Stories about police use of force began rocking headlines in 2014 and continued through 2016. This year’s headlines also highlighted a disturbing trend of targeted attacks on police officers. Nationwide, 138 officers have been killed in the line of duty as of this writing. Sixty of those officers were shot to death — a 70 percent increase over 2015. Scarier is the increase in ambush attacks — 170 percent.

The insatiable 24/7 news cycle — bolstered by cellphones, body cameras and a ubiquitous social media — fed us grainy, sketchy videos of police shooting citizens and citizens shooting police in never-ending Mobius loops. From this year’s media coverage, you’d think police-citizen relations were at a low not seen since the civil unrest of the ’60s and ’70s — an era with its own turmoil.

The shocking police story of 2016 you probably didn’t hear is that public respect for police surged and is at a near-record high — across age, race and political persuasion. It’s true. A 2016 Gallup poll shows:

• Seventy-six percent of Americans have “a great deal” of respect for police — up 12 percent from last year

• Among conservatives – 85 percent respect police “a great deal” compared to 69 percent last year

• Among liberals, “a great deal” was selected by 71 percent, compared to 50 percent last year

• Whites who respect police a great deal rose 11 points — up to 80 percent from 69 percent last year

• Among nonwhites, the rise was more dramatic — up 14 points from 53 percent to 67 percent

• The 18-34 age group had the highest jump, going from 50 percent in 2015 to 69 percent in 2016

• The 35-54 group went from 61 percent to 77 percent — a 16 percent increase

• The 55-and-older crowd rose 4 percent — from 77 percent to 81 percent

Gallup has asked this question nine times since 1965. A solid majority of Americans have said they respect their local law enforcement in all the polls. The percentage who say they respect the police is significantly higher now than in any measurement taken since the 1990s and is just 1 point below the high of 77 percent recorded in 1967.

This is great news for police and citizens, which is probably one reason it gets little to no news or social media coverage. It means police-citizen relations aren’t controlled by what the media chooses to publicize to garner revenue or popularity. –adn.com

The war on cops that was started by Barack Obama, his former AG Eric Holder and Al Sharpton created a massive racial divide in our nation. The most serious result of Obama’s war on cops was the creation of the Black Lives Matter terror group that incited so much hate for cops that it inspired the killing of innocent cops across America. Here are 4 inconvenient facts you need to know about cops killing blacks thanks to the superb research of Heather MacDonald:

1. Cops killed nearly twice as many whites as blacks in 2015. According to data compiled by The Washington Post, 50 percent of the victims of fatal police shootings were white, while 26 percent were black. The majority of these victims had a gun or “were armed or otherwise threatening the officer with potentially lethal force,” according to Mac Donald in a speech at Hillsdale College.

2. More whites and Hispanics die from police homicides than blacks. According to Mac Donald, 12 percent of white and Hispanic homicide deaths were due to police officers, while only four percent of black homicide deaths were the result of police officers.

3. Black and Hispanic police officers are more likely to fire a gun at blacks than white officers. This is according to a Department of Justice report in 2015 about the Philadelphia Police Department, and is further confirmed that by a study conducted University of Pennsylvania criminologist Greg Ridgeway in 2015 that determined black cops were 3.3 times more likely to fire a gun than other cops at a crime scene.

4. Blacks are more likely to kill cops than be killed by cops. This is according to FBI data, which also found that 40 percent of cop killers are black. According to Mac Donald, the police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black than a cop killing an unarmed black person. – Daily Wire

 

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