Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren gave a speech over the weekend that gives further mainstream Democrat legitimacy to the radical anti-law enforcement activist group Black Lives Matter.
Predictably, liberal pundits ate it up. “Elizabeth Warren just gave the speech that Black Lives Matter activists have been waiting for” raved the Washington Post. Prachi Gupta at Comsopolitan wrote “Elizabeth Warren’s Speech in Support of Black Lives Matter Should Be Required Reading.”
This is correct, although not for the reason Ms. Gupta thinks. As shown by the repeatedly debunked “Clock Boy” story, 2015 has become the season of repeated falsehoods used by the left for political gain. It’s a trend that was started in force with Black Lives Matter and with Warren’s speech, we have the spectacle of a sitting United States Senator drawing high praise for repeating anti-police falsehoods. Sen. Warren pays some lip service to law enforcement:
Consider law enforcement. The vast majority of police officers sign up so they can protect their communities. They are part of an honorable profession that takes risks every day to keep us safe. We know that.
It’s unclear who Warren means by “we” when she says “we know that” law enforcement is an honorable profession, but it doesn’t seem like she’s referring the Black Lives Matter protesters who keep chanting “Pigs in a blanket! Fry ‘em like bacon!” after the murders of police officers.
Immediately, though, Warren drinks deep at the well of deception perpetrated by Black Lives Matter:
But we also know – and say – the names of those whose lives have been treated with callous indifference. Sandra Bland. Freddie Gray. Michael Brown.
The Bland, Brown, and Gray cases have been shown to be riddled with falsehoods and outright fabrications but have pushed by Black Lives Matter over and over. Warren wastes no time in doubling down on the lies in her speech.
Listen to the brave, powerful voices of today’s new generation of civil rights leaders. Incredible voices. Listen to them say: “If I die in police custody, know that I did not commit suicide.” Watch them march through the streets, “hands up don’t shoot” – not to incite a riot, but to fight for their lives.
Even the Washington Post is forced to acknowledge this, although in backhanded way. WaPo reporter Wesley Lowery writes:
At times, Warren’s speech read as if it could have been authored by the activists themselves — unyielding in its criticism of police violence and even invoking the phrase “hands up, don’t shoot,” a Ferguson rallying cry that conservatives have attacked as a lie because the Justice Department concluded that Michael Brown’s hands were most likely not up in the air when he was shot and killed by Darren Wilson.
Lowery’s trick there is to try to play it as though the fact that “hands up, don’t shoot” was a lie is merely a conservative talking point, while still acknowledging that Eric Holder’s Department of Justice came to the same conclusion. It’s an impressive feat of journalistic gymnastics.
Here’s the speech in its entirety: