Historian breaks down why AG Barr’s ‘anti-democratic’ rhetoric recalls crackdowns on civil rights activists in the 1960s

Proponents of police accountability — from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to the NAACP to the Rev. Al Sharpton — have repeatedly stressed that they aren’t anti-law enforcement. But as Attorney General William Barr sees it, an anti-police mood is sweeping the U.S., and historian Joshua Clark Davis points out the parallels between Barr’s rhetoric and a crackdown on dissent in the 1960s.

Davis, in an article for The Nation, notes that when Barr spoke at a December 3 event honoring recipients of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing, he asserted that Americans must show “the respect and support that law enforcement deserves.” And Barr had a threatening tone when he added, “If communities don’t give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need.”

Barr, Davis explains, “could have just as easily uttered these sentiments in the 1960s as in 2019.” And Davis (who teaches at the University of Baltimore) draws a parallel between Barr’s remarks and what Los Angeles Police Chief William Parker had to say during a speech in 1964, when he asserted, “The law applies to everyone, and no one is permitted to violate it regardless of what their excuses are. Detractors of the police establishment seized upon the cry of ‘police brutality’ as their most effective tool.” Continue reading