Cops accidentally kill 300 citizens annually

Columbia Chronicle ^ | 12.8.2003 | unknown

[CHICAGOFARMER]

Cops accidentally kill 300 citizens annually

Editorial: Nonlethal weapons a better approach

http://www.ccchronicle.com/back/2003-12-08/opinions2.html

Here lie the casualties of an epidemic that has been increasingly gripping American cities since the early part of 1990:

·Steven Curry, 21, shot and killed by an off-duty Chicago police officer, Nov. 25, 2003.

·Michael L. Jacobs, 37, shot and killed by a Shreveport, La. police officer, claiming self-defense, Dec. 2, 2003.

·Courtney Mathis, 12, shot and killed by a Cincinnati police officer, Sept. 1, 2001.

·Timothy Thomas, 19, shot and killed by off-duty Cincinnati police officers, April 7, 2001.

·Ahmed Diallo, 22, shot 41 times and killed by New York City police officers, Feb. 4, 1999.

·Robert Russ Sr., 22, was one of two unarmed civilians shot and killed by Chicago police in a single week, June 1999.

·Gonzalo Martinez, 26, shot and killed by Downey, Calif. police, Feb. 15, 2002.

·Nathanial Jones, 41, died after being beaten by Cincinnati police, Nov. 30, 2003.

These cases are only a small percentage of the more than 300 unarmed citizens killed each year by police officers who claim they had no other option than to use a service firearm or other means of lethal force.

“Other options,” however, to bring people under submission have been made available to various police departments across the country. In the western United States, there is a sweeping trend by police districts to adopt nonlethal weapons.

According to the San Diego Tribune, more than 1,200 policing agencies have begun using PepperBall guns.

The PepperBall Gun is a semi-automatic, high pressured-air launcher that fires balls containing the strongest, hottest pharmaceutical-grade irritant available.

In October, San Carlos, Calif., police began carrying taser guns, opposite their firearms. The taser sends 50,000 volts of electric shock into the nervous system, completely incapacitating a subject. Officials from the Phoenix Police Department began using taser guns in 2002.

Since its implementation, there has been a 50 percent decrease in the number of shootings by police officers. And in San Diego, where officer-involved shootings are among the highest in the country, police districts are retraining their officers in sensitivity and deployment of nonlethal weaponry.

Nationally, only 1,000 of the 18,000 police agencies currently supply nonlethal devices to officers based on a variety of poor reasons. Major cities of the Midwest and Atlantic regions argue they are sticking to their guns, no pun intended, due to tight city budgets, the lack of training and most importantly, doubt.

Its troubling when the use of nonlethal weapons becomes an oxymoron for police in cities such as: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Providence, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., where police-involved deaths continue to rise. It seems those sworn to protect and serve are ignoring a proven remedy.

According to a 2002 Associated Press report, a majority of U.S. law enforcement agencies do carry Mace or pepper spray. But officers believe the chemical aerosols don’t pack enough punch to subdue suspected criminals. So, are police trained to believe that the only alternative is to shoot or pound the culprit to death?

Part of the problem lies in the lack of training in defensive tactics and nonlethal artillery. Officers often reach for their holsters because training goes out the door during challenging confrontations. Police must be properly educated in understanding how to best handle all situations. But perhaps the ultimate cure is in the eradication of police officers who sidestep proper training practices. In any other profession, the incompetent are let go. Unfortunately, in law enforcement, someone has to die before incompetence is realized.

[Porterville]

Are you so anal you can't see when a FReeper is offering a truce?? I take it back then, you are wrong about the police, you are wrong about how you see this country, and your humor is pedestrian at best.

[CHICAGOFARMER]

I am not in law enforcement however I have forty-nine years of firearms experience both civilian and military and I cannot agree with a no bullet in the chamber (simi-auto or auto) or no bullet in the chamber under the hammer(revolver).Why, modern semi-autos used by police have many safety devices that will prevent a true accidental discharge(I will get back to this)and if a weapon is chosen by a department that does not have these devises,safety slide,decocker,grip safety or in the case of the Glock a safety trigger(sorry there are always mechanical failures)they must be held liable. Revolvers of recent design(at least the past fifteen years) have a safety transfer bar to prevent an accidental firing.The real problem is that many police training facilities behave as if they are training soldiers (paramilitary)not civilian law enforcement personnel,Two to the torso and one to the head is a common theme,after all no witness no explanations and probably no law suit.An accidental shooting is one in which a firearm is dropped,malfunctions unexpectedly or someone is trying to wrest it from an officer.When a LEO points his weapon at a suspect finger on trigger and the weapon discharges and injures or kills someone it is not an accident,or tragedy,it is a homicide.March 1992 a police SWAT team in Everett,Washington killed Robin Pratt,she was shot while on her knees begging "Please don't hurt my children" deputy Anthony Aston shot her in the neck, she was alive for two or three minutes but could not talk as her throat had been destroyed,she was then handcuffed lying face down.This was a no-knock raid and the allegations on which the warrant was based turned out to be false.www.powernet.net/~eich1/noknock.html.While I agree that LAO's shoot to kill all to often and for the wrong reasons the time needed to rack a slide or the diminished firepower of one less round could cost a LEO or innocent civilian their life.If Law Enforcement Officers (LEO's) were no longer trained to believe that civilians are the enemy and can be shot for any real or imagined provocation and with statutory immunity to prevent their prosecution for wrongful injury or death we all would be better off.

