“I can’t help but think that the Trump administration’s refusal to capitulate to the identity politics and victimhood culture that was cheered on by the Obama administration is resulting in less mobilization of anti-police factions and less justification of violence against police.”
Is it just me, or has there been a lot less “hands up, don’t shoot” talk lately? Just a few months ago, our national consciousness was still focused on burning cities and widespread ambush-style attacks on law enforcement officers surpassing levels not seen for decades. Now fast forward to April of 2017 and there is a real sense that we have turned the page. Instead of the killer-cop narrative dominating the national headlines, the media seems to be pouring gasoline on other fires.
With the majority of the histrionics and venom-spewing now focused on people who remain wary of refugees from terror-prone countries, I don’t miss getting the lion’s share of it directed at me as an officer. With all the talk of President Trump secretly working for the Russian Motherland, the Democrats being accused of wiretapping their political enemies, and WikiLeaks reminding us why we should put a small piece of tape over the camera on our smart TVs, there’s just not that much room left in the spotlight for poor Mr. McKesson and his band of idiots. It is no wonder, then, that these professional victims have taken their show to North Dakota to join the protests at Standing Rock because of unity…or something. My guess is that BLM is diversifying the old victimhood portfolio in order to justify their existence with all that George Soros money coming in. Spend it or lose it, right DeRay?
With that being said, let’s look at the first quarter statistics for line of duty deaths in 2017 and see if there are any relevant trends. As of March 24, the total number of deaths sits at 29. This number is up 4% compared to where it was at this point in 2016—but all statistics are not created equal. There is a very different story to tell when the numbers are broken down properly.
The number one factor responsible for our current year’s police-related death toll keeping pace with 2016 is this—automobile-related deaths are up 38% and account for 11 of the blue lives lost in the past three months. These events range from fatal automobile and motorcycle accidents to hit-and-runs and fatal collisions occurring during high-speed pursuits. Police officers spend anywhere from eight to twelve hours in their vehicles per day, depending on their shift structure. This does not account for commute time, overtime, or late calls. Adding my commute time to the maximum number of hours I’m allowed to work for my department, I could be in the car upwards of eighteen hours straight. I’ve done it before, and I’m sure I’ll do it again. New seminars, classes, and departmental work rules are introduced every year, but the number of vehicle-related deaths has been very difficult to decrease.
In addition to vehicle-related fatalities, there were three officers to succumb to cancer diagnosed as a result of inhaling toxic materials during search and rescue following the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11. Another three officers sustained fatal heart attacks on duty in the first three months of 2017. Two officers died during rescue attempts. Of the two, one drowned trying to save a suicidal woman when he was swept into a river. The woman survived. The other died of exposure to liquid nitrogen fumes in a healthcare facility while attempting to save the life of an employee. The 33-year veteran policeman had previously survived a gunshot wound to the face back in 2004.
To round out the list, nine officers ended their watch by gunfire, and one was beaten to death during a prison riot. There was also one K-9 death as a result of being shot. While a single officer killed in the line of duty by gunfire is one too many, blue gunfire deaths are down 36% so far this year—and it is a welcome statistic. Of the nine officers shot, not a single one was ambushed, but rather attempting to investigate criminal activity or effect an arrest. Why is that?
I won’t put all my eggs in one basket here, but I tend to believe that the election of Donald Trump as our 45th president plays at least some part in the reduced number of police officers killed in cold blood. I’ve written extensively about the stark contrast in messaging disseminated by the current and former administrations in Standing Up for Our Law Enforcement Community, Who Will Cops Vote for in 2016?, and President Obama’s Goodbye Present to Cops, just to name a few. Whether it comes from the alpha-male in a group of friends or the president of the United States, the message a leader sends sets the tone for everyone. I can’t help but think that the Trump administration’s refusal to capitulate to the identity politics and victimhood culture that was cheered on by the Obama administration is resulting in less mobilization of anti-police factions and less justification of violence against police.
For example, a new documentary about the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson was released a few weeks ago. The doc reopened 2015s wounds and has inevitably led to more rioting, and a Ferguson officer paid for it when one rioter broke his nose. Under the Obama administration, I can all but guarantee there would have been a statement from the White House that would have said something about “peaceful protest” and ultimately lead to around-the-clock press coverage.
How many times did the presidential condoning of these activities empower them to grow both in the city of an officer-involved shooting and well beyond? Protesting brings rioting, and rioting begets police ambushes. We’ve seen this natural progression in Dallas, New York City, Baton Rouge, Ferguson, and the list goes on—and it all happened at the height of Black Lives Matter’s momentum under the Obama administration.
The moral of the story here is that policing is and always will be a dangerous job, but the culture of our society will ultimately determine just how dangerous the job has to be. If the public is fed a steady diet of anti-police rhetoric for the purpose of cable news ratings, political agendas, or reasons even more nefarious, attacks on police will be more numerous as a result. At first glance, the tally of on-duty fatalities would seem to indicate that the national attitude has not changed. Digging a little bit deeper into the statistics suggests otherwise.
It’s still too early to say for sure whether the decreased violence against police officers over the past three months has been a coincidence or the beginning of a trend, but the timing of this new data is reason to be optimistic. There was a persistent feeling in the law enforcement community in March last year that we were under siege as new reports of officers being on the wrong end of a gun surfaced every few days. Given that there have been zero ambush-related police deaths in the first quarter of 2017, the Trump administration may be onto something by “standing up for our law enforcement community.” Imagine that.
