FBI's Patel delivers blunt warning to law enforcement attackers: 'We're going to put you down'

"You have to back the blue," Patel said. "I say the following to as many officers and Americans that I get in front of: If you touch a cop, we're going to put you down. And that's what we're doing."

"We're not saying that you can't go out there and peacefully protest," Patel said. "We are simply saying … you cannot interfere with [an officer in their] lawful execution of [their] lawful duty."

The director added that police around the country are "so empowered by the fact that we are backing the blue that they know they have that backing.

"They also know that if they are physically harmed, they're just not going to have some perp get away with it," he said. "We're going to go find them, and we're going to arrest them."

Patel's stance on the issue has remained consistent throughout his time in the administration. In June, he posted a similar statement on social media.

"Hit a cop, you're going to jail… doesn't matter where you came from, how you got here, or what movement speaks to you," Patel wrote in a June 7 X post. 

"If the local police force won't back our men and women on the thin blue line, we @FBI will."

The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.