The war on cops continues to march on: Joe Gamaldi
Fraternal Order of Police National Vice President Joe Gamaldi explains why more police officers were killed by firearms in 2022 on 'Fox News Live.'
Fraternal Order of Police National Vice President Joe Gamaldi sounded the alarm on a growing number of law enforcement fatalities in 2022 Sunday on "Fox News Live."
Firearms-related fatalities claimed the lives of 64 police officers in 2022, contributing to a roughly 21% increase from the average of 53 per year from 2010-2020, according to data from the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund (NLEOMF).
"It's absolutely horrible. Unfortunately, the war on cops in 2022 just continued to march on. We had 331 police officers shot. That's a 13% increase since 2019. We had nearly 90 ambush attacks and 64 of those officers lost their lives," Gamaldi said.
Firearms-related fatalities have claimed the lives of 64 officers in 2022. ((Fox News))
"And that comes on the heels of 2021, which was the deadliest year for law enforcement and intentional homicides in over two decades. Now, you combine that with what we're seeing nationwide, where we've had over 20,000 homicides for two years in a row. We haven't seen that since the 1990s."
Gamaldi told host Bill Melugin he believes there are five reasons why more police officers have been killed in the past year, saying a "culture of lawlessness" has gripped the country.
He argued more deaths were caused by "an open border, rogue DAs, activist judges, a revolving door criminal justice system, and generally a society that tells people you're no longer accountable for your own actions."
"So the leaders in this country, from the White House on down, need to understand that we're fighting for the very soul of our nation right now and we're losing. And that's why we see chaos and disorder everywhere we look. And we just can't go on like this," Gamaldi continued.
Melugin asked what other reasons could be behind the increase in fatalities besides a growing anti-police movement.
"We in law enforcement have been treated like crap for the better part of a decade. We've been demonized, we've been denigrated, and people just have less and less respect for law enforcement. But they also know that they're not going to be held accountable for their actions," Gamaldi responded.
Both Democratic lawmakers and members of the media have pushed the movement to defund police. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)
"I mean, we have people shooting individuals. They're getting out on a pinky promise bond. Did you show up to court? And then they're not getting any jail time whatsoever. They're getting deferred adjudication to get right back out. So when you create a society where you've eroded the rule of law, you're not giving people any consequences for what they're doing. What do you expect is going to happen? That's why we're seeing homicide rates through the roof and that's why you're seeing law enforcement get shot in record numbers."
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The top two causes of firearms-related fatalities against police officers were ambushing and handling domestic violence calls, according to NLEOMF data.
A Riverside County deputy was killed in California over the weekend, two weeks after another deputy was killed while conducting a traffic stop.
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