On Tuesday, America’s largest police union asked the Obama administration and Congress to extend the federal hate crime statutes to include law enforcement officers.
Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury sent letters to both the Obama administration and Congressional leadership arguing if targeting “race, color, creed, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability” results in higher criminal penalties so should targeting the law enforcement community.
“Now Americans who choose to be law enforcement officers, who choose to serve their communities and put their lives on the line for their fellow citizens, find themselves hunted and targeted just because of the uniform they wear,” Canterbury said in the letter.
Canterbury issued a statement on Monday but the letters to Obama and Congress were dated Tuesday and were characterized by Buzzfeed Politics as “a formal call for action.”
“My thoughts and prayers over the past few weeks have been with the families of officers who were, with malice and forethought, gunned down just because they served as police officers,” Canterbury said in his statement Monday. “Enough is enough! It’s time for Congress to do something to protect the men and women who protect us.”
The letter explains that 47 law enforcement officers were killed by gunfire in 2014, including 9 which were “ambush killings.”
“We do not accept that our uniforms alone make us targets because someone was driven to rage over a perceived injustice or desires to strike a blow against our civil government,” the letter said.
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