Earlier this week, National Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Cantebury (above) petitioned NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, demanding that the rent-a-cops that shadow the nation’s stadiums during football Sundays be allowed to carry concealed firearms. The Nation’s Dave Zirin argues that Cantebury knew there was zero chance Goodell would capitulate ; “the FOP’s number-one job at the moment is not fighting terror but fighting the perception—seen so clearly in too many cities—that police are off the leash and inflicting lethal force with impunity.”
The FOP is not only using the terror attacks to rehab its image but also to advance the 0 percent gun-restriction agenda of their compatriots in the NRA. (The order would not respond to repeated requests for comment.) It is also exposing the way we view the terror of ISIS versus the terror of living in a country where mass shootings happen with a numbing regularity. The right-wing idea that brandishing a gun represents freedom from tyranny ignores that it creates a new tyranny, a tyranny of the armed against ideas and legal institutions they oppose. Ask people in Colorado Springs or San Bernardino how they would define terror.
Lastly, it is worth noting that in Paris the bomber never entered the stadium because security personnel—some of whom were Arab and Muslim—did their job. Let the security personnel here do the same. As for off-duty police officers, they should not be armed inside NFL games. Hell, after watching that video from Chicago, they should not be armed outside of NFL games either.