The war against the cops

 Blaze Media:

Anti-police sentiment remains a major problem in America, several past and present members of law enforcement told Blaze News, despite waning support for the "defund the police" movement and the impending second term of President-elect Donald Trump, who has long been seen as a friend to law enforcement.

While the number of officers killed in the line of duty has dipped in the last couple years, the number skyrocketed in the aftermath of the May 2020 death of George Floyd, the re-emergence of Black Lives Matter, and the calls from Democrats and activists across the country to defund police departments.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a police nonprofit, an alarming 722 officers died in connection with their professional responsibilities in 2020, though that number includes 285 officers who died from COVID-19.

Thankfully, the total number of duty-related blue deaths dwindled to just 137 in 2024, the lowest number recorded at ODMP in the last 10 years.

Though police fatalities are down overall, verbal and physical attacks on police continue in earnest. In fact, the number of gun-related officer deaths has remained fairly consistent over the last decade, averaging about 57 per year and reaching a high of 63 in 2021 and 2022.

And that number includes only those who lost their lives on account of their injuries. It notably does not include those who were wounded but survived, according to Officer Dave Goitia, a 23-year veteran who recently made the switch to full-time labor work as president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Glendale and the second vice president of the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police.

"The numbers of police officers who are shot in the line of duty, for example ... has been rising pretty significantly over the past four years," Goitia told Blaze News. "It doesn't necessarily mean that they were killed, but just the number of shots has been on the rise."
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As a lawyer who prosecuted criminals, I worked with many officers and had a high regard for their work and integrity.  It can be a dangerous job and they deserve our support for doing it.