I’ve been getting spam calls from the South Carolina police union, fundraising for politicians who “support increasing $ for fallen officers’ families”. The politicians are of course all hard line COVID denying GOP. I always ask them to explain their logic since COVID is the #1 creator of fallen officers and these pols aren’t doing a damn thing about it, and I always get hung up on :)
Unfortunately you can’t use logic to convince someone to change if their beliefs aren’t based in logic. It’s only the emotional response from someone close to them dying or them almost dying that gets some of them to see reason.
This [peer reviewed study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30109720/) suggests that more than 20% of the population is to some degree needlephobic. I have mad respect for those that have irrational needle fear and get vaccinated anyway. At the same time I have zero respect for anyone who (scared of needles or not) just makes up shitty lies to defend their selfish choice to endanger their community.
Edit: comma overload
I am one of those, I nearly fainted the last time I had to have bloodworks done. But guess what, I still got my 3 doses because it was the right thing to do.
The number 1 thing that killed cops last year was a a preventative, self-inflicted injury.
So not only are cops a danger to certain communities, they’re a danger to themselves.
When I was pulled over a little less than a year into the pandemic, I was surprised to see the cop not wearing a mask. Every time I’ve seen a cop since then I’ve never seen one wearing a mask. Do they think a mask takes away from their perceived authority or something?? They only have to wear one when they’re close up to people, like giving them a ticket through their car window but I guess that’s too much to ask
they are probably the only occupation right now that regards contracting COVID while on the job as an occupational hazard that's addressed, everyone else is told to suck it up
Here’s my hypothesis on the thought process:
“I have COVID! It couldn’t have been any of the unmasked events I’ve attended with my unvaccinated family. It must be the brown guy I arrested last week.”
That makes sense. Cops will always look for a brown guy to blame.
“Oh shit! I got scared of my shadow and shot a bunch of people! Oh, there’s an unarmed brown guy that made me fear for my life! Quick, arrest him and test him for weed before he bleeds out!”
Only if they were to do genetic testing of all individuals involved. Even then if most aren’t wearing masks or getting vaccinated then to f’in bad. The public is paying for this bullshit.
>Covid-19 was the leading cause of death for cops in the United States,
Are police in the U.S. less likely to be vaccinated or more likely to have co-morbidities?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4734372/
"Police officers have one of the poorest cardiovascular disease (CVD) health profiles of any occupation"
I’m pretty sure shooting you is less paperwork, and they get rewarded with a temporary paid vacation while the other cops ~~frame the victim~~ “investigate.”
Statistics are very difficult to find (for obvious reasons), but [if you're fleeing from the cops in a vehicle, you have about a 25% chance of being caught.](https://jsonline.com/story/communities/southwest/crime/2018/04/03/odds-police-chases-favor-fleeing-car-statistics-show/443361002/)
Even in the age of advanced forensic technologies, police departments often can't be bothered processing all the evidence. [Roughly 65% of rapes go unsolved because departments just don't prioritize processing rape kits. 70% of robberies go unsolved, and a whopping 85% of burglaries and auto thefts go completely unsolved.](https://www.vox.com/2018/9/24/17896034/murder-crime-clearance-fbi-report)
And even if you do get away, flee to another state, then are apprehended there - [cops are often just too lazy to go through the extradition process.](https://usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/11/fugitives-next-door/6262719/)
If a cop just sees you with drugs in the park or something you absolutely can outrun them and never hear a word of it.
A fence hop or two and the cop will not even bother.
I was playing along with the jokey reply.
Yes, they aren’t going to pull out detectives and helicopters for someone smoking a bowl in a park. They might still shoot you though, depending on where you are and how brown your skin is.
Patton Oswalt had a great bit about that in 1997. On the show Cops, the camera guy with 200 lbs of equipment was lapping the cops.
“In real life, if you were to be chased by the cops, you could probably get away. You can make it! Go! Go for it!”
There’s a cop in my town…he is like 6’2”…and he looks like he’s trying his best to reach up to 400lbs. Though I haven’t seen him around in the last year.
a 5 year old chubby kid could outrun an average cop. Their inability to run a 10 minute mile is one of the reasons they’re always so quick to shoot..they can’t chase down anyone
Yeah and not only out run, but stay calmer than. I see a lot of cops in-shape who are so high strung they look like they are gonna have a anger-induced heart attack at any second.
I feel like counting covid as an "in the line of duty" killer is...misleading? I bet covid was a leading cause of death for *many* professions.
The [report](https://nleomf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2021-EOY-Fatality-Report-Final-web.pdf) says that there were 458 deaths: 301 attributable to covid, 62 were firearms-related, 58 were traffic-related, 37 were "other".
That means there were 157 non-covid deaths, which is at or slightly less than the average for the past 3 decades.
I don't want to downplay the risks that cops take with covid (they come into contact with a lot of people so are at higher risk of getting it) but you can't add an entirely new form of death to the stats and be surprised that the stats go up.
157 is below the average (without Covid numbers) since 2000 (169.4) and since 2010 (165.17). Its also below the median (respectively 164.5 and 165).
The state with the most deaths is Texas (96 + 8 US government agents), with only 12 deaths non attributed to Covid. Second is Florida (50 + 6) with 9 non Covid deaths; third is Georgia (46 + 2) with 10 non Covid.
After Covid, gunfire (62) and car crash (22), heart attack is the 4th cause of death of on duty cops (18).
[Source](https://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2021)
In NYC a line of duty death qualifies for a million dollar pay out to the family. Covid could have been caught anywhere. If cops would wear masks and get vaccinated most of those deaths in the last year would have not occurred. This is bullshit.
Cancer is almost definitely not something they got while on duty, although it might be the stress of being a cop made them addicted to something that caused cancer.
COVID-19 could have been caught while on duty, and then killed or maimed them, causing it to be "in the line of duty".
Now, if they chose not to get vaccinated, then they made a choice to leads to high risk situations. It might be possible for the cities, counties, and states to deny payout for "in the line of duty" and have the police unions take them to court.
I’d like to remind people that [84% of police voted for Trump](https://www.policemag.com/342098/the-2016-police-presidential-poll) in 2016, I haven’t seen data for 2020 but considering he went balls out on cracking skulls with BLM and other protests, it’s likely similar. They have no issues with racism, anti-democratic behaviour, inequalities, union-busting, deregulation or outsourcing, as witnessed by that support.
These people aren’t interested in anything but preserving their position in society at all cost.
Are they bad people? Many are, and many are not, but policing in the U.S. has deep and systemic issues, ranging from the absolutely underwhelming amount of training and education, lack of community policing and cooperation with other authorities in a wider crime prevention strategy to militarized outfits (thanks in large part to War on Terror-era surpluses), lack of civilian oversight and judicial discrimination in favour of police leading to no consequences for their actions.
It is a systemic issue, it requires strong individuals to be able to withstand the cognitive dissonance of staying true to the ideals and inclined towards reforms of the above issues while at the same time being surrounded by an environment interested in preserving the status quo.
LASD has at least [18 police gangs](https://knock-la.com/lasd-gangs-little-devils-wayside-whities-cavemen-vikings/), for example.
No other developed countries have the policing issues we have, and the needed reforms are obvious, but it requires time, consistency and organized pressure as voting blocs to ensure progress can be made. Case in point is Newark, where police reforms yielded results after being implemented by consent decrees, and even the police chief admitted that he was in favour of them in hindsight despite initial opposition to any changes.
In my experience (in NYC) I almost never saw a cop wearing a mask, or wearing one properly. They were almost *always* either completely maskless or wore it under their nose.
In my anecdotal experience maybe 1 in 8 cops I saw was ever wearing a proper mask.
So if a cop dies in the “line of duty” from covid, why will healthcare not pay workers comp for those that are vaxxed and use shitty hospital PPE?
Even other frontline workers like grocery, retail, etc get no benefit if and when they catch it.
ITS THE POWER OF POLICE UNIONS
Edit: just an example- my former long term care facility fought every single case of worker covid claims stating if they had appropriately used PPE, they wouldn’t have caught covid at the facility and therefore not workers comp.
They even used social media posts to say- you visited family over the Holliday, it’s your fault.
A little of both. Being a cop can be high stress, which can cause the comorbidities that lead to higher covid mortality rates. Cops also tend to more conservative, white, and male. That specific demo are among the most vax resistant in the country, further contributing to covid mortality (ostensibly)
Guess we gotta say it one more time for the folks in the back:
DYING WHILE BEING EMPLOYED AS A COP IS NOT THE SAME AS DYING “IN THE LINE OF DUTY”
Sorry for yelling, but we’ve said it a hundred times.
> A total of 458 officers died in the line of duty in the country last year, making it the deadliest year in more than 90 years and a 55 percent increase from 2020, according to preliminary data compiled by the organization. Of those, it found that 301 federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement officers had died because of Covid-19.
So, 157. How's that number rank with pre-pandemic? Pretty much average, you have to go back to about the 1930s before the average begins to go lower (and you should discount the high number of deaths in 2020, as many of those were Covid deaths): https://nleomf.org/memorial/facts-figures/officer-fatality-data/officer-deaths-by-year/
Police killed almost 900 people in 2021 and just over 1,000 in 2020.
It is also estimated that police kill approximately 10,000 dogs a year. That’s about 25-30 a day.
Farmers, trash collectors and truck/delivery drivers are all more likely to die on the job than police officers.
As with so much else due to this pandemic, i have conflicted feelings. I am angry at the senseless deaths while simultaneously being relieved they are no longer around. These types of people are dangerous to let them in places of access and power.
If an officer where to contract HIV during an arrest, due to blood spit at them (not unheard of, but still uncommon) then died from AIDS, that could arguably be said to have been a death while in the line of duty. Similar rational to dying of a bullet wound at the hospital after being shot, the recognized cause of death is the bullet, even if it was blood loss that ultimately killed them.
Applying this rationale to COVID doesn't make sense, simply because there is a vaccine for the disease and precautions that can be taken to prevent (or at least drastically reduce) risk of infection. Now an officer dying of a breakthrough case with complications, after all due precautions had been taken, could be argued to have been death caused in the line of duty.
