Attorney General Curtis Hill this week called on congressional leaders to assist in tempering anti-police rhetoric that is endangering officers across the United States.
Attorney General Hill, along with 10 other attorneys general and two sheriffs associations, asked congressional leaders in a letter this week to discourage dangerous disinformation and help restore Americans’ faith in law enforcement nationwide. The letter was sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
“The tragic and preventable death of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers shined a national spotlight on bad actors within the law enforcement profession,” the letter states. “At the same time, data simply does not support claims that law enforcement is systemically racist or structurally biased.”
Last year, 1,004 civilians were fatally shot by police officers in the United States. The vast majority of those shootings were justifiable, and most involved armed or dangerous individuals, the letter states.
There were nine fatal police shootings of unarmed black people last year. Those deaths represented 0.1% of all black homicide victims in 2019, the letter states. There were also 19 fatal shootings of unarmed white individuals.
Despite this data, radical calls to “defund the police” have grown louder and received support from members of Congress since Floyd’s horrific death. The idea that Americans would be safer with less law enforcement is nonsensical, Attorney General Hill said, and would only lead to increased crime.
“The four officers responsible for George Floyd’s death showed the world that they were unworthy of the badge. But their actions are not representative of the hundreds of thousands of officers who honorably serve and protect Americans every day,” Attorney General Hill said. “We must always strive to improve our policing efforts, but at the end of the day, Americans need police officers. And right now, police officers need our support.”
Over the last month, Attorney General Hill has written six op-eds about police brutality, the protests, and riots that followed Floyd’s death, the “defund the police” movement and related topics. The op-eds, all published at FoxNews.com, can be found here.
