by Casey | Dec 29, 2016 | Blog, Police Abuse
In early July, 2016, I wrote ‘Is The War On Cops Debunked? Not So Fast.’ In that post I basically took the media and Reason.com down on their silly elementary ‘debunking’ of the war on cops. They used old data and applied it to 2015 and 2016. Which is utterly ridiculous and very lazy. You know, modern journalistic standards.
Now we are only two days away from the end of the year, and we have a lot more data. Sadly, I was right, they were wrong. Amazing what happens when you use actual statistics, and aren’t trying to promote your own confirmation bias.
Here’s the latest we have on police fatalities:
[supsystic-tables id=’1′]
Please note: These numbers reflect total officer fatalities comparing January 1 through December 28, 2016 vs January 1 through December 28, 2015
As you can see, things have been steadily getting worse since mid-2015. This chart only shows preliminary data on police fatalities, not assaults. Assaults have been increasing as well. A lot of the improvements made in police fatalities over the past several years have been a result of advances in life-saving technology, not a reduction in attempts to kill officers.
When the media peddles a false narrative that police are targeting segments of our population for murder (they aren’t), then basic human instinct takes root in the uninformed, angry, and criminal elements of society. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
by Casey | Jul 10, 2016 | Blog, Police Abuse
Let’s settle some confusion about violence against cops.
There’s plenty of media outlets out there proclaiming to ‘debunk’ the ‘war on cops‘ while claiming violence against police isn’t increasing. People ‘debunking’ that violence against police is increasing are usually citing data that ends in 2014. The 2015 data is still preliminary for most categories. October is usually when we get finalized data from the previous year. 2016 is obviously very new, and won’t be finalized until Fall 2017. We do have some trends for 2016 since media is monitoring it more closely.
These ‘debunkers’ also only cite police deaths, not all violence against cops. This is not how you properly report on statistics.
All data is taken from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, and the National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial Fund.
2013 – 49,851 officers were assaulted while performing their duties.
2014 – 48,315 officers were assaulted while performing their duties in 2014.
In 2013, police were 0.5% more likely to be assaulted with a gun than 2014.
In 2014, assaults via hands, knives, or other weapons actually increased.
2015 shows a decline in police officers murdered in preliminary data. There is no assault data available. We don’t know if it is increasing or decreasing.
It is the reduction in firearm related violence against police in 2014 that reduced the overall number of assaults. All other categories increased in 2014.
We have very little for 2016, but we do have some.
Assaults and felonious deaths have been trending down slightly since 2007. Total deaths while on duty (traffic, accident, health, and murder) have been increasing since 2013.
CBS News reports that threats against police, and ambush shootings of police are on the rise for 2016.
[Tweet theme=”basic-full”]CBS News reports that threats against police, and ambush shootings of police are on the rise for 2016.[/Tweet]
7 months into the year, and ambush shootings of cops have surpassed all of 2015. There have been 11 this year. There were 8 in 2015, and 15 in 2014.
[Tweet theme=”basic-full”]7 months into 2016, and ambush shootings of cops have surpassed all of 2015.[/Tweet]
Preliminary data for 2016 is also showing a 44% increase in officers murdered with a gun over 2015 through July.
[Tweet theme=”basic-full”]Preliminary data for 2016 is also showing a 44% increase in officers murdered with a gun over 2015[/Tweet]
So, is there an increase in violence against police? In some categories … undeniably yes. 2016 certainly isn’t looking good. The question remains as to whether the overall number of assaults, and killings increases in 2015 and 2016.
The trend of reduced shootings in 2015 may be turning around with the increase in ambush shootings of officers the first half of 2016.
You can’t definitively say that violence against police isn’t increasing while missing a full year and a half of data. Especially when preliminary data shows a potential increase.
Final thought:
The notion of cops declaring ‘open season’ on blacks is pure, undeniable, mythology. I proved that here. What if that myth, peddled by the media daily, makes the other myth of rising violence against police become a reality? How utterly stupid would we be?
New data shows shootings of police up 78% so far in 2016.
