Read more ...Officials blame more violent criminals with deadlier guns after lapse of ban
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 1:54 p.m. MT July 19, 2007
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Police officials and law enforcement groups Thursday blamed a sharp increase in the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty on more violent criminals who have access to deadlier weapons.
Statistics released Thursday showed that 101 local and federal law enforcement officers died on duty in the first half of the year, 31 more than had died at the same time last year. It was the first time in three decades that the toll had reached more than 100.
“Every assignment that a police officer is on is potentially life-threatening,” said Craig Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a nonprofit group that compiled the statistics with the police advocacy group Concerns of Police Survivors. “And unfortunately, for the first six months of this year, it’s been particularly deadly for our police officers.”
I have a lot of feelings about this, but I'd like to defer to the LEOs on the board and others to discuss. I think this is a very important issue.