crime-crackdown<\/a> and immigration policies is increasingly being directed at rank-and-file officers and agents tasked with carrying them out. Authorities say the shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington last week is one recent example.<\/p>\n\u201cThose who wear the badge are human beings, whose dedication to safeguarding our country should never make them targets,\u201d Committee Chairman Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., said.<\/p>\n
According to the Fraternal Order of Police, 352 law enforcement officers were shot nationwide in 2024, 50 of them fatally. Data from the Department of Homeland Security shows a 1,150 percent increase in assaults and acts of violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Thompson, executive director and CEO of the National Sheriffs\u2019 Association, sharply criticized rhetoric he said is contributing to the rise in hostility toward law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalling officers Nazis and Gestapo \u2014 it better stop right now,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cYou are inflaming dangerous circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawmakers highlighted several recent comments from elected officials that critics say contribute to the climate. On MSNBC in September, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, likened ICE to \u201cslave patrols.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., has accused Department of Homeland Security agents of using \u201canonymity to terrorize our communities\u201d and claimed they \u201clie\u201d and \u201creject accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other examples included Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., calling ICE a \u201cterrorist force\u201d; Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz comparing federal law enforcement actions to \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s modern-day Gestapo\u201d; and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker saying he viewed current events with \u201cforeboding dread,\u201d invoking \u201cthe specter of Nazis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no Nazis acting in the law enforcement of this country,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWe are certainly not living in 1939 Germany. Dehumanizing rhetoric breeds violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats on the committee pushed back, arguing Republicans were ignoring politically motivated violence from within their own ranks, including the attack on police during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil Republicans are willing to acknowledge the problem on their side of the political spectrum and do something about it, their statements about protecting police officers are hypocritical,\u201d said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement experts at the hearing warned that rising hostility toward officers is deepening existing recruitment and retention challenges, which they say pose broader national security concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 In the wake of last week\u2019s deadly shooting of two D.C. National Guardsmen and mounting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-80440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}