The attacks we’ve been seeing against law and order and the police sworn to protect Americans makes this a defining moment for America.

The way citizens react this summer and the crucial November elections can determine our future path as a civil society. Voters can learn a great deal about what candidates stand for by studying the issues in political party platforms.

The four Minneapolis police officers charged in connection with the death of George Floyd should be condemned and prosecuted for their action. But even the murder charge filed against the officer who pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck during the arrest, causing Floyd’s death, could not stop the nationwide violence and vandalism that ensued.

Most major news outlets, however, have been ignoring the widespread attacks launched against police coast to coast. There was little reporting on the hundreds of police and front-line first responders that have been stabbed, beaten, shot and, in some cases, killed by the violence. By going negative on law enforcement while promoting the actions of activist groups such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter, mainstream liberal media helps stoke the fires of discontent.

We saw little coverage about David Dorn, a 77-year-old retired black St. Louis police captain who was shot and killed on June 2 by looters who broke into a pawnshop. Dorn had gone to the business to check on a burglar alarm.

Major networks also ignored the death of Patrick Underwood, a black federal officer who was shot down as he was providing security at a U.S. courthouse in Oakland, California during a protest.

Hearing elected political leaders - mostly liberal Democrats - denigrate police and call for abolishing or defunding police departments is very scary. Speaking to Black Lives Matter protesters following the death of George Floyd, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota called the Minneapolis Police Department a cancer that needed to be completely dismantled.

Thankfully, there are voices of reason to counter the rants from the far left.

In New York City, where some 700 officers were injured in the first two weeks of protests over George Floyd’s death, Mike O’Meara, the president of the New York Police Benevolent Association, sounded off last week. O’Meara told reporters it’s wrong to blame every officer for Floyd’s death, stating, “He (the Minneapolis officer) killed someone. We didn’t.”

“Our legislators are failing us. Our press is vilifying us,” O’Meara said during the news conference. “Stop treating us like animals and thugs and start treating us with some respect. … We’ve been vilified. It’s disgusting.”

With 375 million interactions between law enforcement and the public every year, O’Meara said there should be more press coverage on the positive stories that didn’t end in violence.

In addressing the calls to defund police, Texas Rep. Crenshaw said no community has ever become safer with less policing, and that defunding police will only hurt rather then help.

He warned that the call for dismantling and defunding police is no longer just an “undercurrent” or “fringe opinion” but it now involves big city mayors like New York’s Bill de Blasio of New York City and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles. The Minneapolis city council last week pledged to disband the city’s police department and replace it with a new system of public safety, whatever that means.

In testimony before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on police reform last week, former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino said that while it’s important to hold police officers accountable for their actions, defunding police departments will result in “chaos and destruction.”

Bongino stated that there are officers out there who “aren’t suited for the job” - that he prays for “justice” for George Floyd’s family - but he said that most cops he knows are “heroes” who are committed to public safety.

Many other Americans agree with the sane voices of reason from public servants like Rep. Crenshaw, O’Meara and Bongino. There are bad characters in every profession, but in the case of law enforcement, it’s likely a very small minority. Officers on the front lines are putting themselves between the public and evildoers among us every day; they’re the ones who must make split-second decisions and who are willing to run toward the gunfire while most citizens flee in panic.

To denigrate these public servants is a disgrace.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com