Legal experts trash Bill Barr’s 'despicable' threat to strip communities of police protection for disrespecting cops

This week, during a meeting with police officers and prosecutors, Attorney General William Barr suggested that "communities" that choose to protest police brutality and racial bias incidents by law enforcement could "lose the police protection they need" — a remark that sounded strongly like a threat to criminal justice and civil rights activists, and the towns they live in.

Barr's remarks were roundly condemned by multiple legal experts, including several former federal prosecutors, on Wednesday, who noted that in addition to playing politics with public safety and threatening freedom of speech and assembly, Barr may not actually have the authority to follow through on such a threat: