The Anguish Deepens For Police in America
“Officer down!” One of the most dreaded calls in policing triggered a surge of officers to Airline Highway in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, an agonizing replay of the distress calls 10 days earlier that prompted the Dallas police to scramble to the aid of their fallen colleagues.
The twin attacks — three officers dead July 17 in Baton Rouge, five killed on July 7 in Dallas, along with at least 12 injured over all — have set off fear, anguish and confusion among America’s 900,000 state and local law enforcement officers.
Officers from Seattle to New Orleans are pairing up in squad cars for added safety and keeping their eyes open for snipers while walking posts.
“We’ve seen nothing like this at all,” said Darrel W. Stephens, the executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association and an instructor at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “The average officer in America, who was tense anyway, their tension and vigilance is going to increase even more. Police officers have always been vulnerable, and they know it. But somewhere inside you, you didn’t think it would happen. But now we’re seeing it happen.”
The violence against officers is also causing angst among community leaders pushing for better policing.
“What happened today will make our task harder,” said Joe D. Connelly, the pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge, who has been active in rallies and protests there since Alton B. Sterling was killed by the police on July 5. “The challenge is that what we face has been heightened because of both the killing of Alton Sterling and the officers.”
While the total number of officers killed by gunshots while on duty is lower than in recent decades, the ambush nature of the attacks this month in Dallas and Baton Rouge, along with continuing protests around America spurred by videos showing fatal shootings of African-American men by the police, have led to considerable tensions.
Police officers, including David O. Brown, the Dallas chief, say they are being threatened on social media, and other officers complain that protesters sometimes chant for them to be killed. “We’re all on edge,” Chief Brown said, “and we’re being very careful.”
Twenty- eight officers have died from gunshots this year, compared with 18 at the same point last year, a 56 percent increase, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks police deaths.
Still, the annual number of police deaths has decreased sharply since the 1970s. In that decade, during one of the country’s worst surges of violent crime, an average of 127 officers were fatally shot each year. During the past 10 years, the average number of officers fatally shot was 52.
“I think commanders all over the country, me included, are worried about our officers as they manage different events,” said Chief Jon Belmar of St. Louis County, Missouri. “Dallas and Baton Rouge have probably showed us that we’re going to have to err on the side of protecting our officers so we can protect the community.”
Chuck Canterbury, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said the criticism from some on social media had deeply harmed police morale.
“Cops are hurt,” he said. “They don’t understand what’s going on. Every cop in America is on their guard.”
Chris Southwood, the president of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, suggested that protesters had spurred violence against police officers.
“How many police funerals must occur before the American public finally says ‘enough is enough?’ ” he said in a statement.
But Kareem Henton, an activist for the Black Lives Matter movement, said it was unfair to blame protesters focused on police reforms for the deaths of the police officers.
“Black Lives Matter isn’t responsible for the deaths of anyone,” he said. “Yet we can attribute scores and scores of deaths of black people to the hands of law enforcement, and I think that is where the attention should be.”