Oklahoma City Councilwoman JoBeth Hamon recently took to social media and compared police officers to Timothy McVeigh, the suspect in the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing.
Her post reads:
“25 years ago at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, mass murderer Timothy McVeigh took the lives of 168 innocent people. That was senseless violence. That was terrorism. The continued violent murder of Black lives by police is terrorism. A burned car is property damage.”
John George, president of the Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police calls her statement crossing the line.
“To compare us to Timothy McVeigh … most of us, this department, lived through that,” he said “She crossed a line there.”
KOCO 5 reached out to Hamon about the post. She released a statement saying, in part, “While it’s difficult to be the target of their bullying, their lashing out is an extension of the same culture in our policing institutions that perpetuate the high rates of police brutality against and harassment of Black and Brown residents.”
George calls it a “false narrative…”
“We don’t have this epidemic of police officers murdering innocent Black men in this country,” George said.
Mentioning the Washington Post Police Shooting Database from 2019.
“You would think with this rhetoric that’s going on, it would be, what, in the hundreds? How about nine,” George said, in regards to unarmed blacks being shot by the police….many that were attacking law enforcement at the time of their death.
Meanwhile, Hamon double downed on her comments, “My voice carries the concerns of my constituents – concerns that have been raised long before I was ever in office and that cannot be shoved to the side or silenced by bullying and intimidation.”
Hamon’s full statement can be read below:
“The Fraternal Order of Police has typically operated by buying the loyalty of politicians or bullying people. And while it’s difficult to be the target of their bullying, their lashing out is an extension of the same culture in our policing institutions that perpetuate the high rates of police brutality against and harassment of Black and Brown residents as well as of residents who experience homelessness, or any other lives that have been disproportionately impacted by our systems of criminalization, over-policing, and mass incarceration. I have built relationships with those in our community that have not had the historical power to determine law enforcement policies and practices – and are often those that fall into our legal and carceral system rather than get healthcare, economic opportunity, and access to housing. Black lives matter more than the status quo and being a visible leader amplifying the words of Black Lives Matter-Oklahoma City Chapter like I did when I shared their post means that those, like the FOP, who have benefited from power will continue to try to silence me. But my voice carries the concerns of my constituents – concerns that have been raised long before I was ever in office and that cannot be shoved to the side or silenced by bullying and intimidation.”
Can you hear what we hear at Law Officer?
That’s the sound of silence around the nation as no national media outlet will question or condemn Hamon.
Yes, JoBeth Hamon is the problem but she pales in comparison to the main stream media that not only will not hold her accountable but themselves that continue to push a false narrative.
Meanwhile, the media will go out of their way to attack a Michigan State Researcher, a journalist and a police major that point out the facts and the research.
In fact, this research is such a concern, that two authors defended their findings while asking that their data be removed from public viewing.
America is being lied to and the result is the ignorance of JoBeth Hamon.
