America Under Fire — The NY Times Misleads Readers

Despite a 50% Drop in Officer Deaths,

The New York Times tells its readers,

“Even as Violent Crime Falls, Killing of Officers Rises“

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 Just this weekend we told you how the number of police deaths in America were down 50%. We noted that when officer deaths were up just over 20% this time last year, Attorney General Eric Holder, and nearly every media outlet told us that those numbers told us that police officers were under siege. But when the number of officer deaths dropped drastically, they media was silent,

New York Times – April 9, 2012

Well, we spoke too soon. Today the New York Times  repeated the statistics from 2011 declaring once again that police officers were under fire. The article pointed at everything from “ having fewer officers on the street” to  an increase in stop and frisk contacts by law enforcement as the reason for the increase. What the article never once considered was that 2011 was a statistical anomaly. Even as they acknowledged, “Through the first three months of this year, the number of police fatalities has dropped,” they failed to tell the readers how significant that drop was and seemed puzzled as to why the current facts would not cooperate with their preconceived thesis.

While it may just be a coincidence, it is worth noting that after seeing a twitter post of our article, That Was Then This is Now…Why Fewer Officer Fatalities is a Bad Thing For LE, Radley Balko, published a piece on his blog The Agitator, “The ‘War on Cops’ That Wasn’t. And Still Isn’t” where he covered the same ground, a citing us a reference, it seems that the New York Times piece comes out of nowhere, especially when you see it uses last year’s data.

Related articles

• Why Cops Don’t Stand Their Ground (thedailybeast.com)
• Making a Difference – The Agitator references clarkcountycriminalcops (clarkcountycriminalcops.wordpress.com)
• That Was Then This is Now…Why Fewer Officer Fatalities is a Bad Thing For LE (clarkcountycriminalcops.wordpress.com)
• Is The Increasing Number of Cops Killed by Perps Really a “Disturbing Trend”? (reason.com)

That Was Then This is Now…Why Fewer Officer Fatalities is a Bad Thing For LE

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While a 22% Change in the number of Cop Deaths

Was Big News In March, 2011

2012′s 56% Change in Officer Fatalities Has Gone Unnoticed

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Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder stood up in front of  group of police chiefs and the heads of several federal law enforcement agencies and  told them the number of  law enforcement officers killed in the United States in the first three months of the year was “simply unacceptable.”

Holder’s comments came as he announced a Law Enforcement Safety Initiative which would will involve all U.S. attorneys around the country meeting with their local police and others to discuss the issue and to try to find solutions to this problem.  Holder also directed the 93 U.S. attorneys to inform state, local and tribal enforcement agencies of federal programs designed to protect officers.

It’s interesting to note that Holder made these statements in March of 2011, response to the a nearly 20% increase in officer deaths so far in that year. This 20% swing was big news just a year ago.

So why hasn’t Holder or the media said a word about the 2012 numbers so far this year? After all this year’s number represents a 56% change from last year. Could it be that while at last year’s meeting Holder was more willing to talk about a 20% increase in officer deaths, than he is willing to talk about the 56% decline in officer deaths we have seen this year?

Why be more vocal about an increase in officer deaths, and silent about the good news of fewer officer fatalities? Is it because there is more funding to be acquired from the death of officers, after all it is easier to fear monger tax dollars from the public using dead officers than living ones?

According to the National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial Fund’s web page, officer deaths by firearms are down 57% from this time last year, and about a third of those fatalities were the result of cops killing other cops.

Related articles

• Holder announces safety initiative after rise in officer deaths
• DEA Agent: Other Fed Agencies Aware of Fast and Furious in 2009 (pjmedia.com)
• Nation To Honor Fallen Law Enforcement Officers During 24th Annual Candlelight Vigil On May 13 In Washington, DC (sacbee.com)
• Officer-involved shootings a trend nationwide (sfgate.com)
• America Under Fire – The NY Times Tries to Mislead Readers (clarkcountycriminalcops.wordpress.com)