It's been terrible for the community in Barron County, Wisconsin, where officers Emily Breidenbach and Hunter Scheel were shot and killed when ambushed during a traffic stop.
In Louisville, Kentucky, a police officer is clinging to life after being shot by a gunman at Old National Bank, where four civilians were killed and two officers were wounded. One of those officers, Nick Wilt, is a recent police academy graduate and just 26 years old.
Tim Rutledge of Law Enforcement Alliance for Peer Support says those are just the badge-wearing victims who have sacrificed so much.
“But their families will be giving the ultimate sacrifice forever,” he tells AFN.
There is a real war against law enforcement that is happening right now, Rutledge warns, and the thin blue line is paying a price mentally and physically.
“Our suicide numbers are up,” he reports. “The result of all of the stress – additional stress and the war on cops – is there's about a 2 1/2 times greater chance you'll kill yourself that that you will be killed by a bad guy.”
That pressure is even greater in large, crime-ridden cities, he adds, where elected leaders resent law enforcement and where prosecutors are letting criminals go free.
