highway Patrolman writing them a ticket. But as a society, we owe law enforcement a debt for taking on the hard tasks of controlling our society. They aren’t flawless, and we have entrusted them we great powers. But to have our political leaders single out one portion to attack, only to protect themselves, makes us ALL less safe.
