Policing Threat USA

With the de-fund the police movement in full swing across the USA throughout 2021 ...

The USA Has Seen Too Many Police Funerals

 .... apparently the murders of police officers also rose by nearly 60% during that year.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said 73 police officers were killed in the line of duty last year, adding that violence against police was a "phenomena" that "doesn't get enough attention," but that it amounted to an officer killed every five days.

He stated that only "some" of the violence against police is "tied to the violent crime problem as a whole", as murders of all kinds across the US have risen dramatically (29%) since 2019. 

However what was most disturbing was that authorities believe that "an alarming percentage" of the officers killed were targeted and "killed through things like being ambushed or shot while out on patrol," adding that "Wearing the badge shouldn't make you a target."

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) said in January that it had recorded 103 "ambush-style attacks" on officers in 2021, resulting in 130 officers shot and 30 killed. As of 1 April, FOP data shows that 17 officers were shot and killed so far in 2022.

A separate analysis of the data by the Council on Criminal Justice in January of 22 cities, found that murders rose 5% in 2021, and have gone up 44% since 2019... which suggests this is an urban driven crime spike .... for example in Minneapolis, homicides in the city in 2021 were roughly double the average for the years from 2015-19.

If there is a connection with the rise in police deaths, and the de-fund he police movement, I can't say, although the smoking gun (so to speak), suggests that there may be a link, even if its just a change of attitudes in some quarters on specifically targetting the police in some urban areas. 

Mr Wray's analysis of the general murder rate spike was that "more and more juveniles committing violent crime, and that's certainly an issue. We're seeing a certain amount of interstate gun trafficking. That's part of it. And we're seeing an alarming frequency of some of the worst of the worst getting back out on the streets."

Everything That Mr Wray Discussed

Perhaps the perfect example of all that Mr Wray was discussing, was the senseless killing, late in 2021 of 28 year old Police Officer Yandy Chirino of Hollywood, Florida. His killer Jason Banegas 18, who was actually out on probation for burglary and cocaine drug charges, killed him when the police officer challenged about him breaking in to a number of parked vehicles. 

Banegas claimed that his mitigation for shooting the officer in the face with a gun that had been reported as stolen, was that he had been 'disrespected', by the officer. He then changed this, saying that he had 'panicked' because he was carrying a concealed firearm, and did not want to go back to jail, as he had just been released 30 days before. Adding that he had intended to kill himself and not Officer Chirino, and that the gun just went off as the two scuffled. 

Banegas is charged with first-degree murder with a firearm, armed burglary of a dwelling, two counts of attempted burglary of a conveyance, possession of a firearm, resisting an officer with violence, and battery on a law enforcement officer. His 17-year-old sister Katherine Banegas was also later arrested, and charged with giving him the gun that authorities said they believed she and another female accomplice had stolen from a man in Miami-Dade County the month before. The gun's owner said he had picked up two young women who were acquaintances, and that one of them had taken the gun from the glove compartment of his car.

Jason Banegas has an extensive criminal history that dates back to when was 12 years old, when he was accused of resisting an officer without violence. Since then, Banegas has faced charges for burglary, property damage and grand theft auto, and been arrested at least 7 times as a juvenile. In 2020 alone Banegas was arrested on charges of burglary, trespassing, and marijuana and cocaine possession near a school. Banegas is being held without bail/bond at the Broward Jail in Fort Lauderdale ... his life is effectively over.

You can bet that if his situation continues across the 2022 summer, then this will be a major policy difference between the Democrats and Republican candidates in this autumns mid-term elections, when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested.