Though right-wing commentators continue to decry the ‘war on cops,’ the latest data released by the country’s top law enforcement undermines that alarmist narrative.
According to the FBI’s annual Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted report, released this week, there were fewer police deaths in 2017 than in 2016. In 2016, 118 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty while in 2017, that number was 93.
More telling is the type of death the officers suffered. Last year, 46 officers were killed “feloniously” on the job while 47 died in accidents. As the FBI’s press release noted, “Both numbers have decreased from 2016, during which 66 officers were feloniously killed and 52 were accidentally killed, for a total of 118 line-of-duty deaths.”
The data is collected from “local, state, tribal, campus, and federal law enforcement agencies from around the country, as well as organizations that track officer deaths.”
A closer look at the statistics reveals further just how nonexistent the war on cops actually is. Of the 46 officers feloniously killed on the job, five were ambushed (defined as “entrapment/premeditation” by the FBI) and 3 were victims of unprovoked attacks. Twenty-one died during “investigative or enforcement activities,” which include traffic stops, investigating suspicious persons, or tactical situations.
In other words, they were killed doing the jobs they signed up to do (consider the popular refrain that ‘cops risk their lives’ — that’s part of the job description), though police officer does not even crack the top ten most dangerous jobs in the United States.
The takeaway here is that while some officers die on the job — and that is unfortunate — the deliberate sentiment to kill officers simply because they are police officers is not on the rise.
Thirty-five officers died in car accidents — more than four times the number killed by ambushes and unprovoked attacks (eight) — and according to the FBI, “of the 29 officers killed in automobile accidents, 12 were wearing seatbelts, and 15 were not,” though two of the officers not wearing seatbelts were sitting in parked cars. Regardless, more officers died in car accidents while not wearing seatbelts (a violation of the laws they enforce, as it happens) than died as a result of flagrant attacks on their lives isolated from situational circumstances.
Further, the total number of officers killed by accident far dwarfs the number killed in ambushes or unprovoked attacks, and the total is still greater than all law enforcement deaths recorded in the annual report.
Further still, the number of cops killed feloniously was higher in 2016, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009 than it was last year, suggesting the rate of cop murders is subject to fluctuation and not consistently on the rise.
In another relevant detail, zero federal law enforcement agents were killed in 2017. In 2016, one was killed.
Despite the ongoing claims that police are under assault (as they continue to assault the public) — and despite congressional action to designate killing police officers a hate crime — for yet another year, this war on cops notion is proving to be nothing more than a myth.
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All police states end with the police being dead.
So, they are very correct in stating that their is a war on cops, but they are incorrect in timing and where it is coming from.
For their part, the thin blue line is making all the same errors as just-pre-nazi germany.
Fortunately, with social media and videoing police, civilians are bringing the criminal activities of those dressed in blue to the fore. So, hopefully we can make the system better before the police all die.
My favorite is having police departments paid directly from the communities. And thus, if the community doesn't find them useful, then their funding goes down. And when the people say that 'x' officer is bad, something will happen to 'x' or the entire department will be closed.
I agree with you, however I'm afraid in the not so far future we will have Robo-cops replacing the psychopaths. Some say they are already experimenting with them in Dubai I believe. Then we are truly screwed.
Actually, i believe if they switched to robo-cops, then either things get really good or even better.
Good people hate even the thought of killing another person. Even if they are stealing from you and threatening your life.
But, a robot. That is easy. It is really easy to become us vs them when the object is already dehumanized.
Further, if robots start sending bills for each infraction; littering, jaywalking, etc. The results will be a rapid replacing of all laws to become very succinct and followable. Or, we get an entire population that ignores them. All those fines, are just more junk mail. And even more people will not keep their money in banks.
Further, robotic AI isn't all its cracked up to be. Self driving cars IGNORE bikes, because they cannot anticipate their movement. They also cannot distinguish between a bum and street furniture, and if the bum moves, it freaks out the entire system.
Thus, you will end up with a very fragile system that will be easy to overwhelm.
Nothing like Ed-209. We are no where near that level of expert system programming.
Probably what will happen is that the collateral damage will be so great, that the first tests will be deemed a complete failure.
That is an interesting perspective and I hope you are right. However, if you look what is already happening in China, the picture does not give much reason for optimism. If your social credit rating goes down for whatever reason - like smoking in public places - you lose "privileges". You can not buy a plane ticket for example. Or buys certain items. (like food). You get a simple "transaction denied" from a computer. And there is nobody who will take your complaints. You will not get a ticket in the mail that you can ignore. It will automatically get deducted from your account, like everything else. Once -through the connection of the internet of things - the system will know how much energy you use it will charge you every time you flush the toilet.
This is even easier. You see, the people have to want to stay part of society. When too many are dropped, then all of a sudden, those who follow the rules are on the outside.
When everything is criminalized, then everyone becomes criminals.
And then, the govern-cement completely loses.
China already has THOUSANDS of uprising a year.
I admire your attitude, mate. Hope you are right and I am a negative old fart.
I am just being pragmatic.
This stuff has to be normalized with a carrot long before you can use a stick on it.
There is always a black market, unless there is completely free trade.
When over 10% of the population uses the black market, it is no longer black, it is normal.
However, it also becomes very hard for the govern-cement to do anything about it.
When you drive something underground, you have no way of controlling it.
In Hong Kong there are entire stores that disappear when the Feds show up.
The really threatening part about your post is that its a psy-op.
They are trying to make us think that they have this much control over everything.
See, even China is doing it.
When in reality self-driving cars ignore bikes because the program isn't sophisticated enough to plot their potential paths. Bums are recognized as street furniture. And there are things a person can do to make a self driving car crash / freak out.
Facial recognition... everyone has a twin. And people get falsely recognized all the time. It is a very poor system to begin with, made even worse by the crappy photos they have on file. It can't even do a 1/10th of what they make it out to do.
Thus, they are trying desperately to make us feel they are watching our every move and will crack down on us whenever they want. Its a psyop to get us to self regulate. And that is scary.