GRITS FOR BREAKFAST IS OFF THE MARK ABOUT THE WAR ON COPS

Scott Henson says there is no war on cops and relies on armchair analysts who claim the majority of fatal police shootings were unnecessary

Scott Henson’s blog “Grits for Breakfast” is a very good blog, especially for those who do not like cops. While many of his posts do not relate to cops, those that do are often rather critical of the police in one way or another.

Here are two examples that Scott posted on January 5, 2018:

Maybe time to tone down the 'war on cops' meme

The number of police officers killed in the line of duty in 2017 was the second lowest total in 50 years. While every death of an officer is a tragedy, this low total doesn't comport with the "war on cops" meme that's been prevalent for the last couple of years. Suicides and traffic deaths remain the more significant killers of sworn police officers.

Analyzing 2017 shootings by police

The new report from Mapping Police Violence is a must-read. By their count, 1,129 people were killed by police in America in 2017. MPV researchers "were able to identify officers in 534 cases. At least 43 had shot or killed someone before. 12 had multiple prior shootings." Also, "Most killings began with police responding to suspected non-violent offenses or cases where no crime was reported. 87 people were killed after police stopped them for a traffic violation." The number of those killed who were unarmed was 147. Notably, "Police recruits spend 7x as many hours training to shoot than they do training to de-escalate situations." FWIW, the Washington Post came up with a slightly lower number for Americans killed by police; Grits doesn't yet understand why the difference. It's remarkable that the number of people shot and killed by the government isn't tracked more closely than this in an official capacity. This should be a number we know.

Here is my response:

Not so fast on that "War on Cops" meme. There may be fewer cops killed but that does not tell the whole story. First of all, a number of the cops killed were ambushed for no other reason than that they were law enforcement officers. And then there were a significant number of cops that were ambushed and seriously wounded but survived the shootings. So don't give us any crap about there being no war on cops.

As for the new report from Mapping Police Violence, their "analysis suggests the majority of killings by police in 2017 could have been prevented." Not so fast there either. Those armchair analysts were not in the shoes of the cops who did the shootings. Granted that some of the fatal shootings were unjustified, but for the vast majority of fatal shootings, the officers thought their lives were in immediate jeopardy.

Can more and better training on deescalating situations reduce the number of fatal shootings? Probably, but not to a significant extent. I've worked the streets as a cop, and believe me, it's scary out there. That's something those armchair analysts never experience.