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'Culture of police hatred': overheated talk or real concern?

BALTIMORE, MD - APRIL 25: Protesters clash with police during a march in honor of Freddie Gray on April 25, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. Gray, 25, was arrested for possessing a switch blade knife outside the Gilmor Homes housing project on Baltimore's west side on April 12. According to his attorney, Gray died a week later in the hospital from a severe spinal cord injury he received while in police custody. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Credit: Alex Wong

Credit: Alex Wong

BALTIMORE, MD - APRIL 25: Protesters clash with police during a march in honor of Freddie Gray on April 25, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. Gray, 25, was arrested for possessing a switch blade knife outside the Gilmor Homes housing project on Baltimore's west side on April 12. According to his attorney, Gray died a week later in the hospital from a severe spinal cord injury he received while in police custody. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
By Craig Schneider
Sept 21, 2015

I’m angry that the fringe groups who started the culture of police hatred have widened the racial divide in our country by alleging that officer involved shootings stem from racism.

Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway set off a storm last week when he unleashed an 800-word salvo that may have expressed what a lot of police officers are feeling but not saying publicly.

Their frustrations are rooted in incidents as serious as the assassination of a deputy in Texas and in social slights and taunts: a police sergeant refused service at an Arby's in Florida, a neighborhood flier in Atlanta promising free hotdogs and hamburgers but specifying "no cops," with a drawing of hotdogs roasting over a burning Atlanta police car.

Is there a culture of police hatred, as Conway and others suggest, or is this heated rhetoric just deepening the divide between police and the public? See how people are responding at MyAJC.com.

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Craig Schneider
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