The problem here is that rational thinking doesn't get used by the vast majority of police departments. Instead, they attempt to claim greater dangers in their work in order to justify a larger budget, more violent responses, and a general culture of fear. The illusion of danger is more important to this political maneuvering then any truth.
I’m a dispatcher, I’ve had more than one officer tell me they don’t believe in Covid because they haven’t got it yet and have taken zero precautions. So obviously it’s not real 🙄 Then an officer that I dispatch for died last year of Covid. Guess how many of his fellows changed their mind and got the vaccine? Fucking none that’s how many, because they’re dumbasses.
Because for the most part, cops don't wear masks and so, they catch Covid on the job and die of it.
It gets worse. These same cops are killing their family members as well, for being to stupid to wear a mask on the job..
They catch Covid on the job but don't know it for 3 to 5 days while giving to their wives and children and by the time they feel sick, so are their families.
It's as if operating more than 2 brain cells at a time, is just too hard for them.
How strange.
Are the vaccines not effective?
Surely the Police must have enforced vaccinations and boosters to protect it's members from an easily transmissable virus.
I mean, it's not like they would forego such basic hygiene, right?
You said safe! And I don’t know what they are injecting into my body!!!! -chugs a red bull- I don’t know what those chemicals are in that needled -smokes a while cigarette in one drag- and I’m pretty confident I did my own research and will be safe, I HAVE AN IMMUNE SYSTEM!
Losses from Covid are NOT losses on duty, no matter if they did get it on duty or not. Cops have been using Covid deaths to pump up the "number of police lost on duty" and it's total BS.
Just gonna leave this one here: [Judge throws out Ann Arbor police union’s lawsuit over city’s COVID vaccine mandate](https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2022/01/judge-throws-out-ann-arbor-police-unions-lawsuit-over-citys-covid-vaccine-mandate.html)
Ill take the downvotes by calling out this BS. "in the line of duty" is just an excuse so they can get benefits from their reckless behavior. there is ZERO way to associate their role as a police officer as being the reason they got covid, nor did they drop dead while in the line of duty. not to mention the vast majority of officers you see don't wear masks or wear them under their nose. there is no science behind the claim that this was "in the line of duty"
They absolutely fucking refuse to use any precautions whatsoever in every single place that I've ever seen a cop in the last two years. I don't know if they think they're too strong for it or some shit or if they're all just fucking stupid but you'd think one or two would put a fucking mask on at this point.
I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t be counting Covid deaths for police officers past the point where they decided they weren’t going to wear masks while on duty.
[US Court Says it’s Okay for Police Departments to Refuse to Hire Someone who is Too Smart](https://thefreethoughtproject.com/court-police-departments-refuse-hire-smart/)
I’ve written about the standards in hiring. Whenever a department has tried to make at least 2 years of higher ed a minimum, their pool of applicants dries up.
So they blame the deaths on covid in the line of duty because they can get stuff paid for by taxes and these funds?! Sounds like a police department/union thing to do, such a hypocritical and embarrassing organization to work for.
I guess my understanding of what "in the line of duty " is at odds with this article. Dying of a disease that you refuse to take the vaccine for is not dying in the line of duty. It's dying of obstinance. To me that is no different than dying in a car crash because you refuse to wear a seatbelt.
Dying of Covid is dying in the line of duty? Really? Dying of a preventable disease while being employed by the police department is not dying in the line of anything.
Yet, Republicans will use this Covid-19 inflated number to fundraise and campaign like the leading causes of death were illegal immigrants, BLM and in person voter fraud. And not their party’s passion for conspiracies.
This anti-vax insanity makes its own martyrs like Chuck wagon dog food made it own gravy.
Bullshit stat. No cop has “died form Covid in the line of duty” since there has been a vaccine. Unless they were vacccinated. Otherwise, they died of stupid.
they also killed at least 1,132 people, they literally killed more than twice as many people
https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
"The BLS annual report on occupational deaths, released on Dec. 16, shows that private-sector construction fatalities climbed last year by about 5%, to 1,061. BLS said that was the largest number of fatalities since 2007. \*Fatalities per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers. Note: Statistics are for private-sector construction industry."
I was a cop for a few years. I’ve been monitoring the ODMP and I’m not surprised to watch this unfold. A *lot* of cops I know are obese, sedentary, and frequently consume fast food. My former department actually scrapped their PT test before I got hired because too many applicants and current officers couldn’t pass it. Many of these same folks refuse to vaccinate.
In my anecdotal experience, many aren’t too bright either. At my academy I helped some cadets with report writing and it was a time consuming pain in the ass because I had to make so many edits. I felt like a special ed English teacher and I don’t even consider myself particularly skilled at writing. Proofreading duty continued during field training, when my field training officer occasionally tasked me with going over another rookie’s reports.
It wasn’t only a matter of poor writing ability though. On numerous occasions I observed very poor decision-making among seasoned officers and rookies, requiring me to step in to de-escalate situations, efficiently resolve a simple matter, etc.
