Yes, there is a war on police: Column The new breed of high-tech anti-police protesters are deadly serious.

Dan Gainor | USATODAY

The murder of two New York policemen shouldn't surprise anyone. We've been watching liberal protesters war against police since the rise of Occupy Wall Street three years ago.

The #Shutitdown protests are filled with the same hateful rhetoric against police, spitting, curses and violence as they invade malls and block highways . If police respond, they are videotaped, photographed and lambasted on social media and left-wing websites. Only a week before the killings, protesters marched in New York chanting, "What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!"

The same sentiment spread on Twitter as some were gleeful about the murders. One asked: "Am I the only one happy about this breaking news 2 cops getting shot"? She wasn't. The hashtag #F---12 overflowed with hate for #pigpolice.

Now, many protesters, like White House favorite and MSNBC host Al Sharpton, claim they aren't anti-police, they are pro-justice.

They lie.

Union organizer Robert Murray was "arraigned on charges of assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, rioting and obstruction" for an attack on two New York police lieutenants during one "justice" protest two weeks ago, according to CBS. Two Bronx public defenders appeared in a rap video with the lyrics, "For Mike Brown and Sean Bell, a cop got to get killed." In Philadelphia, a paramedic posted a photo showing two black men pointing a gun at a police officer and describing police as "our real enemy."

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Protesters marked Black Friday in San Francisco with vandalism and confrontations. One held a camera in front of a police officer and said "F--- you" nine times just inches away. When that didn't work, he physically jarred the officer to provoke an arrest.

Flashback to fall 2011 when Occupy Wall Street appeared. The movement called for "revolution" and deliberately provoked police. One founder admitted OWS was created by "anarchists" and had a strategy of "refusing to accept the legitimacy of the existing legal order."

The result was predictable. There have been more than 7,700 hundred Occupiers arrested for everything from trespassing to an attempted bombing. Rioting, arson and sex crimes were part of the little-told story of the movement.

Liberals are still outraged that Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen was injured at an Occupy Oakland protest. However, left-wing magazine Mother Jones admitted protesters initiated the violence. Writer James West said some protesters instigated a confrontation . "At the height of this melee, I saw two men throw bottles at the police," he explained.

Instigation of police is commonplace at protests. In San Diego, two Occupy "press" members cursed and threatened police with calls to "dox" specific officers. That's where hackers release private information including credit card numbers, phone numbers and addresses. It was used on NYPD officer police officer Anthony Bologna and his family after he pepper sprayed protesters.

Hating police isn't new. The N.W.A. song "F--- tha Police" came out in 1989 and is #425 on Rolling Stone's top 500 songs. Ice-T and his band Body Count followed it in 1992 with "Cop Killer."

No one claims police are angels. We ask 780,000 police to keep order in a nation of 317 million. Problems, abuse and even unwarranted killings are virtually guaranteed. But this new, high-tech, anti-police culture is deadly serious.

Dan Gainor is the Boone Pickens Fellow and the Media Research Center's vice president for business and culture .

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