Throughout the Obama Administration, and in the culture he has encouraged, police are increasingly demonized across America.

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Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James B. Comey delivered a chilling speech this week regarding something sinister underway across America: 

"Something deeply disturbing is happening all across America.  I have spoken of 2014 in this speech because something has changed in 2015.  Far more people are being killed in America's cities this year than in many years.  And let's be clear.  Far more people of color are being killed in America's cities this year.  And it's not the cops doing the killing. 

"What could be driving an increase in murder in some cities across all regions of the country, all at the same time?  What explains this map and this calendar?  Why is it happening in all different places, all over and all of a sudden?  Nobody says it on the record, nobody says it in public, but police and elected officials are quietly saying it to themselves.  And they're saying it to me, and I'm going to say it to you...  They told me, 'We feel like we're under siege, and we don't feel much like getting out of our cars.'  I've been told about a senior police leader who urged his force to remember that their political leadership has no tolerance for a viral video." 

Although Director Comey was too polite to say it, there's no mystery.  Throughout the Obama Administration, and in the culture he has encouraged, police are increasingly demonized across America. 

Sure, Obama has offered pro forma rhetoric professing his respect for police officers who on a minute-to-minute basis risk their lives in a way that would be utterly foreign and terrifying to most of us in American society.  But from the early days of his administration when he reflexively accused police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, of acting "stupidly" before he had any understanding of the underlying facts, his loyalties and antagonisms are clear. 

More recently, Obama's outlook has been amplified by his administration's campaign to release many of the nation's prisoners while distorting the nature of their crimes and the dangers they present.  Speaking at a prison in July, Obama claimed that, "These are young people who made mistakes that aren't that different than the mistakes I made and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made." 

In reality, the overwhelming majority of the nation's prison population is incarcerated for violent and serious crimes.  Even those imprisoned for drug offenses, the mythical "imprisoned for smoking a joint" population, actually tend to be traffickers in a business that is very deadly and very destructive.  According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, fewer than 1% of those sentenced to federal prison in 2014 were convicted of mere drug possession.  Nevertheless, people like Al Sharpton and Obama perpetuate the myth of rogue police forces and some sort of Jim Crow-style criminal justice system. 

Unfortunately, the resulting sense of siege to which Director Comey referred in his speech this week has not gone without effect. 

In thirty-five of our largest cities, homicides have increased approximately 20% through August.  Washington, D.C., which conspicuously continues to impose some of the nation's toughest firearms possession restrictions, is experiencing an even greater increase.  According to Gallup, 70% of Americans now report that they believe crime is rising in the U.S., and almost half now say that crime in their particular locality is on the rise. 

That reverses what had, prior to this year, constituted a two-decade sociological miracle.  Approximately 20 years ago, against all expectations and reversing nearly three decades of dismal experience, crime in America began a steady decline.  Prior to this year, the murder rate in America had fallen by half since 1993.  In addition to tougher sentencing that Obama and other activists now seek to reverse, much of the credit for that two-decade decline is attributable to "broken windows" community policing policies. 

Meanwhile, contrary to the efforts of Obama and the political left, a new Gallup survey also shows that the National Rifle Association (NRA) enjoys a 58% approval rating, up from 54% in its last survey in 2012.  According to Gallup, "This includes the highest recording of 'very favorable' opinions (26%) since Gallup began asking this question in 1989."  Similarly, Gallup reports that 56% of Americans now say that more concealed weapons would make the U.S. safer, not less safe. 

For purposes of comparison, by the way, Obama himself suffers a (-4) approval according to Gallup, with just 46% approving and 50% disapproving of him. 

Regardless, the cause-and-effect nature at play here is clear.  And going forward, the campaign to demonize police and our criminal justice system must be resisted, lest we further reverse two decades of remarkable progress.