Fewer police killed during Obama's administration than any two-term president in our lifetime

Shaun King

Community

Tuesday September 15, 2015 · 6:30 AM PDT

2015/09/15 · 06:30

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the Greater Boston Labor Council Labor Day Breakfast in Boston, Massachusetts September 7, 2015.  REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque  - RTX1RI3J

This isn't an opinion piece. This is strictly factual.

Wisconsin Gov. and White House-wannabe Scott Walker is lying when he says President Obama is responsible for a "disturbing trend of police officers being murdered on the job."

His fellow Republican and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz doubled down and told the same lie.

Beyond the reality that President Obama and his administration work closely with police officers and police departments every single day for his own security, the fact is that fewer police officers have been killed during the six-plus years of his presidency than during the first six years of any modern presidency.

The only trend that exists is a downward one. Police officers are safer during the Obama administration than they were during the Bush, Clinton, or Reagan administrations and every single fact and figure proves this.

Not only that, but according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, in the six years President Obama has been in office, 807 officers have lost their lives- fewer officers than both Reagan or Bush. By the six-year mark in President “Tough On Crime” Reagan that Republicans idolize so much, 1,129 police officers were killed in the line of duty. President Bush’s numbers weren’t much better, by the six-year mark in his presidency 1,034 law enforcement officers had their lives cut short.

Keep reading below for more cold, hard facts.

If you look only at fatal shootings of police officers up to September of the seventh year during each of those administrations, the numbers are just as clear.

576 police officers were shot and killed up to this date in the Reagan administration.

528 during the Clinton administration.

405 during the Bush administration.

314 during the Obama administration.

In other words, 46 percent fewer police officers have been shot and killed in the first six-plus years of Barack Obama's presidency than were killed during Ronald Reagan's presidency in the same time frame.

There is no war on police. This entire line is a complete fabrication of the conservative imagination, designed to pit people and parties against one another.

We've come to expect conservatives to lie come election time, but this lie is particularly despicable, because it's talking about true life-or-death issues. Not only that, but this lie is now being spread by police and prosecutors and is even being taught to new recruits in police academies.

Perception is reality, but in this case, the conservative perception is a flat-out lie.

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Fewer police killed during Obama's administration than any two-term president in our lifetime

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