Lost in the hyper-escalated news cycle of videos of black men killed by police officers during traffic stops in Minnesota and Baton Rouge is a compendium of dash cam video from police cars of law enforcement officers being gunned down; executed, some in broad daylight.  Grizzly and graphic, Armed or Unarmed: How Quickly Can You Make That Decision? puts the kibosh on the Democrats’ and mainstream media’s narrative that every black man pulled over is a saint, that the cops are racially profiling, and that the cops are a racist hate group.

For those equal opportunity perpetrators who just don’t come flying out of their vehicles with guns blazing are the sly evil ones, devils with baby faces and a hoodie, and a concealed weapon who strike at point blank range, firing their guns, some into the face of a police officer.  The media would never dare to air the video as a counterweight to the demonstrably false narrative of the BLM goon squad.

It’s not pleasant to watch a criminal murder a policeman.  It fires me up on several levels.  My loyalties lie with law enforcement.  I spent five years with the U.S. Border Patrol.  My son-in-law is a deputy sheriff.

I’ve been pulled over several dozens of times in my 60 years.  In every case but one, I was doing something I shouldn’t have been doing.  The other time, a car that looked like mine reportedly had been involved in a local robbery.  I was made to get out of the car and walk to the police car with my hands over my head.  They pointed their guns at me.  They were looking for a mature black male, not some skinny white kid; I was told to leave the area immediately, only to get pulled over again and admonished to “get the hell out of the area.”  From the time I learned to drive, I also learned how to exhibit behaviors to the police that I was not a threat.  I might have had a lead foot but I wasn’t going to make their jobs more difficult.  I knew I was in the wrong; the only thing I didn’t know was how much my ticket was going to be.

Maybe others were never taught how to deal with police.  It’s not something you learn in school, in Driver’s Ed.  Country music star Coffey Anderson made a video which provided viewers some sound advice if they are pulled over by law enforcement.  For his sincere efforts, he was roundly criticized by the Left and fellow African Americans, the complaint was his video was “worthless to black people.”  Is that so?  Isn’t Coffey Anderson black people? 

There is a full-fledged war on law enforcement.  It is the only conflict where President Obama hasn’t led from behind.  His contempt for local and state law enforcement is evident and palpable, and some of his latest comments to federalize the police, much as the federal government federalized airport screening after the 9/11 breach of airport security, would have been considered the ravings of a lunatic if they hadn’t come from the mouth of the 44^th President. 

We should not be surprised at our short memories.  In 2009, he advocated for a national police force.  At every local tragedy, where a black man is killed by a white policeman, the Obama Administration jumps in and immediately begins to emasculate and disarm the local police force.  And he is getting help from a complicit media which super-sensationalizes every white-on-black police encounter.  The domestic terrorist groups, the New Black Panther Party and Black Lives Matter are actively engaged to trap and target local police and state law enforcement officers. 

Several years ago, during the time when I managed a couple of contracts in Bogota, Colombia, I had to ensure my employees had the appropriate level of personal protection equipment, to include a number of sufficiently armored vehicles to ensure their safe travel, from their living quarters to their place of work.  For contractors working in Bogota we always had to be on guard and take into consideration the narco-terrorist group, the FARC -- the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.  The FARC was notorious for killing Colombian prosecutors and American contractors, believing contractors were assisting the Colombian government’s counternarcotics efforts.  How they targeted American contractors was simple, efficient, and deadly.  In heavy traffic the FARC, on motorcycles, would drive up to a vehicle carrying contractors and hose them down with automatic weapons. 

While traveling home one night from a downtown Washington DC event, on the three-lane I-295, a swarm of almost two dozen African-American men on four-wheelers and motorcycles overtook me and others in our vehicles.  From my old defensive driving course, I realized I had stumbled into a trap with no escape, and I was soon-to-be a dead man.  With no ramp or shoulder and traffic ahead, I had one hope and aggressively moved to the far right lane in the hopes that whoever took aim at me would have a more difficult shot shooting across their body.  Several riders did “shoot” at cars with their fingers as they roared by.  As quickly as they came upon us, they were gone.  I’ve seen the videos of similar encounters.  It’s not a stretch to think that new hate groups are practicing these old FARC motorcycle tactics. 

Some sources cite that 80-90% of terrorist attacks occur while the victims are traveling by automobile.  Police are regularly ambushed or attacked while in their cars.  Local and state governments need to act and protect their law enforcement personnel and departments.  It’s time for local police and state troopers to start acquiring armored patrol vehicles.  City Councils need to watch, Armed or Unarmed: How Quickly Can You Make That Decision?  They need to be aware that law enforcement officers across the country have a bullseye imprinted on their foreheads and that incidents targeting them are more common than they realize, that the media won’t report them, and are escalating and becoming more common.

Also, President Obama has banned military equipment to police at a crucial time in America.  Following the use of military-grade hardware, tear gas, riot gear, and assault rifles by the Ferguson Police Department, violence against law enforcement officers is trending skyward with no end in sight.  The New Black Panthers and the radical hate group, Black Lives Matter, have urged their members to kill police as well as white people.  The escalation of direct action against police departments while the Obama Administration has purposely reduced or eliminated military-grade protection for police departments requires immediate local action to offset his disarmament policies. 

There’s a reason one of the fastest new businesses is armoring commercial and private vehicles.  Cops must get in on the action too.

Mark Hewitt is the author of the espionage thrillers Special Access, Shoot Down, and No Need to Know.