Law enforcement authorities are facing questions and criticism over how much time elapsed before police put a stop to the rampage by a gunman who killed 19 children and two adults.
But one media pundit assessed the reports and offered a really bizarre excuse: for police officers, the risk wasn’t worth the “reward.”
Jason Whitlock, a former ESPN journalist who now works for conservative outlet The Blaze, shared a take in response to a tweet by right-wing disinformation peddler Jack Posobiec, who wondered why “armed Texans” didn’t go after the gunman.
Whitlock said he wasn’t defending the police, but claimed that America has “demonized law enforcement to the point that there are far fewer rewards for being a hero, for taking risks.”
“When your culture makes George Floyd the hero, real heroes stand down. Cultural rot has consequences,” he added. Floyd, a Black Minneapolis resident who was murdered by Officer Derek Chauvin during an arrest in 2020, became a symbol in nationwide protests against police brutality toward people of color.
Whitlock’s theory fired up a lot of Twitter users, many of whom were happy to point out the flaws in the argument.