Cops Are Safer Under President Obama Whether Scaredy-Cat Critics Like It Or Not

Cops are safer under President Obama. Whether critics like it or not.

July 7 saw the most deadly violence inflicted on U.S. law enforcement officers since September 11, 2001. Twelve police officers were shot during a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Dallas, Texas. Five of those officers did not survive. Critics of President Barack Obama took the opportunity to once again harangue the president for his alleged tacit support of Black Lives Matter and his alleged lack of support for police. But in a statement released by the White House last week, Obama said, amongst other things, 

Now, let me just say we have extraordinary appreciation and respect for the vast majority of police officers who put their lives on the line to protect us every single day. They’ve got a dangerous job. It is a tough job. And as I've said before, they have a right to go home to their families, just like anybody else on the job. And there are going to be circumstances in which they’ve got to make split-second decisions. We understand that.

Speaking at a memorial for the slain officers on July 12, Obama said:

We know that the overwhelming majority of police officers do an incredibly hard and dangerous job fairly and professionally. They are deserving of our respect and not our scorn. And when anyone, no matter how good their intentions may be, paints all police as biased or bigoted, we undermine those officers we depend on for our safety.  And as for those who use rhetoric suggesting harm to police, even if they don’t act on it themselves—well, they not only make the jobs of police officers even more dangerous, but they do a disservice to the very cause of justice that they claim to promote.  

The Dallas shooting was a jarring, sobering reminder of how precarious the lives of police officers can be, but under Obama—the president harsh critics say does not support law enforcement—police have been the safest they have ever been in decades.

Data from the Officers Down Memorial Page, which tracks law enforcement officer fatalities in real time, illustrates the point. During the Reagan years, for instance, an average of 101 police officers were intentionally killed each year. Under George H.W. Bush that number fell to 90. It fell further, to 81 deaths per year, under Bill Clinton, and to 72 deaths per year under George W. Bush.

Under Obama, the average number of police intentionally killed each year has fallen to its lowest level yet—an average of 62 deaths annually through 2015. If you include the 2016 police officer shootings year-to-date and project it out to a full year, that average of 62 deaths doesn't change.

Under Obama, the Blue Alert System was created “which will require instant nationwide ‘Blue Alerts’ to warn about threats to police officers and help track down the suspects who carry them out.” The law was named the Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu National Blue Alert Act of 2015, after two New York Police Department officers who were ambushed and killed in December of 2014.

"[Ramos and Liu] were serving their community with great honor and dedication and courage, and all of New York grieved and all of the nation grieved," Obama said in an Oval Office signing ceremony with the families of the slain officers. "It's important for us not only to honor their memory, it's also important for us to make sure that we do everything we can to help ensure the safety of our police officers when they're in the line of duty."

The criticisms of Obama are part of the general resentment towards the president, as well as the hatred of Black Lives Matter, by Republicans, some law enforcement unions and others of that ilk. But the record of the president’s support for law enforcement is clear.

So knock it off.