Chris Christie says Obama is encouraging attacks on cops

FILE - In this March 29, 2012 file photo, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses a crowd at a town hall meeting in Manchester, N.J. Last month, Christie branded a lawmaker “one arrogant S--” at another town hall meeting. The mayors of New York and Philadelphia and the governor of New Jersey have all unleashed unprintable terms in public in the last two weeks, cursing with microphones on in otherwise G-rated settings ranging from a town-hall meeting to a hot-dog-eating contest weigh-in. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File) — FILE – In this March 29, 2012 file photo, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses a crowd at a town hall meeting in Manchester, N.J. Last month, Christie branded a lawmaker “one arrogant S–” at another town hall meeting. The mayors of New York and Philadelphia and the governor of New Jersey have all unleashed unprintable terms in public in the last two weeks, cursing with microphones on in otherwise G-rated settings ranging from a town-hall meeting to a hot-dog-eating contest weigh-in. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

Three recent and highly publicized incidents (murder of Deputy Sheriff Goforth, murder of Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz, and the non-fatal ambush of two Las Vegas officers) have given the impression to many people… and maybe to most police officers… that it is open season on police officers. Leon has made a great case for why this isn’t necessarily so, but, as they say in the public relations business, P = R or Perception = Reality. NJ Chris Christie has weighed in on the subject and makes a very good point.

Recent violence against law enforcement is President Barack Obama’s problem, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday, blasting the president for failing to lead and uphold the rule of law.

“This is the president’s problem, because he has not allowed law and order to be the rule of the day in the United States. Lawlessness has been the rule of the day,” Christie said in an interview on “Fox and Friends” after the hosts recounted recent killings of police officers in Illinois and Texas, and another shooting in Nevada over the weekend. “And now the president says little or nothing about these police officers that are being hunted.”

From sanctuary cities to recreational marijuana, the Republican presidential candidate said he would reverse the trends of Obama’s administration and enforce the law when he becomes president.

“Law and order will restore some sense of normalcy to people’s lives,” he remarked. “And we’ll stand behind our law enforcement officers around the country.”

As I noted overnight, a lot of the problems that the US is experiencing in foreign policy is the direct result of Obama giving mixed messages. Threatening a “red line” on Syrian use of chemical weapons and then doing nothing; trying to overthrow Assad and then doing nothing; selling out human rights campaigners across the globe while talking about human rights; all of these things leads to the quite understandable belief that Obama doesn’t care about anything and won’t do anything. A belief that is reinforced every day.

As Governor Christie points out, the tolerance of sanctuary cities, the use of executive power to achieve goals that can’t be achieved via legitimate means and bragging about it, refusing to deport criminal aliens even rapists and murderers, taking up the cause of a thuglet like Trayvon Martin and the #BlackLivesMatter crazies as nothing more than an exercise in building racial animus, builds a perception in the criminal class, native and imported, that their actions are somehow justified because The Man agrees with their goals.

But Christie doesn’t really go far enough. Obama’s actions have also emboldened regulatory agencies to act in a reckless and criminal manner. The EPA apparently thinks it has control of water from the time it leaves the urinary tract by calling it a ‘navigable waterway.’ The Army Corps of Engineers, ever chomping at the bit to get to the ‘green’ trough, has fined homeowners for filling seasonal wet spots on their own property. The IRS has become an arm of the Obama machine. The Department of Education has outlawed most of the Constitution on college campuses. The ATF kills innocent civilians in a vain attempt to run up the body count as a pretext for more gun laws.

Christie is right. The main task for the next president will be establishing the rule of law in our land and enforcing a respect for the law. And the only way that will happen is through example.