There is a war here at home! It is raging around every corner, at the top of every staircase, in every city, courtroom, and liberal District attorney’s office. The War… against the women and men in blue…against law enforcement rages.

In 2019, 30 law enforcement officers have been shot to death in the line of duty, many involving an ambush.

Why the hate towards our protectors? Why has respect been lost for law enforcement?

The war began under the Obama Administration, although the underlying racial fissure has been seething below the surface of society for years, being cultivated in the halls of higher education from coast to coast.

On December 20, 2014, NYPD Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were ambushed as they sat in their police car on a Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn. Mayor de Blasio was blamed for his laissez-faire approach to crime in New York City, but the blame should have been shared with how the President had handled law enforcement and race relations since taking office.

The “War on Cops” continued to increase throughout 2016 as ambush attacks increased on law enforcement. The number of ambushes increased 167% according to a USA Today Study. Then in 2018 the number of ambushes started to drop, but as Gilchrist County Deputy Sheriff’s Sergeant Noel Ramirez and Deputy Sheriff Taylor Lindsey, sat eating lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Trenton, Florida, they were executed for no known reason.

The “War on Cops” just continues to raise its ugly head. There is no fear of life in prison without parole or the death penalty for killing a cop so what is the deterrent. Officers have been ambushed by suspects who orchestrate misleading 911 calls. Officers are increasingly being hurt and killed on the job.

Laws need to be change, punishment for cop killing need to be capital murder and judges need to be tough not soft on criminals.

Too often we hear stories that “All Police Are Corrupt!” even though major studies from Rand and Harvard show that 99% of law enforcement are honest law-abiding citizens. Officers do not go to work thinking, “Today I am going to kill someone, maybe a black-man, a Muslim, or a Hispanic!”

The “War on Cops” extends far beyond being ambushed by bad actors or injured on the street. Law enforcement Officers have to worry about the system of media hungry, success-oriented prosecutors, and activist judges who sit on the bench and want to make law rather than honestly interpret the facts. Officers across the country are being pummeled by the system that they protect and serve.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Police Officer Betty Shelby (now Deputy Sheriff), Police Officer Anthony Federico, Sgt. Hugh Barry and Trooper Marc Bessner all dedicated honest men and women were ambushed by a corrupt system.

For more than 35 years, I have worked to help protect law enforcement officers who have been wrongly persecuted for doing their job. Furthermore, many of those years I spent time wearing the sacred badge.

In that time, I have never met one officer that wanted to intentionally hurt another person. Most go to work thinking that at the end of their tour they will go home to their wife and children. This Police Officers’ Defense Coalition, Inc. (PODC) in association with the Committee for Police Officers’ Defense (CPOD) were incorporated to help law enforcement win the “War on Cops”.

PODC has formulated legislation that will prevent future frivolous civil law suits against law enforcement officers that have been charged with a crime but have not been convicted or have even gone to trial. In the future PODC and COPD will fight to keep anti-police Attorneys Generals, and State and Local District attorneys who have made it to the top of their careers on the back of law enforcement prosecutions, and additionally fight to keep activist Judges and Politician off the bench and out of the halls of power if they have shown or spoken anti-police rhetoric in the past.

PODC and CPOD are here to stay and work to end the Internal and external “War on Cops”. Our men and women in blue are under attack each day.

Please remember to back the blue and show support for those who have served our communities with dignity and pride.

BY: Jim Fotis, President
Police Officers Defense Coalition, Inc.