Dallas Police Chief David Brown, who on Sunday noted the willingness of his officers to show “no greater love” than laying down their lives for the rights of others, revealed Monday that he has been targeted with death threats.
“We’re taking them all as credible, whether they can be confirmed or not,” Brown said at a Monday press conference. Brown said threats against him began “almost immediately after” Thursday night’s deadly ambush.
Brown said the threats are being taken “very seriously … for the sake of our families.”
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The police chief said he was “running on fumes.” “I hope you understand my brain is fried. … I’m a person of faith. I believe that I’m able to stand here and discuss this with you is a testament to God’s grace and His sweet tender mercies,” Brown said.
He then spoke about the burdens dumped upon police departments.
“We’re asking cops to do too much in this country. We are. We’re just asking us to do too much,” he said. “Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding. Let the cop handle it. Not enough drug addiction funding. Let’s give it to the cops.”
“Here in Dallas, we’ve got a loose dog problem,” Brown added. “Let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. You know, schools fail. Give it to the cops. Seventy percent of the African-American community is being raised by single women. Let’s give it to the cops to solve that, as well. That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all of those problems.”
On Sunday, Brown sought to speak directly to protesters during in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper.
“We’re sworn to protect you and your right to protest, and we’ll give our lives for it,” Brown said.
“And it’s sort of like being in a relationship where you love that person, but that person can’t express or show you love back,” he said.
He then explained his philosophy to Tapper.
“I don’t know if you’ve been in a relationship like that before, Jake, but that’s a tough relationship to be in, where we show our love — because there’s no greater love than to give your life for someone, and that’s what we’re continuing to be willing to do.”
Brown said the fact that the police allow protesters to exercise their First Amendment rights is too rarely noticed.
“And we just need to hear from the protesters back to us, ‘We appreciate the work you do for us in our right to protest,’” Brown said. “That should be fairly easy.”
Source: Western Journalism
