After yet another brutal year in which hundreds of police officers were shot in the line of duty, Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, declared, "Enough is enough!"
Yoes has made clear that the criminals responsible had help from elected officials who are apparently not only anti-cop but "pro-criminal."
What are the details?
The National Fraternal Order of Police issued a report on Dec. 21, indicating that 323 law enforcement officers were shot in the line of duty so far this year.
Sixty officers were killed by gunfire overall, putting 2022 on course to match last year's count, which saw 63 law enforcement officers cut down. That death toll represents a 28% increase over the same year-to-date period in 2020.
The report also noted that 124 officers had been shot in 87 separate ambush-style attacks. Of the 124 officers so wounded, 31 were killed.
These death statistics do not include the hundreds of law enforcement officers who lost their lives in the line of duty as the result of other incidents, such as vehicular assaults.
\u201c\ud83d\udea8ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS YEARS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT: The American Police Officer is Facing a Heightened Level of Danger\n\n\u26a0\ufe0f 323 Officers Shot This Year\n\n\u26a0\ufe0f 60 Officers Killed by Gunfire\n\n\u26a0\ufe0f 124 Officers We\u2019re Shot in 87 Ambush-Style Attacks\n\nWe still have 10 days left in 2022\u2026\u201d
— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)) 1671619491
In a statement accompanying the FOP's latest report on law enforcement casualties, FOP president Patrick Yoes underscored how it is important to recognize that these numbers "represent heroes — fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters."
"As crime rates continue to rise, more citizens in this country are justifiably living in fear, constantly wondering if they too will become a victim," said Yoes.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association reported in September, on the basis of a survey of 70 major police agencies, that overall violent crime across the U.S. spiked earlier this year.
Yoes, who served as an active law enforcement officer for nearly 36 years, said this fear and bloodletting is "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."
"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. These rogue prosecutors are putting innocent lives at risk. When there are no consequences for breaking the law, more people will break the law and crime will increase," he wrote.
Philadelphia's recently impeached Larry Krasner is one among many so-called progressive district attorneys accused by Republican legislators of contributing to "a catastrophic rise in violent crime at the expense of public safety."
Krasner and others have been enabled in part by leftist billionaire George Soros' Open Society Foundations network.
Fox News Digital reported that Soros' network funneled at least $35 million into anti-police groups and initiatives last year, extra to spending even more backing leftist prosecutors.
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, said, "Not only has billionaire George Soros spent millions propping up pro-crime prosecutors, but now we've learned he's spent the last year bankrolling efforts to defund the police as well."
While leftist elites fill the coffers of anti-police groups, criminals having been filling coffins with police officers.
"Truthfully, the violence against those sworn to serve and protect is beyond unacceptable; it’s a stain on our society, and it must end," said Yoes. "It is incumbent upon our elected officials and community leaders to stand up, support our heroes, and speak out against the violence against law enforcement officers."
He expressed hope that the Republican-controlled Congress will pass the "Protect and Serve" Act, which would impose federal penalties on criminals who deliberately target local, state, or federal law enforcement officers with violence.
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