The Daily Signal - How Bolster the Blue Is Standing in the Gap for Law Enforcement

Episode Date: October 30, 2020

Law enforcement continues to face unprecedented attacks as police forces are being defunded or are otherwise under intense scrutiny. What are some of the biggest challenges law enforcement is currently facing?  Brenda Tillett, the president and founder of Bolster the Blue, joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to talk about what her organization is doing to support the men and women of law enforcement. We also cover these stories: Third-quarter numbers are in, and America's economy grew at an annualized rate of more than 33%, according to a Department of Commerce report released Thursday.  The president of France says the country is “under attack” after a pair of beheadings committed by Islamic radicals in the past two weeks.  On Wednesday afternoon, Twitter temporarily suspended Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan’s account over a tweet touting the success of the southern border wall in keeping out "murderers" and "sexual predators." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feeling festive. Catch classic holiday favorites like Home Alone, the Santa Claus and Die Hard, along with holiday episodes from Family Guy, Abbott Elementary, and more with Hulu on Disney Plus. From festive Disney flicks to binge-worthy Hulu originals, Hulu on Disney Plus is your home for the holidays. Celebrate the season with Hulu, available on Disney Plus in Canada. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, October 30th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Rachel Del Judas. What are people doing to support law enforcement in a time where they face unprecedented attacks? Brenda Tillett, president and founder of Bolster the Blue, joins me today on the Daily Signal podcast to talk about what her organization is doing.

And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now, onto our top news. Third quarter numbers are in an America's economy. grew at over a 33% annualized rate, according to the Department of Commerce Report, released Thursday. 3.8 million jobs were added to the U.S. economy between July and September. The third quarter also saw a 40.7 annualized rate increase in consumer spending. One of the report's most impressive numbers is on private investment spending, meaning money spent on structure renovations, building buildings, equipment, and the like.

that rose at an 83.3.3% annualized rate. Ian Shepardson, the chief economist at Pampthian economics, wrote in a research note on Thursday that the third quarter economic jump will be the biggest ever quarterly growth rate, but it does not mean that all the damage has been undone. The president of France says the country is under attack after the country has seen multiple headings in less than two weeks. In public comments made Thursday, Emmanuel Macron said via Fox News, it's very clear that it is France that is under attack. France will not give up our values and what he described as an Islamist terrorist attack. If we are attacked once again, it is for the values which are ours. The freedom for this possibility on our soil to believe freely and not to give in to any spirit of terror. Macron continued, I say it with great clarity once again today.

We won't surrender anything. On October 16th, a French teacher who had reportedly shown caricatures of Muhammad during a civics class was beheaded. On Thursday, a woman was beheaded in a church and two others were killed by a man who cried out, Alu Akbar, which means God is most great, which is used by Muslims as a declaration of faith. On Wednesday afternoon, Twitter reportedly suspended Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan's account over a tweet touting the building success of the border wall. The tweet, which included a brief video of border wall construction, stated that every mile helps us stop gang members, murderers, sexual predators, and drugs from entering our country. In an email to Morgan, Twitter explained the suspension, writing, you may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity,

national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. Morgan told the Federalist, which broke the story, that he was simply stating a fact in his tweet. I'm sure somebody on that Twitter team has heard that everyone that legally enters are just good people looking for a better way of life, Morgan said, and he added, the American people ultimately don't get to hear the truth because someone at Twitter, based on their own ideology, pushed a button to prevent the truth from coming out. The Supreme Court ruled that North Carolina can count ballots up to nine days after November 3rd, election day, as long as the ballots are postmarked by election day.

Trump's campaign had asked the High Court to put a deadline back in place from June that required ballots to be counted only three days after the election. Per CNN, the ruling came shortly after the court left in place for now a Pennsylvania state Supreme Court decision that allowed the counting of ballots received up to three days after the election, even if there is no legible postmark. Newly sworn in Justice Amy Coney-Barrant did not take part in either the North Carolina or Pennsylvania cases as she did not have adequate time to assess the briefs, according to the Supreme Court. A USA Today in Suffolk University poll found that three out of the state of the Supreme Court. of every four voters are worried about violence in America on Election Day. Only about 22% of those surveyed said they had little to no concern about violence in response to the election outcomes. That is a major shift from the 2016 election when the USA Today and Suffolk University poll found

that 47% of Americans had little to no concern over violence around the election. Survey interviewers found that there are concerns on both sides of the election. of the aisle with Republican Rachel Haig calling the nation a bit rocky right now and Democrat Monica Pontin saying there's a very angry undertone out there right now. Valerie Soldatow and Independent said she is honestly a little bit frightened. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Brenda Tillett on her organization, Bolster the Blue. The debates are over. The campaign is coming to an end. Now it's your turn. The choices our country makes on Election Day. will impact your life forever.

Take control of your future. Don't miss your chance to make a difference. We're counting on you to get off the bench and get into the game. So grab a buddy, find your polling place, and do your part. Go vote. You can do it early or on Election Day Tuesday. The Heritage Foundation is responsible for the content of this ad. We're joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Brenda Tillett.

