The people who are in the streets of Ferguson are angry. They also ignore the facts and rely on myth and lies to form their opinion.
Estimates on the number of people killed by the police annually range from 400 to 1,000. 27 police officers were killed in 2013 in the line of duty.
The US homicide rate, which has declined substantially since 1992 from a rate per 100,000 persons of 9.8 to 4.8 in 2010, is still among the highest in the industrialized world. There were 14,748 homicides in the United States in 2010, including non-negligent manslaughter. In 14% of all murders, the victim and the offender were strangers.
Do we really have a major problem with police shooting innocent people, especially minorities? I don't think so. Do we have a problem with violent crime? Yes, compared to most of the developed world. Who is responsible? Certainly not the police.
I’m not even referring to Brown and Wilson. I know lots of people who are getting an ‘f the police attitude. They know how little LE values us.
I promised incidents, so here they come. I don’t have the articles, so details are limited. This is just from memory, no research needed.
First off, Dorner hunt. Though they survived, it wasn’t for lack of trying to kill them. No punishment for the officers. Their actions were totally unreasonable. Anyone else would be sent away.
The recent stairwell shooting. It is yet to be seen if it will result in charges, but the POS commissioner already wants to just call it an accident.
Recent drug raid. Was posted here. Car was stolen. Thief was found, and had meth. He claimed it was the car owner’s meth. Only a cop would believe that. How did cops handle it? They raided the car owner. I can think of other ways to investigate that, that don’t need a raid, but those aren’t as much fun.
He had no idea it was cops when he responded to the attack of his home. The pigs killed an innocent man who’s only crime was to respond to a home attack. He did not know it was cops.
A cop was arresting a guy at a club. A eighteen yo kid was came to tell him he was arresting the wrong person. No threatening moves. The cop shot him dead. No charges for the cop.
Cops were pursuing a suspect into a property. A woman heard a noise outside and went to investigate. The cop shot her. Fortunately she lived. Of course only a cop would not expect to run into a resident of the property, so shoot anything that moves.
A drug raid I read about at CATO. SWAT raided the house of a woman and her teen daughter. One cop held them, while others searched. The cop holding them shot the dog for some reason. Another officer panicked and sprayed the wall, killing the teen girl. Officer not charged.
There have been several incidents of a cop taking a suspect into custody, trips, and ‘accidentally’ discharges his weapon. Note, that is a clear violation of weapon safety training. Booger finger on the bang switch. NO CHARGES for what is clearly negligence. Apparently cops are not required to be professional in their handling of a weapon.
A year or so in Florida, cops saw the motorcycle of a man wanted for ‘attempted murder’ at an apartment complex. Note the quote marks. His charge had been assault until they needed his offense to be more serous to defend this action.
At three in the morning, a man woke up to pounding on his door. The knocker refused to identify themselves as cops. He answered his door armed, since that is nutty behavior. Pigs shot a guy for merely being ready to defend himself. Oh, and IT WAS THE WRONG GUY, WRONG APARTMENT. Just two pigs trying to be heroes. They walked, and an innocent man who did nothing you wouldn’t have done is dead for no reason.
Now mistakes happen, yes. But what happens when it is us citizens who make the mistake?
In Texas there was a drug raid. He was guilty, yes. He woke to someone smashing into his home. He grabbed a gun and fired, killing the first officer. Only then did they ID themselves as cops. Did they understand his confusion, that he ‘only had seconds to respond’? Nope. They wanted Murder One. Apparently we don’t get the same consideration they want. In this case, the system was more honest than the cops though.
Oh, and this also happened at a wrong address raid too. killed the cop, wanted to charge the victim of their mistake. I never did hear how that ended.
I can go on and on. There are a lot of bad shoots by cops, very few of whom are held to account. This trains cops to just shoot first and ask questions later.
As for your percentages? Meaningless. All that matters is that bad shoots are not treated seriously. And it sends a clear message that citizen lives are of no value.
“Who is responsible? Certainly not the police.”
Police are certainly responsible for their bad shoots, and how they respond to them. It is not hard to find incidents of cops killing innocent people, or people who while guilty didn’t need to die.