Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote a letter to congressional leadership in recent days asking to help put a stop to the anti-police discourse he believes is endangering the lives of law enforcement officers.
Marshall’s letter was signed by 10 additional Republican attorneys general, including those in Texas and Ohio.
He believes that “when myths about the police are not strongly repudiated by our nation’s leaders, law-enforcement officers lose their lives.”
Marshall begins the letter by acknowledging “[t]he tragic and preventable death of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers shined a national spotlight on bad actors within the law-enforcement profession.”
In contrast to where the national discussion has leaned in the weeks since, Marshall argues that the “data simply does not support claims that law enforcement is systemically racist or structurally biased.”
Alabama’s attorney general pointed congressional leadership to a database compiled by the Washington Post that shows 14 unarmed black Americans were killed by police in 2019, down from 38 in 2015, and cites an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that argues in part the number should be lower.
Marshall says that in 2016 the United States saw a similar “national campaign against law enforcement” to what the country is experiencing currently.
He points readers to a study written about at National Public Radio that shows the number of police officers shot and killed in the line of duty rose 56% in 2016 as compared to the year before.
In concluding, Marshall argues, “Individuals, including members of Congress, are dangerously fanning the flames of emotion by tacitly or explicitly supporting the ‘Defund the Police’ (or worse) movement.”
He urges congressional leaders to put a stop to the rhetoric and says he and his fellow attorneys general will always “stand with law enforcement.”
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95
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