At least 11 police officers were shot across America this week alone, including fatal shootings in Mississippi and Nevada, according to Breitbart. Violence against police has been an increasing problem over the past several years, even as leftists have been encouraging anti-police activism.
Two officers were killed and one was wounded in Bristol, Conn., on Wednesday, ending “an especially violent week for police across the U.S.” Unfortunately, the violence is not unusual. As more police officers left their jobs over the past two years, the number of police who were killed and targeted rose, Breitbart noted.
Breitbart said that organizations that track violence against police recorded 56 officers killed in shootings this year. That’s 14% more shootings than there were by this time last year and around 45% more than this time in 2020. America is set to have its “deadliest year” for police since 2016 when 67 officers were killed.
For instance, on Wednesday in Connecticut, Bristol Police Sgt. Dustin Demonte and Officer Alex Hamzy were tragically killed in an apparent ambush, and Officer Alec Iurato was wounded. The police officers had responded to a 911 call that seems to have been “a deliberate act to lure law enforcement to the scene.”
Among the 56 officers killed this year, some officers were killed by accidental gunfire, Breitbart reported, but ambushes or surprise attacks of police resulting in injury or death with “little chance to defend themselves” shot up (literally) since 2020. Such attacks account for almost half of the police officers killed in 2022.
The Fraternal Order of Police reported, according to Breitbart, that as of Sept. 30, 2022, the U.S. has seen 63 ambush-style attacks where police officers were wounded. Those attacks left 93 police officers shot, 24 of them fatally. That is reportedly a lower number of surprise attacks than took place during the first nine months of 2021. During that time period, 75 ambushes of police left 93 shot and 21 dead. While 2022 has had fewer attacks, therefore, there were roughly equal fatalities for a smaller number of attacks. Last year’s total number of ambushes resulting in police injuries “more than doubled from 2020,” Breitbart said.
Meanwhile, police have been resigning or retiring early across the country. It’s not hard to guess why.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member