The conservative blogosphere is lighting up with descriptions and videos of a Florida Sheriff’s comments about how he and his deputies would not hesitate to shoot anyone who points a gun at them.

For the high-testosterone, low I.Q. crowd these remarks were a Trump-like F.U. to political correctness and anyone who has been critical of law enforcement officers lately.For the rest of us, a sheriff saying that his officers would shoot anyone pointing a gun at them is just common sense.Any police officer in the habit of not shooting people who point guns at them is very probably in the wrong profession. Obviously, police officers have a right to shoot someone who points a gun at them.No one in their right mind would ever deny that and none of the recent protests and criticisms of police officers for using excessive force or for other abuses of power are related to such an incident.

That the conservative outrage machine would try to spin this sheriff's commonsense assertion as some sort of political victory against criminal loving liberals isn’t surprising or particularly alarming.However, the fact that the sheriff who made this non-controversial, common sense assertion also seems to believe he was scoring political points against liberal critics of law enforcement IS alarming.Sheriff Grady Judd is 100% right to make clear that lethal force is justified to repeal lethal force (i.e. a pointed gun), but his comments about “political correctness” were stupid, and more importantly, highly unprofessional. When politicians are stupid and unprofessional it’s sad, but when the government officials with the tools and legal authority to kill people say stupid and unprofessional things we are courting real trouble.

In recent months the number of police officers killed on duty seems to have spiked. This is a VERY frightening development. The personal freedom that is every American’s birthright is greatly endangered when respect for sworn law officers is eroded. Videos of bad cops doing bad things have and will be an important tool for achieving necessary reforms in American policing, but they may also embolden those who want to weaken or even kill the police. They may also provoke irresponsible conduct and rhetoric from lawful protesters against the kind of police brutality these videos depict, which also could help motivate those who want to hurt police officers, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that all constitutionally permissible irresponsible rhetoric is not equally irresponsible; nor equally condemnable. By a very long shot, the most dangerous kind of irresponsible rhetoric or posturing is saber rattling of government officials who have guns and the legal authority to use them.  We haven't seen much of this from military leaders in the US lately but unfortunately the same cannot be said of law enforcement professionals. When cops boast, bluster, or ape the rhetoric of wingnut talk radio, the danger to public order is infinitely greater than when a pundit, politician or protester does so. Rush Limbaugh and Al Sharpton are professional entertainers and political hacks, not moral, political, or even rhetorical exemplars. Like it or not, police officers occupy a station in our society too critical for them to be cavalier about the exercise of their First Amendment rights. Like it or not, if cops aren’t moral exemplars the credibility of law enforcement is damaged.Reduced credibility translates into reduced respect, and if unaddressed, into reduced legitimacy. “Do as I say, not as I do” is dumb in most contexts, but for law enforcement officials it is extremely dangerous as well.

Any police officer willing to publicly attack those engaged in lawful criticism of policing practice or who conflates lawful and unlawful criticisms of policing does not deserve respect. Though neither the pay nor the social status of the job reflects it, a safe, civil, and free society requires highly intelligent and emotionally mature law enforcement personnel. When police are not sufficiently professional, people die unnecessarily and the public’s confidence in the rule of law is strained.

The Polk County Sheriff’s department did a fine job apprehending dangerous criminals yesterday, too bad Sheriff Judd’s undisciplined rhetoric and political posturing gave aid and comfort to those whose fear mongering efforts to pit police and white working class people against minorities and liberals is contributing mightily to a serious credibility problem for American law enforcement professionals. The revelation that the Massachusetts officer who said he crashed his cruiser after it was shot at actually fabricated the whole story takes on much greater significance in the present political environment. He used the politicization of the recent attacks on police to cover up his incompetence. Bad public relations isn’t useful for anybody (except maybe Donald Trump), but for police professionals, it’s actually dangerous.

All police professionals should distance themselves from efforts to mobilize police officers for partisan political combat. The folks manipulating cops and supporters of law enforcement for partisan political gain aren’t the ones whose personal safety depends on the respect of strangers.