Bill Barr's Speech To Law Enforcement Officials Is Full Of The Sort Of Lies Cops Love To Hear

Very few people in law enforcement want to be told the truth. Fortunately for them, those that speak to and for law enforcement are similarly uninterested in speaking the truth. The man at the top of the law enforcement food chain -- Attorney General Bill Barr -- has turned his second tour at the head of the DOJ into a bullhorn for the airing of law enforcement grievances. He encourages their unwillingness to comprehend the damage they've done has led directly to the animosity they're now experiencing. He reflects their unearned outrage, allowing them to feel their anger is righteous.

It isn't. But that's not what any law enforcement officers or officials are hearing from Bill Barr. His speech to the Major Cities Chiefs Association contains little more than unbridled support for law enforcement and disdain for the ungrateful public. It's also full of provably wrong assertions. Apparently, if cops must be lied to improve their morale, it's lies they will get, courtesy of the head of the DOJ.

Barr opens up by bashing the media for turning cops into villains. He doesn't actually cite the "bad apple" analogy, but it's in there, even if it's unspoken.

[T]he climate today has made the job 10 times more difficult than it has to be. It is a climate in which politicians are sometimes inclined not to support the police and sometimes they throw the police to the dogs. And it is also characterized by a deceitful national media that seizes on a relatively few incidents to scapegoat police as a whole and cultivate a false narrative that our police are systemically evil.

Cops are facing difficulty because more people with power are finally interested in holding them accountable for their actions. And the incidents are not "relatively few." They are daily occurrences. They happen multiple times a day. Every so often, one of them provokes national outrage. But most come and go without much notice outside of the local area. The number of bad cops willing to abuse and kill citizens may be a small percentage of the total force, but it's the larger number that allows these cops to remain employed and unaccountable. And throwing police "to the dogs" is an interesting turn of phrase, considering how often cops are willing to throw citizens to their dogs.

Barr needs everyone to believe holding cops accountable will result in increased criminal activity. To do so, he must bend the truth. Here's him twisting something provably false into a conclusory statement that says only hardline cop tactics can keep an unruly populace in line.

As you know, I served as Attorney General in the early 90’s, '91 and '92, when violent crime rates were at an all-time high – twice the level it is today. We got there through three-decades of lenience – the 60s, 70s and 80s – with soft-on-crime policies very much like those that many states are now adopting – with revolving-door justice, sky-high recidivism rates, and an unwillingness to take chronic violent predators off the street.

This led to the unbelievable carnage which peaked in 1992. The country came to its senses and there was a consensus that we had to strengthen our criminal justice systems and start targeting and incapacitate the chronic violent offenders that have always been responsible for the lion’s share of violent crime.

Those policies worked as they always do and always will work. For over 20 years we had falling crime rates, and violent crime was cut in half from its peak.

But these policies didn't work. And if they didn't work -- or at least are not solely responsible for falling crime -- then they sure as fuck don't always work. Here's just one of several studies showing no conclusive link between "tough on crime" policies and