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Perhaps you have put the best face on this post tonight. I must agree with most of what you said.

[narses]

What flavor? Libertine? Anarcho-capitalist? Randian?

[CHICAGOFARMER]

The real problem is hiring small cops with a large attitude. Alligator mouths with canary assholes. Not a single diplomatic bone in their scrawny bodies. Constantly have to prove how tough they are. When people they confront take exception to being called names and screamed at their only recourse is to pull a gun or get their ass kicked

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Very true Very true.

[the invisib1e hand]

begs the question, "how many do they kill on purpose?"

http://policestatefla.blogspot.com/

[Luis Gonzalez]

Actually, Diallo died of natural causes.

Death is the natural aftermath to being shot 41 times.

[CHICAGOFARMER]

I never intended to imply that the 3% were the types to kill someone accidently

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

And I did not intend to indicate that 3% would be involved in an accidential shooting. But it is interesting, that 3% of CCW or RTC carriers would be 135,000 crooked citizens in a group with a license to carry a firearm. And both you and I know this would be unacceptable for citizens but ok for LEO's.

[the invisib1e hand]

Alligator mouths with canary assholes

genitals too, I'm told.

[Cultural Jihad]

Well, you are the one who claims everyone on FreeRepublic has been 'screwed by cops at some point.'

[CHICAGOFARMER]

begs the question, "how many do they kill on purpose?"
http://policestatefla.blogspot.com/


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reminds me of the Clint Eastwood movie where he tracked down the four motorcycle cops that killed the bad guys. Was it Clint?

[CHICAGOFARMER]

could cost a LEO or innocent civilian their life

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the key phase is "could" is this "could worth 300 lives every year???

[SassNClass]

Don't forget the WHITE drunk that was shot about 114 times in Los Angeles a few years back...

[Porterville]

Canary's have cloaca, basically an O-ring.

[freedumb2003]

Death is the natural aftermath to being shot 41 times.

True -- and we ALL die of Cardiac Arrest:

Cardiac=Heart
Arrest=Stop

[dasboot]

This discussion is gettin' nutty. Statistically speakin.

[eno_]

Porterville's comment on police, and, especially narcs, can be measured for truth this way: I have been to Freeps. I have met other Freepers on several occations. I have NEVER met any of the Drug War enthusiasts at Freeps.

The reason is they fear that people will tag them as narc sympathizers and jam them up. Your "speak for yourself" line would be more credible if you did get out on a picket line or protest someday and speak. Or do you cower in fear of citizens who might think narcs are an unwelcome plague?

[tpaine]

Yep, rino political dodos need drinks, lots of clear pure water drinks to wipe away the georgetown socialist kool-aid that's been poisoning this republic for 40 years.
Dream on if you must, of new 400 billion dollar political triumphs. I see only a massive nixonian type joke.

[LibWhacker]

Sometime around 1960, several cops -- including a cousin of mine -- quit the police force in the small midwestern town I lived in because the police chief there instituted a new policy for the use of deadly force: No police officer shall fire at a perp unless the perp first shoots at the police or at some other innocent person. Period, no exceptions. Good policy. I thought so then. I think so now.

How times have changed. Can you imagine any police department having such a policy today? I can't, but if you happen to know of a town that still has such a rule, let me know because that's where I want to live.

There is no doubt: More than a few cops today are trigger happy killers who are sanctioned to kill people on barely more than a whim. That cell phone in your hand doesn't look like a gun, right? Wrong! Any baby-faced Nelson in blue can drop you in your tracks any time he wants and get away with it scott free. All he has to say is that it "looked like" you had a gun in your hand and that you were pointing it at him. It happens all the time and it has to stop.

[Coleus]

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!>>>

Help block parole of convicted New Jersey cop-killer!

[Cultural Jihad]

Several occasions hardly covers the tens of thousands of registered FReepers.