Shooting Deaths of Law Enforcement Skyrockets in 2016
A new report shows a startling rise in the number of police officers shot and killed in the line of duty.
The report by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reveals a whopping 78 percent increase in the first half of 2016, compared with the same period last year.
According to the report, 32 officers were killed in firearms-related incidents, compared with 18 during the first half of 2015. Fourteen were ambush-style attacks, including the recent shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge.
Craig E. Floyd, president of the nonprofit memorial fund, called the increase in police deaths "extremely troubling."
"That is a frightening number of officers who have been assassinated because of the uniform they wear and the job that they do," Floyd said.
Some of those incidents took place at the height of racial unrest and protests over the deaths of black men at the hands of police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota. The suspects in those attacks claim they were angered and frustrated by perceived racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
Meanwhile, Floyd says this not the first time law enforcement has weathered anti-police sentiment.
"In the 1970s, you had a lot of parallels to what we are facing now. There was a lot of anti-authority sentiment and a lot of anti-police sentiment," he said. "They did become targets, just as they are becoming targets again today."
