It’s not a secret anymore. Police officers across the country are being targeted more than ever with violence, fueled in large part by the growing anti-police movement in the United States. Today, it has become common for police to be spit on, assaulted and yes, shot, by criminals with no regard for the law or the basic principles that make up civil society. Don’t believe it? Here are just three recent examples of brutality against police officers.

Water bucket attacks on NYPD officers

Over the summer, a string of attacks against police officers in New York City made national headlines after one of the attackers was caught on video dousing an NYPD officer with a bucket of water. In a video obtained by the New York Post, a small crowd gathers around two NYPD officers, with some people holding buckets of water and colorful water guns. This was just one in a string of several water bucket attacks on NYPD officers over the summer. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured during the incidents, as the police officers victimized by the attacks showed remarkable restraint toward the lawless individuals who carried out these despicable attacks on New York’s Finest. 

Police employee viciously beaten in Baltimore

Baltimore is one of the worst cities in the United States to be a police officers, thanks to high crime rates and a strong anti-police movement in the city. Earlier this year, a 59 year-old employee of the Baltimore Police Department was viciously beaten by a group of three criminals, with no apparent motive. Although the victim was a civilian and not a uniformed police officer, the incident demonstrates just how bold criminals have become and the complete disregard they have for the rule of law and the law enforcement agencies who work hard to uphold it. In an interview with CBS Baltimore, resident Mary Williams summed up the crime problem in her city. “Yeah it makes me angry,” said Williams. “It appears they have no fear, whatsoever, they have no fear of who sees what they do.”

88 police deaths in 2019

If you needed any more proof that police officers are under attack, just take a look at police officer line of duty deaths in 2019. So far, 88 officers have been killed in 2019, 35 of whom died as a result of criminal gunfire. Indeed, police officers are at more risk than ever and the statistics prove it. It’s time we stop tolerating the vicious attacks on our police officers. It’s time we take a stand and defend those who serve and protect our communities every day.

While we are all grateful to police officers for putting themselves in harms way to protect our communities, we may forget about the many other ways police officers and departments serve us every day. These days, policing does not just include responding to crime. Here are a few other ways that police officers serve our communities that we may have forgotten.