She's the president and founder of Bolster the Blue. Brenda, it's great to have you with us on the Daily Signal podcast. Thank you so much for having me today, Rachel. Well, it's great to have you with us. Can you just start off by telling us about your organization, Bolster the Blue? Absolutely. So Bolster the Blue is an organization whose aim is to increase community awareness about legislation that could potentially hurt our law enforcement officers

or even decrease the safety in our communities and in our homes and in our families. And so our goal is to increase community awareness and then also engage the community in our efforts and then hopefully to have more successes and wins not only on a local level and local legislation but also on a state level. Well, on your website you talk about how the opportunity for the organization arose one afternoon as you and your son saw a police officer sitting in his patrol car in a parking lot. Can you tell us a little bit more about what happened there? Yes. So as I've watched over the past several months, as so many Americans have, we've seen our officers being assaulted and being attacked and even assassinated in some cases. And we've just watched with horror, my heart has gone out to all of these officers and also to their families. And so my son and I were in a parking lot and we saw a law enforcement officer sitting in his car.

And we approached him and just asked if there was anything we could do to help any way we should we could show our appreciation. and kindness toward them. And so from that conversation, we decided the next day that we would take catered lunch to our local police station. And as we were talking with some of the officers there, one of the officers asked

if I would be willing to speak at a board of supervisors meeting on behalf of some of the issues in legislation that were being discussed. And I said, absolutely. And so from that idea and from that small act of kindness, we then found out on a much broader scale

what we could do impact the lives of law enforcement officers and even our communities. And you know, what's so interesting, Rachel, is that I thought as just an ordinary mother, a mom of a nine-year-old living in Fairfax County, I thought that most of the legislation was decided at the state level. And so my focus had been on Senate bills that were being proposed that was potentially in defelonization of assaults and police officers or in qualified immunity or defund police officers. But what I found was a lot of that power and a lot of that legislation is passed and lies

in the hands of the Board of Supervisors. So it really is a local battle that has to be fought in tandem with the state level battle. And so that's what Bolster the Blues focus is. We get people engaged in Board of Supervisors meetings. We call our Board of Supervisors. We email them. We do protests. And we also engage with our senators and our delegate members as well.

Well, Brenda, you did mention all the hostility and violence that we've seen towards law enforcement in the past months. And I wanted to ask you, given your work with law enforcement one-on-one on a very regular basis, what is your perspective on the opposition to law enforcement and all the police forces that we've seen either be defunded or under scrutiny right now? There's this movement across the United States with attorneys who are being placed in counties by George Soros, as I'm sure you're aware, for progressive reform in counties throughout the country. And Fairfax County was actually targeted by George Soros. And our current Commonwealth attorney was funded by him with $1.1 million last year for his campaign. And what I'm finding is this small group of people who believe that they potentially support progressive reform

and not fully understanding what that means do not represent the majority of family. They do not speak for us. And I think what's even more alarming, Rachel, is that people don't understand specifically here in Fairfax County. Our Fairfax County Police Department has been rated the top in the nation from 1996 forward. Every four years, they've received statewide accreditation for adhering to numerous policies and procedures, undergoing scrutiny every year, having to submit annual reports, and they've even been given accolades in terms of their eliteness. So Fairfax County has been a shining star and an example to not only the state but the country. So to suggest that reform is needed on such a broad scale or that there are these overwhelming problems within our county and within our state, it just doesn't exist.

It's a narrative that's being propagated for a specific political purpose at the expense of our police officers. And that's how most of them feel also. They feel a real loss of pride in what they do due to the scrutiny and the attacks that they're receiving, and the morale is really low. And that's an even sadder aspect of this. And one of the huge problems we have here in Fairfax County is our chief of police, Chief Ruffler, who has lost all of the trust and all of the respect of 99% of the police officers in this county. There was a survey done by our Fraternal Order of Police, and a similar survey was done by the Police Benevolent Association in June of this year. And 99% of our officers said that they have no respect for our chief of police, Chief Rossler, that they believe that he should resign and that he does not have their back. And yet our Board of Supervisors has done absolutely nothing about that.

And this man is still in command of the most elite police department we have in our entire state. Well, on that note, just looking at the wider situation of law enforcement across Virginia, I believe your organization is based out of Virginia. And are there ways other than, you know, the struggles you mentioned with the police chief in which you witnessed oppression to law enforcement in your community? So over the past nine weeks, Bolster the Blue has held protests at all nine of our police stations, including Fairfax City, which is within the county, but not under the same jurisdiction as the county. We did those every Friday night at 6 o'clock.

We protested in support of law enforcement. We just ended this past Friday night in McLean. And for three or four of those weeks, we had counter protesters show up. And what's so sad about this is the majority of this 12 to 15-fold group were 17-year-olds, 16-year-olds. Their parents dropped them off and their parents picked them up. And the profanity and the vulgarity that they were yelling and screaming regarding us, regarding false claims about what our organization stands for and also about law enforcement really shined a bright light on what's happening, I believe, in our school systems.

