When Vietnam veterans returned home, many were bewildered and devastated by the greeting they received. Instead of gratitude, they were met with hostility — spat on, cursed at and ridiculed. Some were denied meals in restaurants, barred from parades and treated with suspicion. Many carried physical wounds and psychological scars, only to be further traumatized by the contempt of the very people they had served. The silence of those who should have spoken out compounded the damage. That era left us a painful lesson: A society that humiliates its own defenders wounds itself. Today, those shameful acts are being repeated — this time against law enforcement officers and National Guard soldiers. Cops are the new Vietnam veterans.
It is important to note that Vietnam veterans did not set the nation’s policy, choose their mission or determine their future. They carried out the assignments their government required, yet became symbolic punching bags for public anger. Too many Americans failed to separate opposition to the war from treatment of the warrior. That injustice is now widely acknowledged as one of our country’s great moral failings.
Today, we see the same injustice directed at law enforcement. Last month, former Justice Department employee Sean Charles Dunn threw a Subway sandwich at a federal officer in Washington, D.C., after screaming inches from his face. The assault was mocked online, turned into memes and T-shirts and celebrated as a joke. Few expressed compassion for the officer. Somehow, this behavior was seen as acceptable.
Dunn’s act was not isolated. Another former Justice Department employee, Elizabeth Baxter, cursed at a National Guard soldier at a Metro station. A man in Long Island filmed himself urinating on a police car. In San Francisco, a group assaulted and threatened to stab federal officers. Since the murder of George Floyd, ridicule and exclusion have escalated — from denial of service at restaurants, to exclusion from community events, to the New York City Pride parade banning police since 2021. Some churches have even posted signs declaring officers unwelcome. These actions mirror the humiliations Vietnam veterans endured.
The hostility against police is not only persistent but growing. Officers have been assaulted in demonstrations from Portland to Los Angeles to D.C. CBS News reports ambush attacks on police have risen 60% since 2018. Just last week, three officers in York County, Pennsylvania, were murdered. Yet outrage outside law enforcement circles remains muted. Silence echoes once again.
How did we get here? In part, police have become shorthand for broader frustrations with politics, public safety or government itself. Social media accelerates this problem, rewarding the cruelest treatment of officers with attention, clicks and merchandise. What might once have been a passing insult now becomes a viral spectacle, applauded by thousands. This cycle not only normalizes demeaning behavior — it celebrates it.
Like Vietnam veterans before them, law enforcement officers and National Guard soldiers today are public servants carrying out missions shaped by elected leaders. They do not set the political agenda; they work within it. It is profoundly unfair — and hypocritical — to demean or attack those who wear the uniform, even as one debates or protests the policies that guide their deployment.
Sir Robert Peel, founder of modern policing, wrote that “the police are the public and the public are the police.” Officers are not strangers; they are neighbors, family members and fellow community members. When protesters humiliate, curse or assault them, they are not striking a blow against power. They are tearing at our own civic fabric, sowing distrust and undermining their own cause.
This is not an argument against protest. Protest is vital to democracy. But it should be directed at laws, policies and leaders — not at the men and women tasked with enforcing them. Mocking or assaulting cops is not principled dissent; it is cruelty disguised as conviction. True protest should target policymakers and executives, not neighbors in uniform.
Those focused on demeaning officers should consider the long-term costs. Just as many Vietnam veterans withdrew into isolation, today’s officers risk becoming alienated from the public they serve. That erosion of trust makes communities less safe, dialogue less likely and reconciliation more difficult. The cycle of hostility will continue — unless we choose to break it.
We must not forget the disgrace of how Vietnam veterans were treated. We cannot allow that mistake to be repeated. Police are the public, and the public are the police. They are our neighbors. Our communities cannot afford to let today’s cops become tomorrow’s Vietnam veterans. Treat those in law enforcement and the National Guard with respect, not ridicule — because in the end, they are not the enemy. They are us.
Joshua Ederheimer is an assistant professor of practice at the University of Virginia’s Center for Public Safety and Justice. He is a former senior law enforcement official with Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
