If you are in any way supportive of law enforcement, you know just how bad the crisis of violence against police officers is in the United States today. At the time of this post in 2019, 107 officers have lost their lives in the line of duty. Many of these deaths were the cause of gutless, cop-hating criminals with no regard for the law and total contempt for the men and women who work everyday to uphold it.
One possible way we can help stem the rise of police officer line of duty deaths is to pass federal laws that would punish criminals more severely for crimes committed against officers. While no law can prevent line of duty officer deaths, federal laws protecting police officers could help deter some criminals from committing violent acts against officers while making examples out of the criminals that do.
Serve and Protect Act of 2018
In 2018, members of the United States Congress introduced legislation that would provide for stiffer penalties against criminals who target police officers. The Serve and Protect Act would establish, “a new criminal offense for knowingly assaulting a law enforcement officer causing serious bodily injury (or attempting to do so) in circumstances that affect interstate commerce. It imposes criminal penalties—a prison term of up to 10 years, a fine, or both—on a violator.”
A similar bill in the Senate goes a step further and would effectively make crimes against police officers the same as hate crimes.
These bills were drafted as a response to the increase in ambush-style attacks on police officers across the country and would, in essence, establish law enforcement officers as a protected class in the United States.
The bill has yet to be passed and signed into law, and has met backlash from many groups such as the ACLU, who take exception to giving police officers protected status. In their response to the bill, the ACLU urged senators to reject the bill, calling it “profoundly inappropriate.” They went on to claim that the bill “signals that there is a “war on police,” which is not only untrue, but unhelpful and dangerous narrative to uplift.”
Clearly, the ACLU has not been reading the news over the past five years because their opposition to the bill is incoherent and indefensible. The fact is that there is a war on police officers in the United States fueled by anti-police movements and anarchists. In 2016, ambush-style attacks against police rose by 167%, a fact the ACLU chooses to ignore.
The Serve and Protect Act is a common-sense response to the rise in violence against police officers, despite what the ACLU and others may claim. Whether it is this bill, or another yet to be introduced, police officers need more support from the federal government to help stem the rise of violence against them.
The growing cop-hating movement is creating higher tensions between police and members of the community, making us all less safe. So how do we turn the tide against the wave of anti-police bigotry in the United States? Find out here.
