Police Union Spokesman Criticizes Beck's 'Inflammatory Speech'
October 13, 2010 The spokesman for a national law enforcement association criticized Glenn Beck for comments that a California man says helped inform his plans for a killing spree that resulted in injuries to several highway patrolmen.
Rich Roberts is public information officer for the International Union of Police Associations, which represents about 500 local police unions.
He said Beck "stirs people up and not in a good way. He is a source of problems. I have to watch Beck because I don't have a choice, I have to stay in touch with what is going on."
Roberts, whose group is based in Sarasota, Fla., made the comments following Media Matters' interview with alleged gunman Byron Williams, who was arrested July 19 in Oakland, Calif., after an incident in which several members of the California Highway Patrol were wounded.
Williams told investigators that he was heading to San Francisco to kill members of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU.
Roberts said Beck's rhetoric is a dangerous thing because it can drive people to violence. "The Becks of the world are people who are venting their opinions and it is inflammatory, it generates a lot of emotion and generates in some people overreaction that apparently happened in the California case," Roberts said. "Inflammatory speech has a tendency to trigger those kinds of emotions."
Roberts added about Beck: "He is self-serving and has no interest in improving, informing or educating."
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Fox News fuels the hate and does its best to provide cover and refuge for those supporting the intimidation campaign, as Fox News and the rest of the right-wing media rationalize the wave of political violence and do their best to shift the blame onto the targets -- onto the victims -- while always avoiding responsibility.
Fox News, rather than lamenting the ugly and cowardly eruptions, seems to be encouraging it, or at least rationalizing it. Perhaps Fox News wants that threat of mob intimidation on the table, and Fox News, the de facto Opposition Party, wants Democrats to be thinking about the political consequences of further upsetting that unhinged mob.
Note how so many embraced the frightening notion that because conservatives didn't like health care reform, the violence was expected and nobody should have been surprised because Democrats, by passing the bill (i.e. desecrating the Constitution), pushed people too far. "So why are people angry?" asked Fox News' Steve Doocy in March 2010. "Maybe because they didn't want this bill?"
Why so many think that there is a connection between Fox News' hate speech and the police blotter of violent and frightening political incidents during health care debates:
• Rep. Tom Perriello's (D-VA) brother's address was erroneously posted online by a Tea Party blogger who invited activists to descend on the house. A gas line outside the brother's house was cut.
• Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) was the target of threatening faxes and phone calls, including death threats. Some of the faxes included "racial epithets used in reference to President Obama," according to CBS News.
• A brick was thrown through the window of the Democratic Party office in Rochester, New York. The note attached read: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice," roughly quoting 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.
• Rep. Anthony Weiner's office in Kew Gardens, New York, had to be evacuated after suspicious white powder was found in an envelope mailed to the office.
• A thrown brick smashed a window at Rep. Louise Slaughter's district office in Niagara Falls, New York.
• Slaughter also received a message claiming that "snipers were being deployed to kill those members who voted yes for health care," according to Politico.
• A tossed brick demolished a window at the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita, Kansas.
• There were confirmed accounts of Tea Party protesters hurling anti-gay slurs at Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) on the eve of the health care vote.
• "Vandals also smashed the front door and a window at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' office in Tucson early Monday, hours after the Arizona Democrat voted for the health care reform package," reported the Kansas City Star.
Fox News' response to the mayhem? "This happens all the time," shrugged paid contributor Stephen Hayes. His colleague Charles Krauthammer added, "I'm sure a lot of this is trumped up."
It's a chilling prospect, but one that seems more and more plausible: What if Fox News actually wants more and more of domestic violence?
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Gabrielle Giffords about Sarah Palin's violent rhetoric and the Tea Party threats and attacksby PalinPalooza60,888 views
whocares,ive been jumped by dems for saying fuck the Gov.i dislike all factions.careless about either corrupt side.they are all death for this country.fucking politics.
PrvtParapup 9 months ago
The only good Leftist is a dead Leftist!
viriatoist 11 months ago
The media criminals will be tried with the rest of the New World DisOrder Coupsters, they are all spin artists of Goebelles ilk, MSNBC, FOX, CNN, etc. all are members of CFR.
eliotbernstein 1 year ago
The world can see just how much of an ass this country looks because of POLITICS.
xxchinookxx 1 year ago
I think the right thing to do is find out who is behind the party you affiliate yourself with and ask yourself if supporting said party is really in your best interests. All the resources to track who really is behind the party you're fighting for are available if you have an internet connection. Please, do not watch cable news, or listen to talk radio. Ignorance breeds fear which in turn breeds hate, now ask yourself why you are so mad.
jpillings 1 year ago