US : 73 POLICE OFFICERS KILLED DURING BIDEN’S FIRST YEAR, SPIKE BLAMED ON BRUTAL KILLING OF FLOYD

PUSH NEWS 24 INTERNATIONAL : February 7th, 2022

More police officers were killed in the line of duty under President Biden’s tenure than in the years prior since 1995, a spike police officers are crediting to rising tensions between the public and law enforcement since the police killing of George Floyd and Biden’s lack of public support for officers.

A total of 73 officers were intentionally killed in the line of duty in 2021, nearly 59 percent more than in 2020 when 46 cops were murdered, according the the FBI’s database on officers killed in action, Push News 24 Community .

The last time the number was higher was in 1995 when 74 officers were intentionally killed on the job, an analysis of the LEOKA data by the Heartland Institute said.

The second highest number of officers intentionally killed on duty was 72 in 2011.

Since then, there were 55 officers murdered in 2012, 27 in 2013, 51 in 2014, 41 in 2015, 66 in 2016, 46 in 2017, 56 in 2018 and 48 in 2019.

Jason Johnson, President of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF) and a 20-year police veteran, blamed the spike in murders to rising tensions between the public and law enforcement officers since the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd.

‘We believe it’s a combination … of the George Floyd protests — riots, if you will; a general feeling of a preference for less law enforcement; and less prosecution and less policing, Johnson told the media.

‘Law enforcement officers have essentially been marginalized and demoralized and cast aside and encouraged now to enforce the law. And so we’ve seen massive jumps in the homicide rate in cities across America​,’ he added.

Johnson added he believes the Biden administration’s ‘actions have shown that they are not supportive of the police.’

‘Until and unless we see some leadership — both in the White House and in individual cities, district attorneys that are willing to hold police accountable when they’re wrong but are willing to support them when they’re right — we’re going to continue to speak up not only with increasing levels of violent crime but increasing numbers of assaults and the killing of law enforcement officers,’ Johnson said.

Officials on killing of police officer in Harlem
Biden visited New York City on Thursday after thousands turned out to mourn NYPD officer Wilbert Mora, 27, who was slain responding to a call in Harlem last month. His partner, Detective Jason Rivera, 22, was also killed in the shooting, 14 months after he joined the department.

‘The answer is not to abandon our streets,’ Biden said, amid an increase in shootings nationwide, and days after two emotional funerals for slain New York City police officers.

‘That’s not the answer. The answer is to come together, police and communities building trust and make us all safer. The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to give you the tools the training the funding to be partners, to be protectors,’ he said

Biden spoke with family members of slain NYPD Officers Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera in advance of his trip ‘to express his heartfelt condolences for their loss,’ according to the White House. He also met Thursday with NYPD Officer Sumit Sulan, the third officer who responded to the domestic violence call.

Also attending was Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland.

‘As I close I want to note, as in times of crises, both large and small the American people look to law enforcement every day like the heroes who are with us today,’ Garland said in his own remarks.

Additional information @ Associate Press, FOX News

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