Local police weigh in on recent shootings

toward police. we did some research on the apparent spike and found some surprising information. our maria garcia went to local law enforcement for perspective you’ll see only on abc-7. maria’s live with our top story. surprisingly – there were more officers killed by this time last year in the u.s. but there’s no question: there’s a growing concern and conversation about policing and the use of force from and toward police. 31-41 04:06 we’re the ones actually blocking traffic, we’re the ones making sure other people aren’t assaulting them as they have their freedom of speech to rant and rave about law enforcement president of the local police union, ron martin says police officers aren’t perfect. but they do protect communities. 02:58 we’re the thin blue line that keeps the criminal element from taking over society on social media though: and on the streets of some neighborhoods. chants against police using what appears to be excessive force. 01:43 there is an amped up public rhetoric regarding law enforcement and i think that rhetoric is kind of a subset of amped up rhetoric regarding racism in this country. martin says public perception of law enforcement changes with current events and media coverage. the difference he sees now is the immediate spread of shooting videos – often without context. 08:29 you see a three second clip of a video and then you have thousands of people out there being stupid ‘oh we should go kill police officers.’ 06:03 if the confrontation involves the use of deadly force, there’s a lot going through an officers mind 06:11 you cannot exclude fear from the list of things that they’re feeling in that moment force, there’s a lot going through an officers mind 06:11 you cannot exclude fear from the list of things that they’re feeling in that moment that officer in illinois was the eighth law enforcement officer shot and killed in the u.s. in the last month. but year to year – it’s still it’s lower than last year. rick back to you. maria, thank you. we should mention … the union’s attorney said he couldn’t comment on an el paso case where an autopsy recently revealed a man was shot in the back by police who reported he was charging at them. we’re getting our