A professor at Cypress College in California aggressively challenged a student who referred to law enforcement officers as “heroes.”
During the class, Braden Ellis gave a speech on why “cancel culture” is “so destructive and tearing our country apart.” He told The Daily Wire on Thursday that had he brought up activists who attempted to “cancel” the kid’s cartoon “Paw Patrol” amid growing anti-police rhetoric.
After his presentation, video of the virtual encounter shows the professor dominating the 10-minute question and answer period allotted to each student in order to berate Ellis for his perspective.
“So you brought up the police in your speech a few times. So, what is your main concern? Since, I mean, honestly … the issue is systemic. Because the whole reason we have police departments in the first place, where does it stem from? What’s our history? Going back to what [another classmate] was talking about, what does it stem from? It stems from people in the south wanting to capture runaway slaves,” the professor claims.
Another classmate chimes in, adding that “maybe they shouldn’t be heroes…on a kids’ show.”
Ellis stood his ground, asserting that from his perspective, cops are heroes.
The professor then interrupted Ellis demanding to know if he means “all of [the police are heroes]?”
“I’d say a good majority of them,” Ellis responds. “You have bad people in every business and every —”
Once again, the professor interrupts Ellis mid-response, this time claiming “a lot of police officers have committed atrocious crimes and have gotten away with it.”
“Yes, I understand. This is what I believe … This is not popular to say, but I do support our police. And we have bad people, and the people that do bad things should be brought to justice, I agree with that,” Ellis says, to which the professor immediately interjects with “they haven’t.”
“Well, I agree with you on that point [that] they should,” Ellis says.
“So, what is your bottom line point? You’re saying police officers should be revered? Viewed as heroes? They belong on TV shows [for] children?” the professor asks.
“I think they are heroes in a sense because they come to your need and they come and help you,” Ellis asserts. “They have problems just like every other business, but we should fix that —”
“It’s not a business. I think that’s the problem, is looking at it as a business. Because they’re actually supposed to protect and serve the people,” the professor responds.
“They do protect us,” Ellis states. “Who do we call when we’re in trouble and someone has a knife or a gun?”
The professor then claims she would not call the police if she were in a dangerous situation because “I don’t trust them.”
“My life’s in more danger in their [presence],” she claims, adding that she wouldn’t call anyone.
Ellis told the outlet that he was stunned by the teacher’s reaction to his position on policing in the United States.
“I was shocked to hear her comments about police, but I stood firm in my beliefs,” Ellis said. “We need to fight back against this liberal ideology spreading in our colleges and save America.”
