WASHINGTON (Washington Insider Magazine) – According to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, there were 458 law enforcement personnel killed in the line of duty in the United States last year, a 55 percent increase from 2020.
According to the research, Covid-19 was the top cause of mortality, killing 301 federal, state, tribal, and municipal officers.
The figure showed a significant increase in the report’s 50-year statistics. In just one decade, the 1970s, there were over 200 deaths per year on average.
Only one other year, 1930, had more than 300 deaths, according to the report.
Last year, 84 people died as a result of criminal assaults, including 62 officers murdered by gunshot. 58 people died as a result of traffic accidents. According to the data, both shooting and road deaths increased over the previous year. The number of officers murdered in “ambush-style attacks” has also increased, from six in 2020 to 19 last year.
Health concerns, drownings, and other factors were blamed for the remaining deaths.
Covid-19 killed 84 police officers in Texas, the most in the US after Gov. Greg Abbott forbade all public and private bodies from requiring vaccines. Florida came in second with 52 votes, followed by Georgia (39), California (24), and North Carolina (23) in that order (21). According to the report, there were no Covid-19 deaths in eleven states and Washington, D.C.
Police union officials from Chicago to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and New York City to Seattle have spoken against vaccination mandates. The largest police union in New York City announced in September that it will file a lawsuit to defend its members’ “right to make such personal medical decisions.”
Last year, the wife of a Philadelphia law enforcement officer who died of Covid-19 on March 3 — just days before his first shot was scheduled for March 11 — told NBC News how she was “really disappointed” with the opposition.
Sheriffs in California, Kansas, Florida and other states have stated that vaccination laws will not be enforced. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office in Washington state advertised “no vaccine mandate” as a benefit of the job on Tuesday.
In October, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis awarded $5,000 signing bonuses to vaccine-resistant cops and deputies who relocated to Florida from other states, claiming that “nobody should lose their job based on these injections.”
