Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” screamed from the casino conference room speakers as hundreds of police officers stood to welcome Tomi Lahren with cheers and whistles.
The 29-year-old political commentator was the most anticipated presenter at the Street Cop Training Conference in Atlantic City in October, pumping up officers at a time when shootings by police, especially of Black civilians, have fueled calls for a rethinking of public safety and
most Americans doubt police are adequately trained to avoid using excessive force. Lahren offered a starkly different worldview, one in which Black Lives Matter activists are “thugs, felons and criminals” and a “terrorist organization,” and Democrats are instilling violent chaos in an effort to nationalize policing and restrict individual freedoms.
“If I’m wrong, please point it out,” she told a crowd that organizers said numbered more than 1,000, from police departments large and small across New Jersey and beyond. “But all these major headline incidents that we’ve had in this country involving law enforcement in the last at least five years could have all been prevented if people would just comply with police, would follow orders and not resist arrest.”
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