An “alarming percentage” of police officers murdered in 2021 were killed in ambushes, according to FBI director Christopher Wray.
SO WHAT
America is reaping the harvest of a year’s worth of virulent anti-police rhetoric.
WHAT HAPPENED
Wray responded to a question about the nationwide spike in homicides and cop killings last year during a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday on CBS.
Murders of police officers surged by 59% last year, according to FBI data.
- The FBI chief attributed the rise in violent crime in part to the pandemic and gun trafficking and said, “we’re seeing an alarming frequency of some of the worst of the worst getting back out on the streets.”
- Wray also said violence against American cops “doesn’t get enough attention.
- “Some of it is tied to the violent crime problem as a whole. But one of the phenomena that we saw in the last year is that an alarming percentage of the 73 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty last year were killed through things like being ambushed or shot while out on patrol,” he said. “Wearing the badge shouldn’t make you a target.”
The Fraternal Order of Police in January reported 103 “ambush-style attacks” on officers last year, leading to 130 officers shot and 30 killed.
THE WHY
Widespread anti-police sentiment in the media and beyond increased following George Floyd’s May 2020 death and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
One sign of intensifying anti-law enforcement rhetoric? Google searches for “ACAB,” an acronym meaning “All Cops Are Bastards,” spiked heavily in June 2020.
- Some Democratic lawmakers, such as California Rep. Maxine Waters, have been accused of encouraging hostility toward police.
- In April 2021, Waters told police reform protesters to “get more confrontational,” if former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin was acquitted of Floyd’s murder.
- “We were hated,” Seattle police officer J.D. Smith told Common Sense, in reference to how public opinion about law enforcement turned following Floyd’s death. “We were literally hated overnight.”