The atmosphere of hate being ginned up against the police has resulted in double the number of deaths in 2014 compared to 2013, according to a preliminary FBI report.

Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, says that the campaign of demonizing police has taken a toll on morale as well.

Washington Times:

“One of the things that we’ve seen just lately, that we’ve never seen before, is police officers are telling their own families, and their own children, ‘Don’t go into this line of duty, this line of work, because it’s not worth it any more,’” said Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations.

The number of law enforcement officers who were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2014 increased 89 percent as compared to the year prior — with most dying after being shot by gun-carrying criminals, according to a preliminary report issued by the FBI on Monday.

In raw numbers, 51 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in 2014, versus 27 such deaths in 2013.

The FBI report Monday was preliminary; the complete annual report will be released in the fall.

And the number killed in deliberate ambush attacks has tripled in a year, according to data collected by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. In 2014 there were 15 officers killed in fatal ambushes compared to five in 2013, the group said.

Police unions are “very much concerned” over the increased number of attacks on officers, which seem to be planned ambushes and unprovoked attacks, Mr. Johnson said.

[...]

Last year, the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died after an officer subdued him with a chokehold, led a man to ambush and kill two other New York City cops, Rafael Ramos, 40, and Wenjian Liu, 32, in retaliation while they were sitting in their car.

Police advocates blamed that attack, and possibly others, on the resulting national debate over the use of deadly force, in which the police are routinely depicted as racists out to harass and oppress blacks and other minorities.

“While some honorable law enforcement officers are able to screen out the crowd noise and stay focused on the mission, the tragic loss of blue lives and biased anti-cop slander have certainly impacted overall morale,” said Mr. Adler. “The sustained anti-cop rhetoric has taken its toll on officer morale, but the indomitable blue spirit will ultimately stay the course and prevail.”

Is it just coincidence that ambush attacks on police have tripled over the past year? Or is it just a statistical anomoly?

Or perhaps it has something to do with barely disguised hate speech directed toward the police by racialists and others who see opportunity in the tragic deaths of suspects like Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Some activists don't even try to disguise their calls to kill policemen.

Is it any wonder that morale is at a low point and officers are advising their loved ones not to follow in their footsteps.

This situation would normally be an opportunity for the president and attorney general to stand up and speak out against violence directed at police officers. But given the fact that our current president continues to stoke the flames of racial animosity, and our current AG wants to investigate the police rather than the people who want them to be targets, we shouldn't hold our breaths for their support any time soon.