And it has to start in the schools. It has to start in the homes, in families, and in churches. That's where respect for law and order, respect for law and order, respect for. for law enforcement has to begin. And I see a real deterioration of that. And we witnessed that firsthand with these counter protesters at our protests that we had in support of our police. Well, I did want to ask you about these flash mobs

that you mentioned just now. Can you tell us a little bit more about them and what their purpose has been and what you all have been doing at these events? So our flash mob Friday event started really as a focus on trying to increase the morale and improve the morale among our law enforcement officers and let them know we do support them

and that we are going to continue speaking out against Chief Rossler and other injustices toward our police officers. And as we went from station to station, our crowd grew, our influence grew. The board of supervisors has started to respect us as an organization. They listen to us because we comport ourselves

in a peaceful manner. And at every event, I was able to, to host a keynote speaker who would shine a light on different issues regarding law enforcement. And then I would update our attendees and all those viewing on Facebook live about what wins we had had the week prior, about what new challenges were facing us on the horizon in reference to things that for instance, Commonwealth Attorney Descano was proposing to our board or what we knew was happening on the state level and what wars we needed them to engage in that following week and we also were able to increase our army twofold, threefold, fourfold,

every single flash mob Friday event we held. We would sign up new people at info at bolst for the blue.com and by signing up there, then people are able to receive our newsletter. And in our newsletter, we let them know what we're doing in the future, where we need them to fight, what the battles are, and then also we encourage our army by updating them on what our wins are. And we've had many wins over the past nine weeks. Well, given your work on behalf of law enforcement, what do you believe are some of the biggest challenges they're facing right now? So if we look on a micro level, we've already talked about the fact that Chief Rossler

needs to be replaced and removed with an external candidate. I mean, that is just an absolute necessity and something that the board should do in order to do what is right. It's right and it's just, it's the correct thing to do. But if we look on a broader level, we know that in January, our Senate and our House of delegates are going to reconvene for their general session, and they're going to look once again at reviving these bills that were killed in the fall, which will include defelonization of assaults and police officers. And as you know, Rachel, if you defelonize assaults and police officers,

you're basically brandishing a welcome home flag on the border of Virginia, hoping that people will just come into the state and assault are police officers. If there are no repercussions for that type of behavior, it's only going to continue and exacerbate. And we also know that, that the bill to end qualified immunity is going to be revived, which strips are law enforcement officers of that legal protection they need to safeguard themselves, their families, their American dream, their savings, their homes, from being sued civilly by individuals they may arrest or interact with. And there are already criminal laws in place that protect citizens from behavior of law enforcement officers that may be considered criminal. So there's no, there's no just to

no justification for ending qualified immunity. We know that the onslaught of people who are proposing defunding or reallocating funds for our police stations to other departments and other activities, that's going to be brought up again in the Senate in January, and we're already preparing for that, and we're building our army right now to fight those battles. Well, and finally, Brenda, how would you encourage people across the country to support law enforcement in their own communities? That's an excellent question. And what I've learned from all of this, Rachel, over the past several months, has been, when you take one step, one small step of courage and someone else sees you do that, it encourages them to be bold, to be brave, and to also stand up for what they know is right. So as individuals who support law enforcement, we can no longer be home on our couches, applauding when other people fight our battles, or when other people are standing short.

shoulder to shoulder with law enforcement. We have to be the ones who will call our senators, email our senators, show up at Board of Supervisors meetings, and not only grand gestures like that, if you see a law enforcement officer, walk over to his police car and tell him thank you. If you're in line in a drive-thru, pay for his meal if he's behind you or she's behind you.

Pray for them at night. Let them know how much you love and support them when you see them. And most of all, get involved in organizations like ours, like Bolster the Blue, which individuals can very easily do by going to bolster the blue.com. And if you're not someone who wants to outwardly support or can't outwardly support, you can always make a donation to our organization at bolsterthebleu.com, or by being on our newsletter, you can then forward that newsletter to other people

and increase community awareness for other individuals who may be able to actually outwardly fight. So any small gesture you can make to engage in this war is greatly appreciated by law enforcement officers. And I just want to leave you with a quote that I thought was just so disheartening. A couple of different quotes that I received this week from some law enforcement officers. And one officer sadly said, I just want my pride back. And that just wrenched my soul so badly. And the president of the Fairfax County Police Association sent me a note. His name is Jeremy Hoffman.

And he said, thank you so much for your kind words, support, prayers, and appreciation. They are needed now more than ever and any time in our history. We are truly experiencing unprecedented times in the Fairfax County Police Department to pain and suffering inflicted on us by a self-serving, self-righteous, dishonest, and ethically compromised chief is palpable at every police facility. And that is why we continue to fight at Bolster the Blue and we will never stop fighting. Well, Brenda, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast and sharing about Bolster the Blue. It's been great having you with us.

Thank you so much, Rachel. I appreciate the time. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal Podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and please encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening, and we'll be back with you all on Monday. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Rachel Del Judas, sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinie, and John Pop.

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