Demetrick Pennie

Demetrick Pennie is a Dallas police sergeant and law enforcement advocate. He currently heads the Dallas Fallen Officer Foundation and the Texas Fallen Officer Foundation and has sued Black Lives Matter and others for allegedly inciting violence against law enforcement.
Life & education
Pennie has been with the Dallas Police Department since 1999. He entered the U.S. Army at the age of 17 and served 4 years. He received a bachelor's degree with a focus in criminal justice from Midwestern State University and a master's degree from Prairie View A&M University. In 2017, he received a Ph.D. from Texas Tech University.
Pennie grew up in inner-city Houston, Texas. He describes on his website how when he was 16, his cousin was shot and killed days before her wedding. While his family was cautious in cooperating with police, Pennie says he was impressed with how well they conducted themselves and that they were able to catch the perpetrator. This inspired him to pursue law enforcement as a profession.
Pennie has appeared in several television and radio interviews and is featured regularly on Fox Business on matters related to law enforcement.
Lawsuits
On September 16, 2016, Sgt. Pennie, represented by attorney Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, filed a lawsuit in federal court against Louis Farrakhan, Nation Of Islam, Al Sharpton, National Action Network, Black Lives Matter, Rashad Turner, Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, Deray Mckesson, Johnetta Elzie, New Black Panthers Party, Malik Zulu Shabazz, George Soros, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Hillary Clinton, seeking damages in excess of $500 million, after a number of police officers nationwide where killed in random acts of violence. The lawsuit claims the defendants "have repeatedly incited their supporters and others to engage in threats of and attacks to cause serious bodily injury or death upon police officers and other law enforcement persons." In June 2017, a federal district court dismissed the lawsuit.
Pennie also sued Twitter, Facebook, and Google for allegedly providing social media accounts to members of the Palestinian group Hamas. His lawyer, Keith Altman, argued that these companies "profit from terrorist postings and create new content when they combine postings with advertisements targeted at specific viewers." Sgt. Pennie has been highly critical of these platforms and has said they are not doing enough to regulate radical content.
Community outreach
Pennie has been praised for his acts of "community policing," where officers reach out to the public in various ways. After Isaiah Crowell of the Cleveland Browns posted on Instagram a cartoon image of an officer being killed in an ISIS-style execution, Pennie responded by inviting Crowell to attend the funeral of officer Patrick Zamarripa, which Crowell agreed to do, and to spend the day with him and fellow officers.

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