Maser, you bring up some good points, especially in your last two sentences.... But I will respectfully disagree when it comes to the current state of targeting law enforcement in ambush killings. And stand behind my placing it at the feet of the last administration...
You are correct that L.E. have always died in the line of duty. And that there were times when they were ambushed, dating all the way back to the early 1800's. First modern event was in the '50's, by Puerto Rican revolutionaries. With something of a spike in early 1970's... the direct result of groups like the Black Panthers, the Weather Underground and other even more radical groups that came out of the turbulant late 1960's... These were pure anarchist/revolutionary groups... and guess what "Antifa" is modeled on? Between 1932 and 2009 some 25 officers were killed, with most in three incidents and, other than the Puerto Rico and the Anarchist groups, most were attributable either to common criminal activity (Missouri 1933) and mental health...
But in the past few years, the statistics have spiked massively. More on what I believe to be some of the causes later.... But here's a list.
Nov 2009, four officers ambushed by ex-con in Washington State Coffee shop. May 2010, two officer on a traffic stop ambushed by passers-by with AK47. August 2010 Two officers in Alaska gunned down. June 2014, Man and woman gun down officers in Vegas coffee shop. Sept 2014 survivalist crazy guns down Pennsylvania officers prompting manhunt. Dec. 2014, Two NYC officers ambushed in patrol car. May 2015, Hattisburg MS officers gunned down in ambush. July 2016, Dallas, five officers killed and six officers injured by ambush, shooter protesting 'killing of blacks by police.' July 2016, three officers killed in Baton Rouge. Shooter made it clear it was a political kiling. Nov 2016, Des Moines, two officers ambushed and killed. ... in 2016 (the deadliest year) there were 21 officers killed in Ambush attacks. That was down in 2017 to eight. 2018... I have not got numbers. So the trend is down.
So why do I lay this at the feet of the past administration? Because their goal (and I give Obama this... he was totally honest in his campaign rhetoric) was to fundamentally change America... and he sure did... he was honest about that. His goal was to tear down institutions in order to build up a new America as he saw fit. Everyone saw "Hope and Change" and unicorns and rainbows. In fact, the goal was to tear down as much as possible... in order to rebuild from the ashes.
The 'attacks' on the institutions of the justice system? Started with guys like Holder who turned the DoJ into an attack dog to go after the law enforcement not support it. Remember beer summits, federal charges against departments for everything from justified shootings to hiring practices. Beer summits and press conferences that inflamed the left and increased racial tensions.
Next you have the 'community organizing' going on in groups ranging from the New Black Panther Party to the BLM to Antifa... where refrains of "Fry 'em like Bacon" became all hip and trendy. Did Obama do that directly? Well, I think that's still out for debate. But his fingerprints are all over it as are the fingerprints of people who fund Open Societies, Media Matters and a ton of other groups who are funding the groups who are funding the groups... blah blah blah. It is like Marx, Lenin and Stalin with their printing presses in the basements all over Czarist Russia... pulling strings, picking at scabs and trying to get an infection to set in. And anyone who thinks that Obama is not sitting in his Kalorama mansion pulling these strings in Organize for America... you're delusional. He is up to his eyeballs in his post-presidency resistance... and he proudly said that was what he was going to do! He doesn't hide it or lie about it. He is, as I said, honest! I'll give him that!
Add to that the creation of two justice systems (or more....) An FBI that was corrupted and turned into Obama/Holder/Jarret/Lynch's personal bichon-frise... A series of contradicting laws in areas like immigration and drugs that leave departments confused and unsure of how to proceed? (local legalization and sanctuary policies... conflicting with the law of the land.)... .and these cause questions about the very root of what is law enforcement... and whether the institutions can be trusted at all. Just look at how divided the nation is about it? And, to their discredit, many departments are proving that suspicions and distrust... are warranted. Thank you FBI. Way to go there top appointees....
Anyway, my point, Maser, is that there is a statistical bump. And I do make the connection to the past 9 years of concerted efforts to attack police as some kind of a targetable class... while similarly trying very hard to divide America.
Finally, you are right. The current generation is more liberal.... and that's a good thing in some ways. They are more tolerant, more accepting of others, less interested in what someone wants to do in the privacy of their own closets or what color someone is. That is how it should be! But don't confuse that kind of positive change with being used against people who, in some cases, may be more useful idiots. I'm not saying the current generation are idiots... but an awful lot of them have been raised through a 'community organized' school system and college and parenting and Public Television and Social Media Engineering... and a system that tolerates no counter-views... to have a hard time standing back, looking at a problem and dissecting it from every angle... before reaching a conclusion.
As Stalin said "Ideas are like guns. We should not allow the people to have either."
Pardon my long-winded response. But I will defend my earlier assertion that the statistics look like nothing we've seen since the Days of Rage and the radical's of the '60's. And I'll stand behind my assertion that it can be laid at the feet of Obama's administration... perhaps not 100 percent. But enough that I will stand by my assertion that we are seeing his legacy in, among other things, dead Americans like Officer Ramirez.
Sirhr