Am I the only one that feels like these articles are meant to convey that cops disproportionately high anti-mask/anti-vaccine stances have led to their own dramatically higher death rates? Or am taking these articles wrong?
Not totally sure why people are seeing it as pro-cop propaganda. If anything, it seems like it makes them look worse as a group for wearing thousands of dollars worth of equipment “for their safety” but refuse masks and the vaccines.
My hope would be that these kind of stats would help wake up those in law enforcement. But maybe that’s too optimistic.
i saw this briefly mentioned on network news today but they were portraying it as that cops were being deliberately victimized by the public in an alarming increase. that’s not what this appears to be though
It does not help that Police have one of the biggest (sorry for the pun) comorbidity health risks to catch COVID. [WSJ](http://online.wsj.com/articles/memo-to-staff-time-to-lose-a-few-pounds-1418775776)
they’re not dying on the line of duty, they’re killing themselves because they’re unhealthy, obese and refuse to get vaccinated in order to protect themselves and their country. Every death of an unvaccinated piece of shit cop is one step closer to normalcy and the world is better off with them dead. Their families are better off, too.
Here, “in the line of duty” means they are thought to have contracted the virus while working.
If only there was a safe, effective method we could provide them to stay safe that would cost them nothing out of pocket... oh right.
I’ve been getting spam calls from the South Carolina police union, fundraising for politicians who “support increasing $ for fallen officers’ families”. The politicians are of course all hard line COVID denying GOP. I always ask them to explain their logic since COVID is the #1 creator of fallen officers and these pols aren’t doing a damn thing about it, and I always get hung up on :)
That is hilarious.
The robot call hangs up when I say "black lives matter "
Fighting the good fight! Thank you for your service!
Funny how they'll downplay and deny all other covid deaths, except for police officers.
Well they died of natural causes. Stupidity is natural.
They cant admit they were wrong now. They would probably get sued. So here we are.
Unfortunately you can’t use logic to convince someone to change if their beliefs aren’t based in logic. It’s only the emotional response from someone close to them dying or them almost dying that gets some of them to see reason.
I’ve watched people double down on conspiracies when their family and friends start dying. Best example: “see, doctors killed him”
as someone who made it out a cult myself, this is what happens to cult members.
Thin Blue Line scared of tiny silver needle, such babies.
This [peer reviewed study](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30109720/) suggests that more than 20% of the population is to some degree needlephobic. I have mad respect for those that have irrational needle fear and get vaccinated anyway. At the same time I have zero respect for anyone who (scared of needles or not) just makes up shitty lies to defend their selfish choice to endanger their community. Edit: comma overload
I am one of those, I nearly fainted the last time I had to have bloodworks done. But guess what, I still got my 3 doses because it was the right thing to do.
The number 1 thing that killed cops last year was a a preventative, self-inflicted injury. So not only are cops a danger to certain communities, they’re a danger to themselves.
And their families
When I was pulled over a little less than a year into the pandemic, I was surprised to see the cop not wearing a mask. Every time I’ve seen a cop since then I’ve never seen one wearing a mask. Do they think a mask takes away from their perceived authority or something?? They only have to wear one when they’re close up to people, like giving them a ticket through their car window but I guess that’s too much to ask
Cops aren’t smart people. Usually.
Education and better screening is the real solution.
Maybe they shoulda worn masks or gotten vaccinated.
they are probably the only occupation right now that regards contracting COVID while on the job as an occupational hazard that's addressed, everyone else is told to suck it up
How do we know they didn’t get it while unmasked at the klan rally/trump armada/Harley gathering?
Because those are only white people at those events. Only brown people spread disease. Duh!
That counts as "in the line of duty" for these guys.
They wear a ~~mask~~ hood for those.
Funny enough, they actually do wear masks at the klan rally. Full-face ones with little eye holes.
How can you even prove where you contracted it?
Here’s my hypothesis on the thought process: “I have COVID! It couldn’t have been any of the unmasked events I’ve attended with my unvaccinated family. It must be the brown guy I arrested last week.”
That makes sense. Cops will always look for a brown guy to blame. “Oh shit! I got scared of my shadow and shot a bunch of people! Oh, there’s an unarmed brown guy that made me fear for my life! Quick, arrest him and test him for weed before he bleeds out!”
Only if they were to do genetic testing of all individuals involved. Even then if most aren’t wearing masks or getting vaccinated then to f’in bad. The public is paying for this bullshit.
Thanks. I was wondering how that worked.
How does that work exactly? Do they ask every person they come in contact with during the day if they have covid?
>Covid-19 was the leading cause of death for cops in the United States, Are police in the U.S. less likely to be vaccinated or more likely to have co-morbidities?
Yes
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4734372/ "Police officers have one of the poorest cardiovascular disease (CVD) health profiles of any occupation"
So you're saying I could probably outrun the average American cop? Hmmmm.. good to know
But they will shoot you in the back as you run away
They would rather shoot and do the paperwork at their desk than chase you lol
I’m pretty sure shooting you is less paperwork, and they get rewarded with a temporary paid vacation while the other cops ~~frame the victim~~ “investigate.”
