Houston Police Union Leader: Media Put ‘Targets on Our Backs’

Joe Gamaldi did not mince words in an appearance on 'Fox & Friends' to discuss the shooting of five officers this week

By Kathryn Blackhurst | January 30, 2019

Houston Police Union president Joe Gamaldi on Wednesday accused the “talking heads on some of these mainstream media outlets” of putting “targets” on police officers’ backs as part of an anti-police narrative.

Gamaldi (pictured above left) made waves this past Monday when he reacted passionately to the despicable shooting of five Houston police officers.

The officers were shot as they were serving warrants.

At the time of Gamaldi’s “Fox & Friends” interview on Fox News on Wednesday morning, the hospital had released two of the officers and was expected to release a third later on Wednesday or Thursday. But two of the officers remain in critical, though stable, condition.

During a press conference on Monday, Gamaldi said police officers “are sick and tired of having targets on our back. We are sick and tired of having dirtbags trying to take our lives when all we are trying to do is protect this community and protect our families. Enough is enough.”

“And if you’re the ones that are out there spreading the rhetoric that police officers are the enemy — well, just know we’ve all got your number now. We’re going to be keeping track of all y’all and we’re going to make sure we hold you accountable every time you stir the pot on our police officers,” Gamaldi warned.

When asked on “Fox and Friends” about those he was accusing, Gamaldi replied, “I’m talking to the talking heads on some of these mainstream media outlets. I’m talking to the activists who have severely just made our officers the enemy. They have put targets on our backs. The statistics show it.”

Gamaldi pointed to statistics showing there has been a 50-percent increase from 2013 to 2016 “in officers being killed by gunfire.”

The police union president pinned some blame on the Ferguson unrest in 2014, after a police officer shot Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American.

“But in the meantime we have been cast as the bad guys. We are sick and tired of it and enough is enough,” Gamaldi said.

Gamaldi suggested the agenda of liberal activists and some mainstream media members is “to reduce police legitimacy and to further drive a wedge between the communities we love.”

“They want to reduce our legitimacy. They want to drive a wedge and we’re not going to let it happen,” Gamaldi said. “We’ve been painted with targets on our backs. We are going out there because we love our community every single day and we want it to stop.”

Related: Five Houston Officers Have Been Shot, Rushed to Hospital

Gamaldi hopes other police officers and union presidents stand up for their officers and speak out against these “harmful narratives” as well.

“And it’s funny, because everybody wants to increase accountability on police officers, which is a good thing and we welcome it. But yet, when I say accountability to talking heads in the media or activists, suddenly it’s a four-letter word and nobody wants to use it,” Gamaldi lamented.

“We are going to hold you accountable. We are going to call you out when you are lying on our officers, and we’re going to call you out when you are trying to drive a wedge between us and our community,” Gamaldi declared. “We are not going to let it happen anymore.”

He was asked about the narrative surrounding highly publicized police shootings of unarmed victims and minority victims. Gamaldi said Washington Post statistics show there is “just a small group” of “minorities that were shot by officers that were unarmed.”

“It’s just the statistics don’t bear it out. The fact of the matter is we’re doing a great job every single day protecting our communities and it’s high time we tell the public that,” Gamaldi said.

Check out more in the video below:

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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