Will Uvalde Police Response Spark A “Back The Blue” Reset?

“Waiting an hour is disgusting”

In the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests and riots of 2020, another counter-movement gained momentum: “Back the Blue.” As the anti-police agenda became more radical, the opposing side became less nuanced in response. While one side argued that the entire law enforcement apparatus was systemically racist — with police officers deliberately targeting black people with murderous intent — the other side insisted that the nation’s law enforcement was universally virtuous, and to question the notion of heroism regardless of behavior was to demonstrate a lack of both respect and patriotism.

Meanwhile, of course, the only logical position — that instances of racism and/or brutality do occur among law enforcement, while most law enforcement officers are moral people who demonstrate acts of heroism on a daily basis to keep those in their communities safe — was lost in the noise.

And as a result of this all-too-familiar binary choice of “all good” or “all bad,” conservatives refused to have crucial conversations regarding those among us who were handed elevated levels of power, supposedly in return for the responsibility of keeping us safe.

For many, it seems that the police response in Uvalde, Texas, has changed everything.