Between January 20 and January 25, 13 police officers were shot in the U.S., five of them fatally. These tragic incidents have led some police advocates to draw unsupported conclusions, claiming that they are tied to rising anti-police sentiment, anti-government protest, or a lack of adequate gun control laws. Media outlets also have been quick to draw connections between these unrelated shootings. While these incidents are troublesome, many are asking if law enforcement advocates are attempting to use the tragedies to stifle much-needed debate about police tactics, police misconduct, and police accountability. Radley Balko, Senior Editor at Reason Magazine takes a closer look.
Dig into most of these articles, however, and you will find there is no real evidence of an increase in anti-police violence, let alone one that can be traced to anti-police rhetoric, gun sales, disrespect for authority, or "don't tread on me" sentiment. (CNN is one of the few media outlets that have covered the purported anti-police trend with appropriate skepticism.) Amid all the quotes from concerned law enforcement officials in MSNBC's "War on Cops" article, for example, is a casual mention that police fatality statistics for this month are about the same as they were in January 2010.
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