The national president of the Fraternal Order of Police said attacking a police officer should be considered a hate crime and the federal government needs to list the act as part of its statute.
“Enough is enough! It’s time for Congress to do something to protect the men and women who protect us,” Chuck Canterbury said in a statement, Newsmax reported.
The union currently touts more than 300,000 members, and Mr. Canterbury’s view that attacks on police should be listed as a federal hate crime is shared by others.
“Right now, it’s a hate crime if you attack someone solely because of the color of their skin, but it ought to be a hate crime if you attack someone solely because of the color of their uniform as well,” said Jim Pasco, the executive director of the union, Yahoo News reported.
The union’s logic?
That “ambush attacks” like the one that left two New York Police Department officers dead in their patrol car — Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu — are fueled mostly by hatred of the police.
“In the last few years, ambush attacks aimed to kill or injure law enforcement officers have risen dramatically,” Mr. Canterbury said, Newsmax reported. “Nineteen percent of the fatalities by firearm suffered by law enforcement in 2014 were ambush attacks.”
The White House is listening.
Press secretary Josh Earnest said the union’s request is “something that we’ll have to consider” as part of the discussions of the task force that was created by President Obama, Newsmax said.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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