{"id":280,"date":"2009-05-12T20:52:14","date_gmt":"2009-05-13T00:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=280"},"modified":"2009-05-12T20:52:14","modified_gmt":"2009-05-13T00:52:14","slug":"understanding-police-death-benefit-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/understanding-police-death-benefit-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"UNDERSTANDING POLICE DEATH BENEFIT CUTS"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m hearing a lot of folks screaming that Eric Holder, our new attorney general, is spitting on America\u2019s police. This is because he\u2019s carrying the message that the Obama administration wants to cut death benefits for officers slain in the line of duty by almost fifty per cent.
\nNow, Mr. Holder would not have been my first choice as the nation\u2019s chief law enforcement officer. That said, I think he\u2019s getting a bad rap on this one.
\nA careful reading of the proposal (SEE LINKS ATTACHED< AP<\/a> and FOX<\/a>) shows that the individual death benefits to slain officers\u2019 family survivors will remain at $300,000 plus per fatal event. The administration wants to reduce the budget because fewer officers are dying.
\nThe relative reduction in police death toll is something to cheer about. Body armor, invented circa 1970 by Second Amendment advocate Richard Davis, has played a big part in this. So has improved training in weapons and tactics. Another big part of the death toll reduction is attributable to the tremendous advances that have been made in the practice of emergency trauma medicine in recent years. When I came on in the early 1970s, the only trauma dressing in the patrol car was a box of sanitary napkins, placed there for precisely that purpose. Today, I know departments where cops are issued Israeli battle dressings to carry in the cargo pockets of their uniform pants on routine patrol. Things have gotten better.
\nIt doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s safe to be a cop. Yesterday, I spoke on the phone with Interim Sheriff Ed Spooner of Okaloosa County, Florida. Two of his deputies, both fine and courageous public servants, were murdered a few weeks ago. Sheriff Spooner and I agree that there are lessons other cops can learn from this tragic sacrifice, and I\u2019ll be getting back with him in a few weeks after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement completes its investigation. In recent weeks we\u2019ve seen the murders of four officers in Oakland and three in Pittsburgh.
\nPolice work is still dangerous. But, I have to say, the Attorney General does not seem to deserve the hard knocks he\u2019s getting on this particular issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m hearing a lot of folks screaming that Eric Holder, our new attorney general, is spitting on America\u2019s police. This is because he\u2019s carrying the message that the Obama administration wants to cut death benefits for officers slain in the line of duty by almost fifty per cent. Now, Mr. Holder would not have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}