[New York Diary] US Police Officers Shot on Duty

[Asia Economy New York=Special Correspondent Joselgina] 101. This is not the number of idol trainee contestants from a popular program a few years ago. It is the number of police officers shot while on duty in the United States this year. What has recently happened in the U.S., known for its strong law enforcement?

According to the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) on the 2nd (local time), 101 police officers, including 17 fatalities, were shot while on duty as of April 1, 2022. This represents a 43% increase compared to the same period last year. Compared to 2020, it has increased by 63%. By state, the numbers were highest in Arizona, Texas, New York, Georgia, and Washington, in that order.

Gun issues are considered a major headache in the U.S. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, public safety has rapidly deteriorated mainly in major cities, and shooting incidents have surged. During this process, shootings directly targeting police officers responding to crimes have also sharply increased. According to the FOP, the proportion of ambush attacks among shootings targeting police this year increased by 36% compared to last year.

The Biden administration has also recently raised its voice more strongly to eradicate gun crimes through gun control. During a visit to New York earlier this year, President Joe Biden expressed great concern, saying, "Every day, 316 people in this country are shot, and 106 lose their lives." The president’s visit to New York came the day after the funeral of a New York Police Department (NYPD) officer who was shot and killed on duty. The late Officer Wilbert Mora was shot and killed while responding to a domestic violence call in the Harlem area of Manhattan earlier this year. He was the sixth NYPD officer to die from gunfire while on duty this year. Officer Jason Rivera, who responded with him, had his funeral earlier.

At Mora’s funeral, his sister asked, "Who protects them?" and New York Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, declared a war on gun crime, saying, "We will build a city of peace from the ashes of fear." After the deaths of these two young officers, both the New York mayor and the president loudly called for the eradication of gun crime, but what has changed?

Nothing has changed immediately. Less than a month later, it should be added that nine police officers were shot and injured while responding to a domestic call in Phoenix.

With the midterm elections coming up in November, President Biden cannot ignore the public’s anxiety caused by the recent spate of gun crimes. The soaring crime rate directly impacts voter sentiment. The morale of frontline police officers, who must respond to various crimes, is also shaken. Patrick Yoes, president of the FOP, expressed concern, saying, "We are in the middle of a real crisis right now," and "The violence against law enforcement officers is unlike anything I have seen in my 36 years."

If shootings targeting police officers are this severe, how anxious must ordinary citizens be?

Even in New York alone, there is a confirmed trend of a sharp increase in gun crimes since the pandemic. According to the New York City gun crime report released by the NYPD, there were 1,561 shooting incidents in 2021, double the 779 incidents in 2019 before the pandemic. Additionally, the number of gun violence deaths in the U.S. exceeded 20,000 in 2021.

In a statement marking the one-year anniversary of the Atlanta shooting last month, President Biden condemned anti-Asian hate crimes and continued his sharp criticism of overall gun violence. The new fiscal year budget recently released by the administration includes $30 billion for state and local government crime response programs to address the surge in crime, and $1.7 billion for combating gun trafficking. Measures to regulate so-called Ghost Guns?homemade firearms?are also being pursued. This is in response to multiple recent shootings involving untraceable Ghost Guns or illegally traded firearms.

For President Biden’s declared war on gun crime to truly begin, the enforcement capabilities of local police and judicial institutions, which have rapidly weakened during the pandemic, must first be strengthened. Let us repeat the words that were repeatedly spoken at Officer Mora’s funeral: "Enough is enough."