Even as Violent Crime Falls, Killing of Officers Rises

[alcibiades_mystery]

Source: New York Tmes

WASHINGTON — As violent crime has decreased across the country, a disturbing trend has emerged: rising numbers of police officers are being killed.

According to statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 72 officers were killed by perpetrators in 2011, a 25 percent increase from the previous year and a 75 percent increase from 2008.

The 2011 deaths were the first time that more officers were killed by suspects than car accidents, according to data compiled by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The number was the highest in nearly two decades, excluding those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

While a majority of officers were killed in smaller cities, 13 were killed in cities of 250,000 or more. New York City lost two officers last year. On Sunday, four were wounded by a gunman in Brooklyn, bringing to eight the number of officers shot in the city since December.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/us/defying-trends-killings-of-police-officers-are-on-the-rise.html?hp

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Neither the reporter nor the source can fathom out the most obvious reason: sentencing has gone completely haywire. We now routinely sentence people to 60, 80, 100 years in prison for property crimes. Second and third time offenders get massive time for small offenses, traffic stop stuff, possession.

So, exactly what people who were against these insane "tough on crime" sentencing guidelines said was going to happen has started happening: perpetrators have simply started shooting the police in a bid to escape. What's the difference, after all, between 60 years in prison with little chance of parole and life without parole for shooting the officer? Not much. The tough sentencing guidelines are now getting the cops killed, just like anybody who pays attention to this stuff said they would. If this reporter bothered talking to anyone on the left who examines criminal justice, he would have received that answer straight away. Instead, it's just a "mystery" that nobody can quite figure out. Needless to say, it is ultra-taboo even in liberal circles now to say that sentencing guidelines are fucking insane and counter-productive, even to the point of getting cops killed.