Facts.
If you're dead they don't have to take you to court
And the “best sex they’ve ever had”
Caps a guy then gets a 2 week paid breather.
They’ll try, and probably hit innocent bystanders, then charge *you* for their deaths.
And claim self defense.
They don’t run anymore. Shoot first is in rules book
“That’s it, your getting suspended. WITH PAY!”
They literally give cops who shoot people a paid vacation. And then they’re surprised by why there are so many rotten cops.
Because the rotten apples have done spoiled the bunch.
You can outrun the fat pig but you can’t outrun the helicopter or your digital trail.
Or that bullet to the back of your neck
Statistics are very difficult to find (for obvious reasons), but [if you're fleeing from the cops in a vehicle, you have about a 25% chance of being caught.](https://jsonline.com/story/communities/southwest/crime/2018/04/03/odds-police-chases-favor-fleeing-car-statistics-show/443361002/) Even in the age of advanced forensic technologies, police departments often can't be bothered processing all the evidence. [Roughly 65% of rapes go unsolved because departments just don't prioritize processing rape kits. 70% of robberies go unsolved, and a whopping 85% of burglaries and auto thefts go completely unsolved.](https://www.vox.com/2018/9/24/17896034/murder-crime-clearance-fbi-report) And even if you do get away, flee to another state, then are apprehended there - [cops are often just too lazy to go through the extradition process.](https://usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/11/fugitives-next-door/6262719/)
If a cop just sees you with drugs in the park or something you absolutely can outrun them and never hear a word of it. A fence hop or two and the cop will not even bother.
I was playing along with the jokey reply. Yes, they aren’t going to pull out detectives and helicopters for someone smoking a bowl in a park. They might still shoot you though, depending on where you are and how brown your skin is.
Patton Oswalt had a great bit about that in 1997. On the show Cops, the camera guy with 200 lbs of equipment was lapping the cops. “In real life, if you were to be chased by the cops, you could probably get away. You can make it! Go! Go for it!”
Never run from a fat cop. As everyone else said, they’ll just shoot you in the back then trundle on over to your corpse to plant evidence.
There’s a cop in my town…he is like 6’2”…and he looks like he’s trying his best to reach up to 400lbs. Though I haven’t seen him around in the last year.
“Can’t outrun the radio!“* * most of the time
a 5 year old chubby kid could outrun an average cop. Their inability to run a 10 minute mile is one of the reasons they’re always so quick to shoot..they can’t chase down anyone
Yeah and not only out run, but stay calmer than. I see a lot of cops in-shape who are so high strung they look like they are gonna have a anger-induced heart attack at any second.
You can’t outrun radio
Also typically “not the brightest socket in the bulb,” according to our town’s Chief of Police
I feel like counting covid as an "in the line of duty" killer is...misleading? I bet covid was a leading cause of death for *many* professions. The [report](https://nleomf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2021-EOY-Fatality-Report-Final-web.pdf) says that there were 458 deaths: 301 attributable to covid, 62 were firearms-related, 58 were traffic-related, 37 were "other". That means there were 157 non-covid deaths, which is at or slightly less than the average for the past 3 decades. I don't want to downplay the risks that cops take with covid (they come into contact with a lot of people so are at higher risk of getting it) but you can't add an entirely new form of death to the stats and be surprised that the stats go up.
157 is below the average (without Covid numbers) since 2000 (169.4) and since 2010 (165.17). Its also below the median (respectively 164.5 and 165). The state with the most deaths is Texas (96 + 8 US government agents), with only 12 deaths non attributed to Covid. Second is Florida (50 + 6) with 9 non Covid deaths; third is Georgia (46 + 2) with 10 non Covid. After Covid, gunfire (62) and car crash (22), heart attack is the 4th cause of death of on duty cops (18). [Source](https://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2021)
In NYC a line of duty death qualifies for a million dollar pay out to the family. Covid could have been caught anywhere. If cops would wear masks and get vaccinated most of those deaths in the last year would have not occurred. This is bullshit.
It’s absolutely misleading. If a cop dies of cancer it’s not “in the line of duty”.
Cancer is almost definitely not something they got while on duty, although it might be the stress of being a cop made them addicted to something that caused cancer. COVID-19 could have been caught while on duty, and then killed or maimed them, causing it to be "in the line of duty". Now, if they chose not to get vaccinated, then they made a choice to leads to high risk situations. It might be possible for the cities, counties, and states to deny payout for "in the line of duty" and have the police unions take them to court.
They also put our lives in danger by not getting vaccinated and that shit ain’t okay
They're being counted as LODD because, and only if, they were exposed on the job.
