Guest Post by Carey Wedler
(ANTIMEDIA) Throughout the United States, Americans believe there is a “war on police.” A recent survey found 58% of Americans agree with this sentiment. A new, privately-funded billboard campaign hijacks the “Black Lives Matter” moniker to read “Blue Lives Matter,” highlighting powerful pushback from law enforcement sympathizers against activists.
The FBI’s 2014 report, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA), released this week, appears to support the notion that police officers are in danger and unduly targeted. The number of officers killed by individuals committing “felonious acts” jumped from 27 in 2013 to 51 last year, and police apologists are all but guaranteed to point to this increase as proof their concerns are justified. A deeper examination of the data, however, reveals that police are not only safe, but still running rampant in their liberal use of violence against the citizens they allegedly serve.
In 2013, the FBI reported that 27 police officers were killed in the line of duty. By 2014, according to the new data, that number rose to 51. While this seems like a sharp uptick — in fact, it nearly doubled — the comparison on its own is misleading. Out of 536,119 officers included in the FBI’s 2014 analysis, .0095 percent of the force was killed on the job — less than one percent. While this represents an increase from the .005 percent of officers killed on the job in 2013 — the safest year for police in decades — neither figure signals an unrelenting assault on police officers.
As the Washington Post explained:
Continue reading “New FBI Report Debunks Mythical “War on Police””
