A Delaware police officer is fighting for his life after he was viciously beaten this week and became one of the latest victims in a growing wave of violent attacks on police in America.
Delmar Police Department Cpl. Keith Heacock as of Wednesday morning remained unconscious and on a ventilator at R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, according to a department spokesman. A shunt has been placed in his head to relieve pressure after he was beaten with a blunt object.
Amid rising anti-police rhetoric following allegations of police brutality, law enforcement officials are under siege with violent attacks on officers, patrol vehicles and even police dogs.
The number of officer deaths this year is set to surpass last year, which was the deadliest in decades for law enforcement. While no one tracks assaults across the country, preliminary data from local departments show attacks on officers are also on the rise.
It is clear officers are being targeted like never before, law enforcement experts say.
“Policing has always been a dangerous job, but with the anti-police sentiment out there, it has created an uptick in attacks on police officers,” said Mike McGrew, a 35-year veteran of the police department who co-founded a charity for officers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
As of Wednesday, three major attacks on police officers had been reported this week alone.
On Monday, a man struck an NYPD detective over the head with a plastic stick in broad daylight, an attack that occurred while the officer was processing a crime scene.
The officer was treated for minor injuries. Akeele Morgan, 25, is charged with attacking the officer. A motive has not been provided.
An Iowa man Tuesday was arrested after he allegedly attacked and spit on officers as they tried to arrest him on suspicion of drunken driving.
Christopher Greenwood, 33, faces a slew of charges, including two related to the alleged assaults.
Cpl. Heacock’s story, however, is the most harrowing.
Responding to a Sunday morning report of an assault on an elderly couple in Delmar, Cpl. Heacock “suffered significant head injuries,” according to a statement from the Delaware State Police.
A spokesperson for the Delmar police declined to provide more information because the investigation is continuing.
Randon Wilkerson is charged with attacking Cpl. Heacock and also assaulting a 73-year-old man and a 76-year-old woman. Police say he knocked on the back door of the elderly couple’s home, entered the house and then repeatedly hit them with a glass object.
The woman was taken to the Baltimore shock trauma center police said.
Multiple factors are fueling the surge in attacks on police, analysts say.
In the wake of several high-profile deaths of several unarmed Black men and women at the hands of police, officers are facing increased scrutiny over how they do their job.
The incidents have sparked violent protests of police, officials slashing department budgets, and politicians and celebrities slamming law enforcement on social media while issuing tepid condemnations of attacks on officers.
At the same time, liberal prosecutors have announced they no longer will prosecute resisting arrest as a crime, eliminating the consequences for assaulting the police.
“You are seeing the perfect storm of all these things happening at the same time,” Mr. McGrew said.
Through the first four months of 2021, 109 officers lost their lives in the line of duty, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. That’s an 11% increase from 98 during the same period last year.
A total of 360 officers died in the line of duty last year, according to the fund,the deadliest year for law enforcement since 1974.
Of the officer deaths this year, three have been attributed to assault, 17 were attributed to gunfire, one officer was stabbed and eight were the victim of a vehicle assault, according to the fund.
Last year, one officer died from an assault, 45 were killed by gunfire and 13 were killed in a vehicle assault, the fund said.
Assaults also appear to be increasing.
In New York City, police have made 383 arrests this year for assaulting an officer, compared to 371 during the same period last year, a 3% increase.
As of Tuesday, the Philadelphia police have arrested 71 people for assaulting an officer, putting the department on a pace for 568 arrests in 2021. That would shatter the record 285 arrests officers in that city made in 2020.
“I wouldn’t even consider joining the police today. Who wants to be vilified on a daily basis, and it is happening on a daily basis with a very broad brush,” said Maria Haberfeld, a former police officer and now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
In another incident this week, a suspected drunk driver in New York ranted against police in a Facebook live stream before allegedly hitting — and killing — an NYPD highway officer in Queens with her car.
Jessica Beauvais, who faces manslaughter charges, admitted she had been drinking and smoking marijuana before she got into her car earlier that morning. Her blood-alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit, police say.
Just hours earlier, she uploaded a two-hour live stream bashing police and threatening to kill an officer.
“If you are going to kill me, at least I get to take someone with me. I’m one of those people. If I’m going to go, someone is coming,” she said.
“A person vilifies the police and then she kills a police officer. It’s horrible and I don’t know how we come back from this,” Ms. Haberfeld said.
Police are also frustrated with district attorneys in several major cities who are no longer prosecuting those charged with resisting arrest.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon said in December that charges of resisting arrest, a misdemeanor, should be declined or dismissed before arraignment. Mr. Gascon said the move will help reduce the number of people in prison.
Police officers, however, see the move as criminals receiving a free pass for fighting with them.
“Criminals know they can fight an officer, attack an officer and know they will not be held accountable,” Mr. McGrew said. “That needs to change or it will feel like a free-for-all.”
Ms. Haberfeld says politicians and celebrities also deserve some of the blame for the animus directed at police.
In the past week, LeBron James and Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, have come under fire for their public statements against police officers.
Ms. Waters called for protesters to “get more confrontational” with police if former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was acquitted in the killing of George Floyd.
Mr. James, meanwhile, was roundly criticized for appearing to incite violence against a Columbus, Ohio, officer who killed a Black teenage girl who police say was about to stab another girl with a knife.
“The politicians are fueling this,” Ms. Haberfeld said. “They are very few statements condemning attacks on police and when there are statements, they are very lukewarm.”
Ms. Haberfeld said these statements quickly go viral, inspiring people to take their frustrations out on officers.
“If you are fighting for social justice, attacking the police makes you some sort of martyr or warrior for social justice,” she said.
FBI data shows police officer killings rise during years when there is major civil unrest across the country.
In 2016, following a series of police-involved killings of Black men, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Philando Castile in St. Anthony, Minnesota, police slayings increased.
Police killings jumped 61% to 66 in 2016 — including 17 who were ambushed — from 41 in 2015.
During the Occupy Wall Street movement’s heyday in 2011, law enforcement deaths jumped by 28% to 72 — including 15 who were ambushed — from 56 in 2010.
Although the numbers ultimately declined, Ms. Haberfeld says this time is different because the 2011 and 2015 killings were tied to single issues such as the economy. This time, she says, multiple factors are at play, making it difficult to reduce the numbers.
“In 2011 it was the economy. When the economy bounced back we saw the numbers [of police killings] go down,” she said. “There is a combination of factors now.”