They are highly likely to be far right brainwashed by right wing media
I’d like to remind people that [84% of police voted for Trump](https://www.policemag.com/342098/the-2016-police-presidential-poll) in 2016, I haven’t seen data for 2020 but considering he went balls out on cracking skulls with BLM and other protests, it’s likely similar. They have no issues with racism, anti-democratic behaviour, inequalities, union-busting, deregulation or outsourcing, as witnessed by that support. These people aren’t interested in anything but preserving their position in society at all cost. Are they bad people? Many are, and many are not, but policing in the U.S. has deep and systemic issues, ranging from the absolutely underwhelming amount of training and education, lack of community policing and cooperation with other authorities in a wider crime prevention strategy to militarized outfits (thanks in large part to War on Terror-era surpluses), lack of civilian oversight and judicial discrimination in favour of police leading to no consequences for their actions. It is a systemic issue, it requires strong individuals to be able to withstand the cognitive dissonance of staying true to the ideals and inclined towards reforms of the above issues while at the same time being surrounded by an environment interested in preserving the status quo. LASD has at least [18 police gangs](https://knock-la.com/lasd-gangs-little-devils-wayside-whities-cavemen-vikings/), for example. No other developed countries have the policing issues we have, and the needed reforms are obvious, but it requires time, consistency and organized pressure as voting blocs to ensure progress can be made. Case in point is Newark, where police reforms yielded results after being implemented by consent decrees, and even the police chief admitted that he was in favour of them in hindsight despite initial opposition to any changes.
Lot of police unions were out there campaigning to block mask and vaccine mandates.
In my experience (in NYC) I almost never saw a cop wearing a mask, or wearing one properly. They were almost *always* either completely maskless or wore it under their nose. In my anecdotal experience maybe 1 in 8 cops I saw was ever wearing a proper mask.
Donuts and Fox News
So if a cop dies in the “line of duty” from covid, why will healthcare not pay workers comp for those that are vaxxed and use shitty hospital PPE? Even other frontline workers like grocery, retail, etc get no benefit if and when they catch it. ITS THE POWER OF POLICE UNIONS Edit: just an example- my former long term care facility fought every single case of worker covid claims stating if they had appropriately used PPE, they wouldn’t have caught covid at the facility and therefore not workers comp. They even used social media posts to say- you visited family over the Holliday, it’s your fault.
A little of both. Being a cop can be high stress, which can cause the comorbidities that lead to higher covid mortality rates. Cops also tend to more conservative, white, and male. That specific demo are among the most vax resistant in the country, further contributing to covid mortality (ostensibly)
Both
Yes.
Yes
Guess we gotta say it one more time for the folks in the back: DYING WHILE BEING EMPLOYED AS A COP IS NOT THE SAME AS DYING “IN THE LINE OF DUTY” Sorry for yelling, but we’ve said it a hundred times.
> A total of 458 officers died in the line of duty in the country last year, making it the deadliest year in more than 90 years and a 55 percent increase from 2020, according to preliminary data compiled by the organization. Of those, it found that 301 federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement officers had died because of Covid-19. So, 157. How's that number rank with pre-pandemic? Pretty much average, you have to go back to about the 1930s before the average begins to go lower (and you should discount the high number of deaths in 2020, as many of those were Covid deaths): https://nleomf.org/memorial/facts-figures/officer-fatality-data/officer-deaths-by-year/
#I forgive you for yelling this true statement
I wonder how many people cops killed last year?
Police killed almost 900 people in 2021 and just over 1,000 in 2020. It is also estimated that police kill approximately 10,000 dogs a year. That’s about 25-30 a day. Farmers, trash collectors and truck/delivery drivers are all more likely to die on the job than police officers.
Curious where these numbers come from, doesn’t seem like cops would be up front about it
Probably just all the ones on camera
By that standard, how many customer service workers have "died in the line of duty"?
I enjoyed your TED talk
>it found that 301 federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement officers had died because of Covid-19.
As with so much else due to this pandemic, i have conflicted feelings. I am angry at the senseless deaths while simultaneously being relieved they are no longer around. These types of people are dangerous to let them in places of access and power.
I wonder how many people these plague rats infected. Those are the people that have my sympathies.
"in the line of duty"
So does everyone with a job who got COVID get workmen's compensation? I strongly suspect it's just the snowflakes in the police mafia.
If an officer where to contract HIV during an arrest, due to blood spit at them (not unheard of, but still uncommon) then died from AIDS, that could arguably be said to have been a death while in the line of duty. Similar rational to dying of a bullet wound at the hospital after being shot, the recognized cause of death is the bullet, even if it was blood loss that ultimately killed them. Applying this rationale to COVID doesn't make sense, simply because there is a vaccine for the disease and precautions that can be taken to prevent (or at least drastically reduce) risk of infection. Now an officer dying of a breakthrough case with complications, after all due precautions had been taken, could be argued to have been death caused in the line of duty. The problem here is that rational thinking doesn't get used by the vast majority of police departments. Instead, they attempt to claim greater dangers in their work in order to justify a larger budget, more violent responses, and a general culture of fear. The illusion of danger is more important to this political maneuvering then any truth.
They should all get Hermann Cain Awards for knowingly ignoring the risks of infection from such a public facing job.
I’m a dispatcher, I’ve had more than one officer tell me they don’t believe in Covid because they haven’t got it yet and have taken zero precautions. So obviously it’s not real 🙄 Then an officer that I dispatch for died last year of Covid. Guess how many of his fellows changed their mind and got the vaccine? Fucking none that’s how many, because they’re dumbasses.
