A Closer Look at the Alleged “War on Cops”: Post-Ferguson Trends in Ideologically-Motivated Homicides of Police Officers, 2008–2021

• Published date: 01 June 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10986111231189827
• Author: Jesse J. Norris
• Date: 01 June 2024

Article

Police Quarterly

2024, Vol. 27(2) 242–267

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/10986111231189827

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A Closer Look at the Alleged

“War on Cops”:

Post-Ferguson Trends in

Ideologically-Motivated

Homicides of Police Off‌icers,

2008–2021

Jesse J. Norris

1



Abstract

Some proponents of the “war on cops”thesis have suggested that the Black Lives

Matter (BLM) movement encourages people to murder police off‌icers and is re-

sponsible for many civilian-on-police homicides. To evaluate such claims, this study

examines all homicides of on-duty police off‌icers by civilians from 2008 to 2021

(n= 595) for ideological motives, and uses interrupted times series analysis to test for

post-Ferguson trends. Ideological motivations were present in 12% of civilian-on-police

homicides, and only 3% constituted terrorism. Right-wing motivations were far more

common (6%) than left-wing motives (3%). Most analyses showed no signif‌icant in-

crease in ideological civilian-on-police homicides after Ferguson. Although homicides

with left-wing motives unconnected to personal revenge signif‌icantly increased after

Ferguson, this only accounts for a small proportion of post-Ferguson homicides (4%). In

short, there is no evidence that BLM unleashed a “war on cops”in which off‌icers are

increasingly targeted in ideological homicides.

Keywords

homicide, ideology, terrorism, time series analysis

1

State University of New York at Fredonia, Fredonia, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jesse J. Norris, State University of New York at Fredonia, Norris W375 Thompson Hall,Fredonia, NY

14063, USA.

Email: norris@fredonia.edu

Introduction

The murder of police off‌icers by civilians has become a highly politicized issue in

recent years. Indeed, opponents have labeled Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists as

“domestic terrorists”and accused them of encouraging supporters to murder off‌icers

(National Association of Police Off‌icers, 2016;Foley, 2020). Even an internal FBI

report (2016) leaked to the public suggested that several of the civilian-on-police

homicides in 2016 were inf‌luenced by unfair criticisms of police on social media.

1

A

majority of the public, and most police as well, believe there is a “war on cops,”and

civilian-on-police homicides are often presented as illustrating this “war”(Mac Donald,

2017;Moule, 2020;Nix et al., 2018;Rasmussen, 2015).

It is important for researchers to evaluate these claims. Previous studies have ex-

amined, and failed to support, the “war on cops”narrative by analyzing temporal trends

in civilian-on-police homicides and nonfatal assaults as well (Maguire et al., 2017;

Shjarback & Maguire, 2021;White, 2020). Yet these studies have not determined the

extent to which civilian-on-police homicides are motivated by ideology, and whether

this has changed over time.

To f‌ill this gap in the literature, this study examines all civilian-on-police homicides

from 2008 to 2021 for ideological motivations, and uses two forms of interrupted time

series analysis, among other statistical tests, to evaluate whether ideological civilian-

on-police homicides have increased since the emergence of the BLM as a national

movement. The results shed light on the debate about the impact of BLM on civilian-

on-police homicides, and indicate the need for further research on the role of ideology

and mental illness in civilian-on-police homicides and in homicide more generally.

The Politicization of Civilian-On-Police Homicides

Since the politicization of civilian-on-police homicides is major motivator of this study,

I begin by reviewing the ways these murders have been portrayed by the media,

politicians, and police organizations. BLM arose as a national movement in August

2014 in reaction to the killing of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police off‌icer. The

movement was founded in 2013 but gained national prominence after widespread

protests in Ferguson. Subsequent civilian-on-police homicides were often used as

political ammunition against the movement. When Ismaaiyl Brinsley murdered two

New York Police Department (NYPD) off‌icers in revenge for police killings, many

blamed protesters and their supporters. For example, a NYPD police union said,

“There’s blood on many hands,”including those of Mayor De Blasio (Altman, 2014),

and former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani told Fox News, “We’ve had 4 months of

propaganda, starting with the president…that everybody should hate the police”(Lee,

2014).

After Micah Xavier Johnson killed f‌ive off‌icers at a Dallas BLM protest in 2016, the

National Association of Police Off‌icers (NAPO) claimed that “persistent and na-

tionwide calls for the killing of off‌icers, coupled with the deafening silence of

Norris 243