Police in the US Kill Citizens at Over 70 Times the Rate of Other First-World Nations

[Crabtownboy]

Why is this true?

There is no justification for the rate of citizens killed being this high. There is no justification for the killing of policemen.

Are we now a country with a culture of fear and war against our own?

From: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/police-kill-citizens-70-times-rate-first-world-nations/

In case you’ve been under a rock lately, it is becoming quite clear that police in the US can and will kill people, even unarmed people, even on video, and do so with impunity.

The tallying methods, or rather lack thereof, used by both the FBI and individual police departments to count the amount of people killed by police, have been shown to be staggeringly inaccurate.

However, this inability of the government to count the number of people it kills, has been met with multiple alternative means of calculating just how deadly the state actually is.

One of these citizen run databases, is the website www.killedbypolice.com. The site is basically a spreadsheet that lists every person killed by cops in the years 2013 and 2014. In addition to naming those killed, it also provides a link to media reports for each of the killings, age, sex and race if available.

The tally for 2014? 1,100 people killed by those sworn to protect. That is an average of three people a day.
Do not mistake this as saying that those who were killed were innocent. However, when we look at violent crime in this country, we can see that it is at an all time low.

While violence among citizens has dropped, violence against citizens carried out by police has been rising sharply.



This link records every incident of a person being killed by policemen.
http://www.killedbypolice.net/

Here is a list of police killed in the line of duty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_police_officers_killed_in_the_line_of_duty

 

[exscentric]

Off the top: (Based on what I've observed and probably not knowing all the facts thanks to a media that sensationalizes for ratings.) For many years I've thought that police were out of control till I heard that the standard for an officer to shoot is something like, if you feel your life is threatened you may kill. That is a bit of a low standard to me. A person with their back turned and hands not visible would make me very nervous as an officer - indeed officers have shot/killed unarmed people in the back for such in our area..

I've read/heard accounts on the news that make one wonder if the officers couldn't have done something other than shoot, but I wasn't in the situation so do not know what I would do. Example: small woman with knife surrounded by officers killed because she wouldn't put the knife down. It wasn't that anyone was in immediate danger - disobeying and order was enough to kill. Seems some other method might have been called for. Other similar situations have occurred as well. Example: Man walking toward officers with knife, ordered to put down knife, refusal, bang. Officers were not backed into a corner, they refused to move, the man refused to put down the knife, bang. Seems backing up might have been an option.

Another part of this is when an officer fires, often it is to empty a clip - that suggest utter panic to me instead of calculated use of a weapon. When officers open fire there is no thought of wounding.

Traffic stop, woman gets nervous, floors it and the officers start shooting instead of getting into their cars and giving chase. Ya, gotta keep the public safe, but shooting at a car knowing there are children inside?

I think raising the minimum standard for lethal force might help.

Posted as one old guys observations and opinion. Not saying anything in particular, just saying. I try to support the local police but wonder about their actions at times.

 

[Alcott]

"Freethought" is a euphemism for atheism. No surprise that Troy gets his info from them.

 

[Smyth]

Let’s look at our immediate neighbors to the north, Canada. The total number of citizens killed by law enforcement officers in the year 2014, was 14; that is 78 times less people than the US.

How can you tell when a Liberal is lying? He's talking!

The US has ten times the population of Canada. There's also huge culture differences among the people. There aren't any black people in Canada (excuse the slight hyperbole), so there aren't insane policies be followed which cause people to get shot by police. E.g. black police hired through preference programs disproportionately kill citizens, but Canada doesn't have to hire unqualified black police to appease mobs.

Cities controlled by white Republicans have the lowest rate of police shootings. Cities controlled by black Democrats have the highest rate of police shootings.

 

[righteousdude2]

I don't fear the police ... could that be because I am not breaking laws?! And if a cop does decide to ticket me, or talk with me I WILL GIVE THEM THE RESPECT THEY DESERVE. Should I be falsely accused I will argue my case in front of a judge, and jury, if need be. I have watched the television show "Cops" for years, plus I have worked in law enforcement and know career law enforcement personnel, so I know better than to argue my case with them.

 

[carpro]

More statistical lies. It gets kinda old. It's amazing that some people are so dumb they can't see through the numbers.