(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) In a year that saw radical leftist elites and woke-washed politicians wailing about the need to defund police departments, an appallingly high number of law enforcement officers were shot and killed in the line of duty.
Sixty police officers, across 45 states, were killed in gunfire from Jan. 1 to Dec. 3 according to records from the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the Officer Down Memorial Page, reported Breitbart news.
That represented a nearly 28 percent increase in fatal shootings of officers compared to all of 2020 when 47 officers were shot and killed.
And the damage wasn’t limited to only officers who died from gunfire. As of the end of November, FOP records showed that 314 police officers had been shot since the beginning of the year.
Equally disturbing, ambush attacks on officers have increased nearly 130 percent since 2020. In fact, of the 314 officers shot, 119 of the shootings occurred in the midst of 95 cowardly ambush-style attacks. That accounted for 28 of the total gunfire deaths.
“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,” NFOP president Patrick Yoes told Fox News.
In response to the carnage and deaths, leftist politicians have not only bowed to pressure from radical rioters like Black Lives Matter and their demands to defund the police, they have also increasingly implemented disastrous so-called bail reforms.
Those measures have included the elimination of cash bail with the predictable result of releasing a wave of repeat offenders and suspects charged with serious crimes.
In turn, states like New York, California, and Illinois, reported Breitbart, have all seen a significant spike in the number of repeat violent criminals who are back on the streets within hours of committing crimes.
All of which has been enabled and abetted by the anti-police, anti-law- and- order sentiment of the radical left.
“Defunding the police means defunding the police,” bemoaned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, when she criticized slashing only $1.85B from the New York Police Department.
And while police were getting ambushed and shot in the streets, socialist Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman offered this perspective.
“Too many police in our country are more concerned with protecting white supremacy,” he said, “than serving the communities that pay their salaries.”
