The Democratic National Committee's new slogan is apparently "Black Votes Matter," as shown by its endorsement of Black Lives Matter and invitation of the families of victims of controversial shootings to their national convention.

Democrats were to hear Tuesday night from the “Mothers of the Movement,” a group of women who have traveled the country to promote gun control and reforms to make police officers more accountable. The group includes the mothers of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, victims of high-profile police-involved killings.

Democrats have had decades to promote the reforms in question but have simply chosen not to do so. The vast majority of questionable police shootings and other uses of illegal force take place in cities whose mayors are liberal Democrats, some of whom hold very prominent positions in the DNC. This underscores the fact that Black votes, but not Black lives, matter to the Democratic Party's power brokers.

Fearless Fosdick is a Democrat

Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick, a parody of Dick Tracy, was known for his indiscriminate use of force. As an example, he opened fire on a man who was selling balloons without a license, and gunned down several innocent bystanders in the process. Fearless Fosdick's real-world counterparts report almost universally to liberal Democratic mayors.

New York City paid Eric Garner's family $5.9 million for wrongful death due to a police chokehold in violation of department policy, and New York police wounded nine bystanders with gunfire and bullet fragments while exchanging fire with a killer. Police instructor Massad Ayoob's In the Gravest Extreme warns, "If it can be proven that you were negligent or reckless in firing the wild shot, you are liable for damages, and for conviction under the criminal code" even if you were trying to hit a violent assailant.

The Garner incident took place on the watch of liberal Democrat Bill de Blasio, while the bystanders were injured on the watch of Independent Michael Bloomberg, an enemy of the Second Amendment who might be in prison for his amateur gun stings if he was an ordinary person rather than a billionaire political figure. In 2013, also on Bloomberg's watch, New York police fired three rounds at a mentally disturbed man whom they thought had a weapon, and hit two innocent bystanders instead. If Bloomberg's police needed more range time and/or use of force simulations, he could have saved a lot of innocent people by spending his personal fortune to provide these things rather than run a potentially felonious crusade against the Second Amendment. Governor Andrew Cuomo and GOP majority leader (and convicted felon) Dean Skelos could have meanwhile devoted more attention statewide to the adequacy of police training and supervision than to harassing law-abiding gun owners with their so-called SAFE Act.

Fearless Fosdick Does Boston

Next we come to Boston, where police who were looking for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pointed firearms at people and at occupied buildings: multiple blatant and flagrant violations of Gun Safety 101. The first picture shows Fearless Fosdick's real-life counterparts pointing what the political Left calls "assault rifles" at buildings while having no idea in the world as to who is inside them. The reference includes the allegation that the police committed what would, for any ordinary person, constitute a serious firearm crime.

"The gentleman here (if you can call him that) notes that both times his house was searched the law enforcement officers 'asked' permission to do so, but he didn’t feel like he had much of a choice as the police team had guns pointed at his face."

If anybody in Pennsylvania pointed a gun at my face, I would file a criminal complaint against him for misdemeanor assault: "attempts by physical menace to put another in fear of imminent serious bodily injury" and also reckless endangerment: "conduct which places or may place another person in danger of death or serious bodily injury." In California, intentionally pointing a loaded semiautomatic firearm, i.e. the kind carried by almost all police officers, at another person without cause is a felony. This, in contrast to California's other gun laws, is one I respect and support except for the politically correct aspect of making the crime more serious if the weapon is automatic or semiautomatic. No responsible person points so much as a flintlock pistol at another person except in self-defense.

Another picture shows a Boston police officer pointing a rifle straight at a photographer, and yet another shows an officer pointing his handgun who-knows-where while a woman exits her home. The beginning of this video is even worse; the police officer at the left allows the muzzle of his weapon to wander across the backs of the police directly in front of him as well as the occupied house. Fearless Fosdick is often as dangerous to other police officers as he is to civilians, and the mayor of Wilkes-Barre -- a Democrat but from a blue-collar working city rather than a large urban area -- moved quickly to fire one who "goofed off" by pointing his duty weapon at other officers in the station.

The legality of entering people's homes, and ordering them out of their homes ("Raus! Raus!" per the Gestapo), without warrants or probable cause that a crime is in progress also can and should be questioned. All this took place on the watch of Democrat Thomas Menino, co-chair and co-founder with Michael Bloomberg of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. These mayors who clamor for onerous gun laws for law-abiding citizens, and (in Bloomberg's case) run amateur sting operations that could conceivably land an ordinary person in Federal prison, are not even up to the job of ensuring that their police forces are not menaces to the societies they are supposed to protect.

The Los Angeles Fosdick Department

In 2013, Los Angeles police officers fired 107 rounds at Margie Carranza, her mother Emma Hernandez, each other, and surrounding buildings and vehicles. "Nearby homes, trees and vehicles were pockmarked by scores of bullet holes." The Los Angeles Times adds, "Beck said the officers compounded their mistake by shooting in one another's directions with an unrestrained barrage of gunfire." The police violated numerous gun safety rules by firing at a target they had not positively identified as hostile, and by shooting without regard to who or what might be in their line of fire. This happened on the watch of Antonio Villaraigosa, "a national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign… and Chairman of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in September 2012."

Chicago has meanwhile paid out half a billion dollars to settle cases involving excessive or inappropriate use of force by its police. One such case was that of Laquan McDonald, whom a police officer continued to shoot after he fell to the ground as shown here at about 5:33. The officer involved was, in fact, charged with murder for continuing to shoot a fallen assailant who was armed only with a contact weapon. The Chicago Tribune adds, "Van Dyke has at least 20 formal complaints over his career, including McDonald's fatal shooting, according to department records. Eleven involved allegations of excessive force." While the reference adds that many complaints are groundless forms of retaliation by gang members, the city paid $100,000 to settle a lawsuit that involved Van Dyke and another officer.

Another officer shot Cedrick Chapman in the back on the grounds that the fleeing suspect had what might have been a gun, but turned out to be an iPhone box. While the officer might have been justified if he believed reasonably that Chapman had a gun, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettleman said that he also might have endangered his partner, who was chasing the suspect. The gunfire might also have endangered two bystanders. The city's response?

"The original independent police investigator wanted to rule the shooting unjustified, saying the teen fled from Fry and Toth without posing a threat. That investigator, Lorenzo Davis, said he was fired when he refused to change his findings to a justified shooting. A new investigator was assigned and ruled the shooting justified."

The Chicago Police Department reports to Democrat Rahm Emanuel, who did not overrule the decision to fire the investigator who did his job by refusing to whitewash a questionable shooting. BLM members who still have problems with the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore need to remember that Baltimore police report ultimately to Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the current secretary of the Democratic National Committee.

The DNC cannot have it both ways. If black (and other lives, including those of police officers) lives really matter, then Democratic mayors need to ensure that their police have adequate training and supervision. What we have seen so far involves a small but significant number of poorly trained and poorly supervised police in Democratic-run cities who are menaces to law-abiding civilians, unarmed or disarmed suspects, and other law enforcement professionals.

William A. Levinson is the author of several books on business management including content on organizational psychology, as well as manufacturing productivity and quality.