Police officers are getting killed at higher rates during President Joe Biden’s first year in the White House, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“Violence against law enforcement in this country is one of the biggest phenomena that I think doesn’t get enough attention,” Wray said during an interview with CBS host Scott Pelley for 60 Minutes. “Last year, officers were being killed at a rate of almost one every five days.”
Pelley reported in 2021 there was a 59 percent increase in murders of police officers with 73 officers killed.
Wray explained that more police officers were directly targeted or ambushed while on patrol.
Chicago police and firefighters salute as the body of slain Chicago police officer Ella French is carried into the St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel for a funeral service Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
“Wearing the badge shouldn’t make you a target,” he said.
During his campaign for president, Biden sided with anti-police protesters condemning the “systemic racism” in police departments for the deaths of black people at the hands of police.
“We all need to take a hard look at the culture that allows for these senseless tragedies to keep happening,” he said, after taking a knee with activists protesting the death of George Floyd in June 2020.
In 2021, Biden blamed police departments for contributing to “a deep sense of distrust towards law enforcement” during a week dedicated to fallen law enforcement officers.
But the president has since tried to move beyond his rhetoric criticizing police officers as Americans face record crime rates, particularly in Democrat-run cities
“We should all agree the answer is not to defund the police is to fund the police,” he said during his State of the Union address in March. “Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with resources and training.”