By: Jared Evan

More than 470 New York City police officers have been injured in the line of duty due to anti-police protests since May of this year, according to data through September 24 from the department and the New York Post.

Black Lives Matter protests, sparked across the nation after the death of George Floyd, sent thousands of people flooding the streets of major American cities, including one of the largest, New York City.

The NY Post reported: Of those injured, 319 cops required hospital treatment and seven, like Lt. Richard Mack, who was badly beaten while making a July arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge, were admitted to hospitals.

So far this year, a total of 7,528 NYPD line-of-duty injuries have been reported, up 47 percent from last year, which had 5,133 injuries.

Patrick Lynch, the head of the Police Benevolent Association, has taken offense to city officials who are “encouraging” the violence and not supporting the police, the NY Post reported.

“The chaos that politicians are encouraging on the streets is putting cops in the hospital,” Lynch said. “It is not just the nearly 500 cops who have been hit with bricks and bottles or otherwise injured during supposedly ‘peaceful’ protests.”

“Hundreds more are being injured because criminals are emboldened to fight cops the moment we step on the scene,” Lynch added. “They know our hands are tied. Every New Yorker needs to ask their elected officials how cops can protect them when we can barely protect ourselves.”

As Lynch said, the city has encouraged and supported the anti-police protests, which sometimes evolve into looting and vandalism sprees. Mayor de Blasio literally commissioned “BLM” murals on the streets of NY, in all 5 boroughs, officially stating his government supports the “cause”.  The city council leaped into action after the initial George Floyd riots, drawing out new police budget cuts in acquiesce of the anti-police radicals marching in the streets.

Officers have had explosives tossed at them, run over by cars, bloodied by fists, chains and bike locks and  in late May, two radical  leftist lawyers tossed Molotov cocktails at police cars.

These widely praised protests, have resulted in injured cops and even more dire, a tremendous uptick in violent crime.

“The average person doesn’t hear about the daily assaults and injuries to police officers,” NYPD Sgt. Joseph Imperatrice, founder of Blue Lives Matter NYC, told The Post.