Would it shock you to learn that the number of police who've been shot and killed in 2016 is up an astounding 59% from where it was this same date last year? Seventeen police officers have already been shot and killed in 2016, by mid-May. Only 10 had suffered that fate by May 10th, 2015.
The drastic increase shocked the hell out of me. While I primarily track, study and report the number of people killed by police, I still follow police fatalities closely. Contrary to popular belief, despising police brutality does not mean I despise police officers. I appreciate all public servants and have both a police officer and a longtime Secret Service member in my family. They are amazing, kind-hearted men who do great work. I also despise gun violence and loathe every single fatality suffered because of it.
Something's afoot, though, on why we're not hearing much about this shocking increase in the number of officers who've been shot and killed so far in 2016. Sadly, I think I have the answer.
Seventy-one percent of police who've been shot and killed this year weren't murdered by black men with cornrows or hoodies. They weren't gunned down by Latino gang members in low-rider drive-bys. Those stereotypes would be too convenient. Instead, 71% of police who've been shot and killed so far in 2016 have been killed by good old-fashioned white men.
back in February, when police began protesting Beyoncé, I noticed then that 7 out of the 8 officers who had been killed so far were killed by white men. My gut was that most of them weren't Beyoncé fans.
In fact, right around the same time police were protesting Beyoncé, a white man, Curtis Ayers, shot and killed Officer Brad Lancaster of Kansas City. Lancaster was a decorated Air Force veteran and a loving father of two.
The last officer before that to be shot and killed was Officer Steven Smith, also a married father of two. Lincoln Rutledge, the white man who killed him, had also burned down his wife's home.
You haven't seen these stories on Fox News or Breitbart because they don't fit their narrative of blaming police violence on the Black Lives Matter movement or President Obama. Because "scary" black faces can't be flashed across their screens, they don't even tell the stories at all — which suggests they don't care so much about police, but about using police deaths like a political football.
You best believe that if a 59% rise in the number of police officers shot and killed in the line of duty could be blamed on immigrants, Mexicans, or black folk, it would be a regular conservative talking point.
Instead, Donald Trump has never mentioned these fallen officers on the campaign trail because it may have very well been his supporters who did the shooting for all he knows.
It appears that blue lives only matter to popular conservatives when they are taken by somebody they can easily demonize. In the meantime, police groups continue to protest a black woman when a black woman hasn't killed an officer in years.
