Hundreds line McHenry in Modesto to show support for law enforcement
A second rally organized by Back the Badge California, a group founded by a Stanislaus County native, was held in Modesto on Sunday morning. Its first was held in late June in Turlock.
The rally was scheduled to last until noon. By 10 a.m., the end of its first hour, easily a couple of hundred people lined the sidewalks of McHenry Avenue from Briggsmore Avenue to just north of Tokay Avenue.
Signs and flags carried by participants bore messages including “Defend the police,” “Police lives matter,” “We got your six” and “Law & order.”
Brentwood resident Katherine Morgan’s sign read, “I will never apologize for supporting the thin blue line.” Her husband, sitting nearby in their car as she stood in a shady spot on the sidewalk, is a law enforcement officer in Stanislaus County.
She said she works with Back the Badge California to help raise awareness and educate communities that law enforcement is a good and necessary thing, and that officers by and large are caring people who shouldn’t be “labeled and lumped into categories that unfortunately society is putting them in right now.”
She said her husband, like his colleagues, hears the calls to defund police and the accusations of systemic racism in law enforcement and tries to understand all sides. “But it’s irrelevant in the sense of doing his job,” she said. “Whether you are opposed to law enforcement or support law enforcement, he’s going to be there for you 110 percent. When you pick up the phone and dial 911, he doesn’t care if you have negative feelings, he’s going to do his job, he’s going to be there for you.”
Her husband, who asked not to be identified, said he hopes and believes that deep down, people realize that 99 percent of police officers are good people. When cops make mistakes and commit crimes, they should be held accountable, and he believes they are, he said, “probably to a higher standard than the average person. Their trials are put on blast, they’re very public, their families get ridiculed and criticized on social media.”
Those rallying lining both sides of McHenry received scores of horn honks and occasional shouts of support including “God bless you.” They in turned cheered the honking drivers and the Modesto Police Department bicycle officers who would pedal by as they covered the gathering.
There was almost no open hostility toward the group. From one car that drove by in the 9 a.m. hour, a young woman leaned out from a window, raised her middle finger and repeatedly shouted, “F--- ‘em.”
Few in the rally crowd wore masks to protect against the novel coronavirus, and social distancing was practiced well by some, but not at all by others. Back the Badge founder Jacob Shockley, an Atwater resident, said he recommended but did not require masks, and asked people to “spread out” along McHenry.
He said he’s planning many more rallies and moving them north, as far as Sacramento. The gatherings are important because law enforcement is under attack in this county, which has morale really down right now, Shockley said, “and they see this and it builds them up.”
While others call for defunding the police, Back the Badge is all about defending them, he said. “If the police are gone, who’s going to police our streets? Social workers? That’s not going to work.”
Political views went arm in arm with blue-line flags at the rally as a number of people wore President Donald Trump attire. There was a Trump 2020 booth, a Ted Howze for Congress booth and a booth to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Support for law enforcement definitely has become a political issue, Shockley said. “We need people like Ted Howze who back law enforcement. President Trump’s the only president who’s really backed law enforcement.” He said he’ll be taking more political stances because this country and this state need leaders who will back law enforcement, not defund it.
This story was originally published August 9, 2020 at 1:14 PM.
