‘Pandering prosecutors and cynical politicians’ responsible for violence against cops, group says

This year was among the deadliest for police officers, and the National Fraternal Order of Police is blaming “pandering prosecutors and cynical politicians” for the carnage.

The National FOP released a report Wednesday showing that, with just 10 days left in 2022, 323 officers were shot in the line of duty and, of those, 60 died. Those statistics do not include incidents where officers were shot at, but not injured.

In 2022, there were 87 ambush-style attacks on law enforcement, resulting in 124 offices being shot and 31 officers killed, the report said.

The number of officers killed by gunfire is up 23% compared with 2019 and the number of officers shot is up 13% compared to three years ago, the report said.

“This past year has been one of the most dangerous years for law enforcement in recent history due to the increase of violence directed towards law enforcement officers as well as the nationwide crime crisis, which has seen criminals emboldened by the failed policies of pandering prosecutors and cynical politicians. Frankly, it is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 36 years of law enforcement,” FOP President Patrick Yoes wrote in the report.

Although 2022 has had some of the highest attacks on law enforcement in recent memory, it’s still not as bad as 2021, which set the record since the FOP began tracking the data in 2015.

Last year, 346 officers were shot and 63 killed.

“Many will often look at this data and just see numbers. We MUST remember that they represent heroes — fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. Thankfully, because of dramatic improvements in medical trauma science and anti-ballistic technology, the lethality of these attacks would be much greater,” Mr. Yoes wrote.

Mr. Yoes urged Congress to pass legislation that would make it a hate crime to attack, injure or kill a person because of his or her status as a law enforcement officer. The bill, known as the Protect and Serve Act, has received some bipartisan support.

The American Civil Liberties Union and 45 civil rights organizations have opposed the bill, saying that federal laws already provide cops with substantial protection, and a job is not a personal characteristic such as race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

Mr. Yoes also pointed a finger at “rogue prosecutors,” saying their soft-on-crime policies have led to the nationwide surge in violence.

“Law-abiding citizens saw the real-life consequences of what happens when elected officials embrace pro-criminal, revolving-door policies and make decisions that put the interests of violent offenders ahead of public safety,” Mr. Yoes wrote. “These decisions — failures to prosecute violent offenders for their crimes or, even worse, releasing repeat offenders arrested for crimes who show a propensity for escalation of violence — make our communities less safe.”