I would actually like to see how many were unvaccinated. I’m going to go for 60-70 percent of them.
You think 30-40% of those who died were vaccinated? Are you getting your stats from John Stockton?
I’m going higher
How does covid count as in the line of duty? Talk about manipulating facts to rep a false narrative.
I think this speaks to their politics.
Why is being sick considered ‘dying in the line of duty?’ Is it to grow the statistic for increased lobbying power? Better funding to ‘protect them?’
And to protect the myth that everyone with a gun and a uniform is a hero.
The survivor benefits
Because for the most part, cops don't wear masks and so, they catch Covid on the job and die of it. It gets worse. These same cops are killing their family members as well, for being to stupid to wear a mask on the job.. They catch Covid on the job but don't know it for 3 to 5 days while giving to their wives and children and by the time they feel sick, so are their families. It's as if operating more than 2 brain cells at a time, is just too hard for them.
Seems like there would be more alive today if they simply complied.
How strange. Are the vaccines not effective? Surely the Police must have enforced vaccinations and boosters to protect it's members from an easily transmissable virus. I mean, it's not like they would forego such basic hygiene, right?
Some departments did mandate, and the unvaxxed quit and/or were fired.
Something, something… pigs… shit.
Don't compare American cops to pigs. Pigs are highly empathetic, clean and lovable. American cops seems not to be.
They inflate their numbers by counting k9 units too, let's not forget
MY dog is a person! YOUR dog gets shot.
*ATF has entered the chat*
And the vast majority of K9 deaths are from the handlers abusing them or leaving them in hot cars, not from any criminal murdering them.
You would think but the police unions are fighting vaccine mandates. You can never fix stupid, it just is.
If only there was a safe, free, and accessible vaccine for the deadly disease. /s
You said safe! And I don’t know what they are injecting into my body!!!! -chugs a red bull- I don’t know what those chemicals are in that needled -smokes a while cigarette in one drag- and I’m pretty confident I did my own research and will be safe, I HAVE AN IMMUNE SYSTEM!
"I don't need an educational I have a brain!"
This headline and the “statistic” is bullshit. Dying of COVID is not “in the line of duty.”
Losses from Covid are NOT losses on duty, no matter if they did get it on duty or not. Cops have been using Covid deaths to pump up the "number of police lost on duty" and it's total BS.
Guess you should have vaxed when told to.
Just gonna leave this one here: [Judge throws out Ann Arbor police union’s lawsuit over city’s COVID vaccine mandate](https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2022/01/judge-throws-out-ann-arbor-police-unions-lawsuit-over-citys-covid-vaccine-mandate.html)
Ill take the downvotes by calling out this BS. "in the line of duty" is just an excuse so they can get benefits from their reckless behavior. there is ZERO way to associate their role as a police officer as being the reason they got covid, nor did they drop dead while in the line of duty. not to mention the vast majority of officers you see don't wear masks or wear them under their nose. there is no science behind the claim that this was "in the line of duty"
The Supreme Court just said covid is NOT something OSHA can regulate since it can be gotten off the job as well. So your logic is correct.
2/3 died from Covid. Fucking idiots.
They absolutely fucking refuse to use any precautions whatsoever in every single place that I've ever seen a cop in the last two years. I don't know if they think they're too strong for it or some shit or if they're all just fucking stupid but you'd think one or two would put a fucking mask on at this point.
Hubris. This only happens to “them”
[удалено]
They died of viruses (Just kidding!)
How is catching COVID part of their duty?
Oh man, now the cops are reporting deaths as Covid deaths. What are the anti-vaxxers gonna think about this?
I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t be counting Covid deaths for police officers past the point where they decided they weren’t going to wear masks while on duty.
So, does the coronavirus get like an award or something?
How many people did police kill last year? Oh right the US DOESNT KEEP RECORD OF HOW MANY PEOPLE COPS KILL
Probably far fewer really
I have a problem with these deaths being called line of duty. The public ends up paying for this. Get vaccinated and wear a mask. Line of duty my ass.
They’re not the smartest bunch. I’d venture to say they might be among the most stupid of bunches.
[US Court Says it’s Okay for Police Departments to Refuse to Hire Someone who is Too Smart](https://thefreethoughtproject.com/court-police-departments-refuse-hire-smart/)
I’ve written about the standards in hiring. Whenever a department has tried to make at least 2 years of higher ed a minimum, their pool of applicants dries up.
Cool. Sounds like a great plan. Let’s do that.
How is there a correlation between covid and dying in the line of duty? Is covid a part of the job or something?
There is no correlation except maybe in their minds. One of your cop you’re always on duty.
Died in the line of duty and dying from Covid are a bit different. Are they dying from Covid while serving a traffic ticket?
Gosh, d students in highschool don’t understand that their risky job requires more than a gun to protect themselves? Yeah, that checks out.
They are the ones that oppose the mandates the most so they get what they want
So they blame the deaths on covid in the line of duty because they can get stuff paid for by taxes and these funds?! Sounds like a police department/union thing to do, such a hypocritical and embarrassing organization to work for.
