More police officers were killed in the line of duty during President Biden’s first year in office than any year since 1995, according to a new report from Fox News.
Seventy-three officers were intentionally killed in the line of duty in 2021, a nearly 59 percent increase from 2020, when 46 cops were killed, Fox News reported. A nonprofit law enforcement group believes that growing anti-police sentiment driven by the George Floyd riots is a large reason for the increase in killings.
“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,” explained Jason Johnson, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF) and a 20-year police veteran.
“Law enforcement officers have essentially been marginalized and demoralized and cast aside and encouraged not to enforce the law. And so we’ve seen massive jumps in the homicide rate in cities across America,” Johnson added.
According to Fox News, Johnson said “that ‘it’s natural’ rising homicide rates in major U.S. cities have ‘also resulted in many more officers being assaulted because … a lot of leaders in these cities and leaders in Congress and leaders in the White House have really voiced a lack of respect for law enforcement officers.’”
