The Patriot Post® · More Cops Killed in the Line of Duty — Why?

The FBI released its annual report on law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty Monday, and there are some noteworthy statistics and observations. Some 118 officers were killed in 2016, up 37% from the 86 who died in 2015. More troublesome, however, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions noted in a statement, “We saw a staggering 61 percent increase in the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty because of a felony (66 killed feloniously, up from 41 in 2015), and on average, more than 150 officers were assaulted in the line of duty every single day. These numbers are as shocking as they are unacceptable.” Indeed, that’s a worrisome increase, especially in tandem with the FBI’s crime statistics, which have also risen.

There is one caveat: The number of officers feloniously killed in each of the last 10 years has varied substantially. Beginning in 2007, the numbers are 58, 41, 48, 56, 72, 49, 27, 51, 41 and 66. There don’t seem to be any obvious conclusions to draw from that pattern.

Nevertheless, we’ll make some observations.

Police officers are human and thus have the same tendencies toward abusing power or misbehaving as anyone else. In the age of body cameras and ubiquitous cell phone videos, we’re going to see what seems like more of this from a few bad apples than in years past. Community distrust can then be expected to rise.

But officers are by and large just trying to uphold the law while making it home to their families each night. They deserve our respect and support, not our disdain and protest.

To the latter, Barack Obama’s war on cops has been not only a factually wrong and reprehensible political charade leading to obnoxious public displays like the NFL protests, it has been violent and deadly as inner city thugs channel that hate into rioting and the murder of police officers. If cops aren’t killed, they’re assaulted. No matter what they do, it seems, they’re accused of racism. The result has been what’s dubbed the “Ferguson Effect” — a reduction in policing followed by a substantial rise in crime, particularly in Democrat-run major cities.

While the statistics don’t reveal an indisputable conclusion, we do know that law-abiding citizens don’t kill cops. And the cop-killers do tend to be constituents of one particular political party.

“Every law enforcement officer goes to work knowing that today might be his or her last,” Sessions said. “Our law enforcement deserves the support of the people they serve. Fortunately we have a President who understands this.”