Philly Area Cops Freak Out Over Editorial Cartoon Depicting Children Asking Santa to Protect Them From Cops

I don’t like editorial cartoons. I
really don’t like them (Friday Funnies
excepted). Nick Gillespie explains
the problem
better than I can. Even, or especially, in situations where
important issues come to the attention of the mainstream media. The
recent attention paid to incidents of excessive use of force by
police are no exception. I particularly didn’t like
this cartoon depicting the Statue of Liberty lying on the
ground saying she can’t breathe. When was the last time an
immigrant saw the Statue of Liberty on their way into America? More
likely to see a cactus or a coyote. I don’t know for whom the
Statue of Liberty is a non-ironic symbol of “American values.”

But this
cartoon, depicting a group of children asking Santa Claus to
protect them from the police for Christmas, I liked. Maybe I’m
partial to Santa, though that didn’t make
this different Santa/police violence cartoon any less
cringe-worthy. But when the former cartoon ran in the Bucks
County Courier Times, police officers in the Philadelphia area
were not amused. Local police union president John McNesby wrote a
bullying letter to the newspaper. Via
Philly.com:

You owe a public apology to every law enforcement officer and
their families. What’s more, you owe a particular apology to the
families of those officers who gave their lives to ensure that
people like you could remain safe while you defame their
memories.

There is a special place in hell for you miserable parasites in
the media who seek to exploit violence and hatred in order to sell
advertisement.

Two thoughts: (1) unless McNesby has a particular fallen officer
in mind, I’m not aware of any cop dying in the line of duty to
protect the Courier Times from an assault on their
headquarters and (2) I don’t know what the moral issue is with
selling advertisements to willing advertisers, but I’m sure there’s
a special place in hell for those who seek to exploit fear and
crime in order to avoid responsibility for misconduct while
demanding respect for doing a job they’re paid to do.

And a third thought: what a bully tihs McNesby sounds like. This
is the kind of person the police choose to represent them to the
public. And so many in the public continue to ignore the role of
police unions in police violence.