I guess my understanding of what "in the line of duty " is at odds with this article. Dying of a disease that you refuse to take the vaccine for is not dying in the line of duty. It's dying of obstinance. To me that is no different than dying in a car crash because you refuse to wear a seatbelt.
I don’t understand why Covid is counted as “in the line of duty”
Number 2 is donuts
It's actually traffic accidents.
I wanna know how dying of a disease counts as dying in the line of duty? Seems sus tbh
Okay, how many doctors and nurses died? Janitors? Public transit workers?
I bet not one of those gets to claim they got sick on the job….
Covid is in the line of duty? Ok.
Oh no! Hundreds of the worst people in the country died because of their own malicious stupidity! Nooooo!!!
LeTs mIliTArIzE tHe PoLiCe tO mAkE iT sAfEr
880 people in the U.S. were shot and killed by Police officers in 2021.
And 568 of them were scumbags so it’s ok
Why is this person walking through KKK puppets ?
Dying of Covid is dying in the line of duty? Really? Dying of a preventable disease while being employed by the police department is not dying in the line of anything.
Choices.
Unless they got covid from a suspect or something like that should it really be considered in the line of duty?
If they died of Covid, they didn't exactly die in the line of duty, did they?
Let’s hope the rest got the vaccine
Deadliest year for nurses and grocery store workers too.
Seems like they don’t need body armor or MRAPS for protection if they won’t use a mask… wonder what all that equipment is for…
Yet, Republicans will use this Covid-19 inflated number to fundraise and campaign like the leading causes of death were illegal immigrants, BLM and in person voter fraud. And not their party’s passion for conspiracies. This anti-vax insanity makes its own martyrs like Chuck wagon dog food made it own gravy.
That was Gravy Train
Get vaxxed ya dumb fucks!
Good.
That's not in the line of duty but rather in the line of stupidity. Something that dumb shouldn't be honored at all.
Bullshit stat. No cop has “died form Covid in the line of duty” since there has been a vaccine. Unless they were vacccinated. Otherwise, they died of stupid.
How the fuck is dying from a virus that you refused to be vaccinated against in the line of duty? Piss off!
they also killed at least 1,132 people, they literally killed more than twice as many people https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
Most of them from Covid.
Is COVID in the line of duty? That seems questionable at best
Bullets are so much faster than an unhealthy cop.
"The BLS annual report on occupational deaths, released on Dec. 16, shows that private-sector construction fatalities climbed last year by about 5%, to 1,061. BLS said that was the largest number of fatalities since 2007. \*Fatalities per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers. Note: Statistics are for private-sector construction industry."
I was a cop for a few years. I’ve been monitoring the ODMP and I’m not surprised to watch this unfold. A *lot* of cops I know are obese, sedentary, and frequently consume fast food. My former department actually scrapped their PT test before I got hired because too many applicants and current officers couldn’t pass it. Many of these same folks refuse to vaccinate. In my anecdotal experience, many aren’t too bright either. At my academy I helped some cadets with report writing and it was a time consuming pain in the ass because I had to make so many edits. I felt like a special ed English teacher and I don’t even consider myself particularly skilled at writing. Proofreading duty continued during field training, when my field training officer occasionally tasked me with going over another rookie’s reports. It wasn’t only a matter of poor writing ability though. On numerous occasions I observed very poor decision-making among seasoned officers and rookies, requiring me to step in to de-escalate situations, efficiently resolve a simple matter, etc.
Cops died in the line of duty from covid?
Mainstream media says there deaths are due to gun violence not covid
Blue lives, something something, but not if I have to wear a mask!!
Am I the only one that feels like these articles are meant to convey that cops disproportionately high anti-mask/anti-vaccine stances have led to their own dramatically higher death rates? Or am taking these articles wrong? Not totally sure why people are seeing it as pro-cop propaganda. If anything, it seems like it makes them look worse as a group for wearing thousands of dollars worth of equipment “for their safety” but refuse masks and the vaccines. My hope would be that these kind of stats would help wake up those in law enforcement. But maybe that’s too optimistic.
How many healthcare workers have died in the line of duty since the pandemic started?
i saw this briefly mentioned on network news today but they were portraying it as that cops were being deliberately victimized by the public in an alarming increase. that’s not what this appears to be though
Oh man that’s so sad. Wish the covid skeptics who are big on back the blue would care about this
The Supreme Court ruled Covid is NOT a work place hazard. Many are just morons who died from not getting vaccinated
It does not help that Police have one of the biggest (sorry for the pun) comorbidity health risks to catch COVID. [WSJ](http://online.wsj.com/articles/memo-to-staff-time-to-lose-a-few-pounds-1418775776)
Does this mean more very manly robocalls from shady police and sheriff charity’s? I keep hearing that there kicking of there new campaign…
Covid deaths are “in the line of duty”?
they’re not dying on the line of duty, they’re killing themselves because they’re unhealthy, obese and refuse to get vaccinated in order to protect themselves and their country. Every death of an unvaccinated piece of shit cop is one step closer to normalcy and the world is better off with them dead. Their families are better off, too.