AMAC Exclusive – By Andrew Abbott
According to a recent report released by the Fraternal Order of Police, as of February 1, 34 police officers have been shot in the line of duty so far this year, resulting in three deaths. Most concerningly, 9 of those 34 officers were shot in “ambush-style” attacks in which the clear intent was to murder the police officers in cold blood.
Yet even as most elected Democrats have now retreated from their prior open embrace of the “Defund the Police” movement and blatant anti-police rhetoric, they have shown a reluctance to take action to address these attacks, or even to punish the offenders more severely.
The 34 police officers shot so far in 2023 represent an 89% increase from the same time period in 2021 and a 113% increase from 2020. In total, 2020, 2021, and 2022 were some of the most dangerous years for police in recent history, with 331, 346, and 312 officers shot in the line of duty, respectively.
More than 175 officers have been killed in the line of duty since the start of 2020. The report notes that these numbers do not include incidents where police were shot at but not injured.
For more than a decade, police advocacy groups have been concerned about the ongoing rise in “ambush attacks” specifically. By one estimate, as many as 200 ambush attacks occurred in 2013. A study covering the years 2010-2016 found that 20 percent of these attacks were on cops seated in patrol cars, and 56 percent were “not on a call or engaged in any enforcement activity. Many of these officers were simply eating, sitting on post, or in five cases, targeted and killed while at their home or on their way home.”
The rise in ambushes has led to police maintaining a more aggressive and defensive posture, even when not on duty.
Ambush-style attacks increased following the death of George Floyd in 2020, a time period that saw the rise of the “Defund the Police” movement and the left’s sweeping demonization of police officers. FBI data shows that 2021 marked a 20-year high in intentional killings of law enforcement – surpassing the high water mark set in 2001, the year of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. 2022 was another deadly year for cops, with many police chiefs around the country sounding off on the rise of violence targeted at their ever-dwindling police force.
Despite this, most Democrats have been reluctant to call for stronger protections for local police forces, even as many distance themselves from their prior open disdain for law enforcement.
While President Joe Biden has been careful to avoid any direct association with the “Defund the Police” movement, he has also made little effort to tamp down hostility toward police.
At an event in Washington, D.C., in January, Biden insisted that “we have to retrain cops,” implying that police officers habitually make unnecessary use of deadly force – a favorite line of the “Defund” movement. “The fact is if you need to use your weapon, you don’t have to do that,” Biden said. The president also implied during his State of the Union Address in February that racial minorities should be afraid of police officers, adding more fuel to the anti-police fire.
Many congressional Democrats have also continued to call for more restrictions on police, something law enforcement groups say would be devastating for officers already being targeted by violent criminals. Although Biden already banned choke holds and no-knock warrants via executive order last year, the Congressional Black Caucus has also called on the White House to force through additional measures like the end of qualified immunity for officers.
The media has piled on to the anti-police rhetoric as well, most recently using the death of Tyre Nichols, a Black man, at the hands of five Black police officers to bizarrely argue that American policing is “systemically racist.” Mainstream networks and newsrooms have also conspicuously avoided any mention of the national rise in violence against police.
Republicans, meanwhile, have called for more protections for police officers in the wake of the ongoing wave of violence against them. Earlier this month, Senators Mike Braun (R-IN) and John Kennedy (R-LA) reintroduced the Thin Blue Line Act, a law which increases punishments for attacking or killing local police officers to be in line with punishments for attacking a federal officer. The measure would make killing, attempting to kill, or intentionally targeting local law enforcement officers an “aggravating factor in favor of maximum sentences, including capital punishment.” However, the bill has drawn virtually no support from Democrats, another sign that anti-police sentiment still holds great sway within the party.
Democrats once again appear to be heading down the path of favoring criminals over cops and putting false notions of “racial equity” ahead of public safety. Yet just as has been the case in the past, they may once again find themselves on the receiving end of public ire once the predictably disastrous results of such policies come to pass.
Andrew Abbott is the pen name of a writer and public affairs consultant with over a decade of experience in DC at the intersection of politics and culture.
