Ever since the George Floyd incident in 2020, a large chunk of American society, particularly from the woke liberal community, have turned their backs on law enforcement. They have demonized, villainized, and labeled every officer as racist and corrupt.
It is now a few short months from 2025. Although the hatred towards law enforcement isn’t as strong as it was in 2020, it is still pervasive across the country.
And now this negative attitude towards the police is having a direct and indirect impact on the streets.
And no one knows this more than Michael Letts, LEO advocate, expert and founder and CEO of the nonprofit organization InVest USA. He understands the inherent dangers of targeting the law enforcement profession by turning it into a hot-button political issue. He sees how the demonization of police affects society as a whole – starting with the general public on the streets.
“Now society has gotten to the point to where people are just fearful of everyday operations. They are fearful of violent crime, they are fearful of where the economy is headed. They just seem to be bogged down without hope and then they're wondering and they're questioning, ‘how did we get to this point,’” Letts said.
According to Letts, the answer is simple, albeit troubling.
“We [America] have created an atmosphere in our society to where we have no respect for law and order and we have no respect for the people behind the badge. And quite frankly, we [America] actually villainize them,” Letts said on a recent podcast [listen here].
“You have officers who are attempting to do their job and they’re vilified for what they’re doing. They’re actually automatically assumed, in America now, as being guilty until proven innocent,” Letts said. “Anything that transpires that somebody doesn't like on a scene, they will automatically assume you [police] did the wrong thing.”
Being a police officer is difficult enough. It’s a thankless job, long hours, holidays, missing important family events, low pay. One of the main reasons people pursue a career in law enforcement is their commitment to duty, their commitment to help people at their worst moments, and being a public servant.
But now it’s becoming more difficult to be a police officer.
“We’re asking these officers to literally, everyday, put themselves on the line and offer themselves up if need be, be their life, to defend others, to defend the community,” Letts said. He added, “Then we have the mainstream media, who is serving as the ‘spokes-piece’ for the liberal left philosophy and ideology that are trying to paint them and personify them in such a way that they’re evil law enforcement.”
This negative attitude towards police officers is manifesting itself on the streets. Many officers are hesitant to do their jobs for fear of political retribution, unreasonable ‘knee-jerk’ responses by their own department, the community and overzealous prosecutors.
And it can happen easily. A community member can record a police interaction with a suspect, edit the footage to remove context, and blast the video on social media. With the current political climate, the media will eat it up and run with it regardless of the facts.
This is a problem now – and will only worsen.
“It’s not that you’re just attacking the guy [cop] on the street now with the badge. Look at what you’re doing for future generations to come because as we lose officers at a rapid rate and we begin to degenerate into the fact that nobody wants to enforce the law anymore, Letts said.”
He continued, “Society can’t survive if it doesn’t have law and order.”
The formula is simple. Support your law enforcement officers and praise them for the jobs that they do. Will every officer be perfect? Of course not. But the consequences of not having law and order are far more dangerous.
To learn more about Michael Letts, go to michaelletts.us and to learn more about his nonprofit organization InVestUSA, which provides free vests to first responders, visit investusa.org.
Read the full history of InVestUSA with Michael Letts by clicking HERE.