Yes.
On Saturday, after two New York police officers were ambushed and slain by a deranged ex-felon and prison gang member, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio met privately with the officers’ families, and also went to the hospital where the officers were taken after being shot. As he arrived, a number of cops who had already gathered there turned their backs on the mayor as a deliberate show of disrespect.
We’re a democracy. Government is accountable to the people through free elections. Military and police authorities are accountable to elected officials. Back in 1951, when President Truman fired General MacArthur, he did so not because of personal animosity between the men, but because MacArthur had disrespected the civilian authority he was answerable to.
I don’t have a problem with these cops criticizing the mayor. That’s free speech, and they have a right to do that. But they don’t have a right to do it on duty, while in uniform. As a citizen, that makes me uncomfortable, because of what it implies for the lines of authority in the city’s structure of government.
These police officers have the same right to free speech as the ordinary citizens protesting against police brutality in Ferguson, New York, Seattle, and other cities. But they don’t have a right to be police officers, nor any right to associate their personal views with the badge and uniform they wear in the public’s name. No one should have difficulty understanding this, because nearly everyone is familiar with the principle that private companies don’t allow their employees to engage in political activity on company time or invoke the company’s name when expressing personal views.
Continue reading →