Intentional Killing of Police Officers At A 20-Year High

all right we're gonna move on to a more serious story i know this is one that you really care about the fbi reporting that last year intentional killings of police officers hit a 20-year high what do you wish was being done to protect our law enforcement tyrus well first and foremost acknowledging it this is breaking news this is a story if you were ever going to have a panel to talk about a crisis in america this is it so you know you defunded the police you and you empowered the the criminal element you know you literally every time a police officer has to make a tough arrest or someone resists arrest the person is automatically rosa parks and you know the police officers are automatically evil even though you know we've had some bad situations but we never hear about it when it's on the other side there's no information out there for officers you know to be told like hey these things are happening support your local police department you know if you see someone who's talking about doing something bad to a cop report it for over 39 years i was a police officer in milwaukee wisconsin for 15 of those years i was the sheriff of milwaukee county i've done everything you can do as a cop from walking the beat to investigating murder to running the agency i've met a lot of cops of every race ethnicity and background here's what i can tell you cops are not perfect that's not a news flash but this might be they don't have to be perfect they have to be excellent and most officers reach excellence every single day and often under very difficult circumstances circumstances you can't imagine and wouldn't want to if you could perfection is an unattainable goal cops are ordinary human beings like everyone else lawyers surgeons and baseball players they make mistakes but no profession works harder to correct its mistakes you can mark social progress by the improvements made by police departments over the last 50 years today police are more professional better educated and better trained than at any time in their history you wouldn't know it though if you listen to self-serving self-righteous politicians and activists and their version of history the police are the villains of the story not its heroes like everything else this crowd does they've got it all backwards the police aren't the problem the politicians and activists are the police didn't create the failed urban policies that have locked people into generational poverty the police aren't responsible for fatherless homes failing schools and bad lifestyle choices and they sure as hell not responsible for the lack of respect shown to police officers it is this lack of respect for authority fostered over decades by the progressive left and its fear the police narrative that has led to the needless deaths of so many young black men when officer darren wilson told michael brown to get out of the middle of the street in ferguson missouri did brown comply no when officers in baltimore told freddie gray to stop resisting arrest did he comply no when officers in new york city told eric garner to stop resisting arrest did he comply no here's a useful tip if you want to avoid a bad outcome with a police officer follow this simple rule when a cop gives you a lawful command obey it even if you disagree whatever problem you are experiencing is not going to be settled on the street people with complaints need to use the process established for that purpose though cops don't have the final say they do in that moment how you react can be a matter of life or death but the idea that a law-abiding citizen has to fear the police is a terrible and destructive lie let's get some perspective in 2014 990 people were killed in police use of force incidents does that sound like a lot did you know that according to a johns hopkins study that same year medical errors killed 250 000 people yet activists aren't marching in the streets demanding that the medical profession be reformed why not why is it that the people who protect you from the bad guys and i've seen these bad guys close up are the subject of distrust and anger why is it that groups like black lives matter i call them black lies matter because it's based on the falsehood that police represent a danger to black people are celebrated by the media and politicians all this is taking its toll on cops and even more tragically on the law-abiding citizens in the neighborhoods that most need a strong police presence the murder rates in these neighborhoods are going up because lawful aggressive policing is going down heather mcdonald of the manhattan institute has explained why she calls it the ferguson effect and it's real it's also common sense why police officers reason put your career at risk if 30 seconds of smartphone video taken out of context can destroy it here's the truth police aren't afraid of walking the streets or being shot by random criminals they're afraid of being involved in an incident that would label them forever as trigger-happy racists are they're bad cops i know firsthand that there are i've had to fire them but the overwhelming majority are good decent men and women concerned about the law-abiding citizens in the communities they serve and are willing to put their lives on the line to protect them those who try to convince you either out of ignorance or out of some ideological agenda that the police are the enemy those are the people you should fear run from them not the cops i'm sheriff david clark for prager university you