Sign Of The Times

The disease known as appeasement has now spread from the White House all the way to the San Antonio Fire Department.

San Antonio firefighters have received an internal memo asking that they do not wear their uniforms while going to and from work.

(SAFD Chief Charles) Hood's concern is that SAFD firefighter uniforms -- including polo shirts, button-down shirts and T-shirts -- closely resemble police uniforms. In light of several recent attacks on first responders across the country, Hood wants members of his department to be especially cautious.

Due to the sensitive nature of the memo, the Fire Department would not release a copy...

While I am all for anything that helps keep first responders safe, in this case the symptoms are being treated, not the disease. The disease is the deliberate targeting of law enforcement officers by individuals who have a distorted sense of persecution (yes, I'm talking to you, #blacklivesmatter).

During his 21 years in law enforcement, Cpl. Wayne Curry hasn’t worried much about the approach of strangers.

The Texas officer, like anyone who wears a badge, said he has had his share of run-ins with those who harbor a dislike of the police. But when people have stepped up to him, he said, it is “more likely they want to buy me dinner.”

Curry is now thinking twice. He spoke as he watched over a crowd of about 1,500 people gathered at an impromptu memorial at a gas station in a Houston suburb, where an on-duty officer from a neighboring department in Harris County near Houston was gunned down Friday in an apparently unprovoked attack while fueling his car.

The killing was the latest in a spate of deadly attacks in which police officers have been the targets. Last week, two Louisiana officers were killed in separate incidents, and two officers in Mississippi died in May when they came under fire during a traffic stop. At least 25 police killings in New York; Pennsylvania; San Jose, Calif.; and elsewhere have rattled police this year.

And although dozens of police officers are slain on duty in any given year, active and retired police officers across the country said the recent bloodshed feels different. As the nation has been roiled by strong currents of distrust and fear of police that surfaced after last year’s killing of Michael Brown by a cop in Ferguson, Mo., an ugly byproduct of the turmoil has been a newfound willingness to do harm to those in uniform, many officers say.

“Day to day, you’re a little more aware of your surroundings, you’re a little more skeptical of people,” said Rick Perine, a 17-year veteran of the Mesa, Ariz., Police Department.

Perine said he has found himself being “hypervigilant” since the killings in December of two New York City police officers, who were ambushed in their patrol car. Their killer had boasted on social media that he planned to kill cops in retaliation for the deaths of Brown and Eric Garner, who died during an arrest by officers in Staten Island, N.Y.

What officials should be doing is targeting the toxic environment, fomented by the divider-in-chief currently soiling the Oval office, that pits blacks against whites and cops against citizens.

I'm not saying all LEOs are saints. There are some out there who shouldn't be wearing a badge. What we need to do is weed out the bad ones, help the good ones become more aware of legitimate community concerns, and educate the community at large as to common sense behavior when interacting with the cops (hint: drop the attitude, do as you are asked, and don't run away or reach into your pocket - there'll be plenty of time to file a citizen complaint later if it's warranted).

That's what we should be doing - not kowtowing to a few savages who have no concept of how to live in a civilized society.

And that's what our so-called leaders - the president, community activists, city officials, police chiefs, etc. - should be doing.

Not demonizing the other side.