Deadliest Year Ever for US Cops

Image: Kelly McCArathy

With a month yet to go in 2021, this year has already proven to be the deadliest for U.S. police officers in the country’s history. As of Tuesday, according to the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) — the oldest and largest police union in the United States — 314 police officers were shot in the line of duty so far this year — 58 of them were killed.

That already tops the 312 police officers shot and 47 killed in 2020 and is a big jump over the pre-BLM riots year of 2019 when 293 cops were shot and 50 killed.

“We are on pace this year to see the highest number of officers shot in the line of duty in one year ever recorded,” FOP president Patrick Yoes said in a Wednesday statement.

“We’ve already had more officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire this year than any other — and there is still one month left.”

Most disturbing in the FOP’s report is the number of officers targeted for cold-blooded murder. There were reportedly 95 ambush-style attacks so far in 2021 – a 126% increase compared to 2020. These ambushes shot 119 officers and killed 28.

And the FOP president knows who is to blame, reports Fox News:

“There is no doubt that the recent erosion of respect for law enforcement has fueled more aggression towards police officers than what has been seen in previous years,” Yoes continued. “As violence continues to be aimed at law enforcement, our officers continue to show up every day to keep the communities they serve safe. These men and women run toward danger to protect the public when everyone else is running away.”

As the anti-police riots by BLM shook then streets of major U.S. cities, violent crime rose in major cities across the U.S. in 2020. Efforts to defund the police and focus on so-called ‘community-led’ policing efforts have only made violent crime and violence against police worse.

FOP president Yoes has one solution. As reported by Fox, he is calling on Congress to “address the terrible violence targeting our law enforcement officers and pass the ‘Protect and Serve Act’ to better protect the brave men and women who wear the badge and send a clear message to those who would seek to do them harm.”

This timely bill would make it a federal crime to knowingly cause or attempt to cause injury to an officer. It was introduced by more than a dozen Senate Republicans earlier this year. ADN

By Paul Crespo, Managing Editor of American Defense News. A defense and national security expert, he served as a Marine Corps officer and as a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at US embassies worldwide. Paul holds degrees from Georgetown, London, and Cambridge Universities. He is also CEO of SPECTRE Global Risk, a security advisory firm, and President of the Center for American Defense Studies, a national security think tank. Reproduced with permission. Original here.