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Cops accidentally kill 300 citizens annually
Columbia Chronicle ^
| 12.8.2003
| unknown
Posted on 12/08/2003 5:53:56 PM PST by 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 dont 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.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: catholiclist; cops; firearms; guns; police; suicidebycop
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To: Diddle E. Squat
What's the number, something like 50+ children a year drown in buckets?
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Close 40 drown in buckets and 80 drown in tubs.
To: eno_
Ending the Drug War would disemploy tens of thousands of armed LEOs instantly, and free up the resources to reform the rest.
Of course there'd be a hiring boom in revenuers, which the anarcho-libertarian-socialists would welcome!
To: Porterville
Couldn't agree more, 1/2 of all police do not belong. They are uneducated mop-heads with too much power/ego. The other half are well educated only trying to do a good job.... The problem is this, the dumb asses are encouraged to be cops while the educated are not...
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Agree.
We need to rein in these power/ego govt employees by changing the policy procedures.
To: CHICAGOFARMER
What is the defination of a "innocent LEO's"Basically all but the very, very tiny few who are corrupt or incompetent(but who the cophaters always seem to present as the norm.)
Thanks for the figure, that gives me a better perspective. But I do question how many of those 300 'innocent' citizens are really truly innocent, or closer to the 350-lb guy in Cincinnati.
24
posted on
12/08/2003 6:12:31 PM PST
by
Diddle E. Squat
(www.firethebcs.com, www.weneedaplayoff.com, www.firemackbrown.com, www.firecarlreese.com)
To: CHICAGOFARMER
Your example of one doesn't justify the totals given in the article. Sorry, but I've seen too many criminals resist arrest, only to claim they are the victim.
25
posted on
12/08/2003 6:15:03 PM PST
by
aimhigh
To: Diddle E. Squat
Thanks for the figure, that gives me a better perspective. But I do question how many of those 300 'innocent' citizens are really truly innocent, or closer to the 350-lb guy in Cincinnati.
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This guy in cincinnati in my opinion was not an innocent victim. This guy resisted arrest. He died of an enlarged heart.
To: aimhigh
Your example of one doesn't justify the totals given in the article. Sorry, but I've seen too many criminals resist arrest, only to claim they are the victim.
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OK, think about this if you are ever pulled over because the police are doing a felony stop based on incorrect information.
The guns will be pointed at you. The bullets are in the chamber, the fingers are on the trigger. They have been trained that if they fire they are trained to shoot to kill. If the police officer partner accidently trips and fires his weapon into the ground what is the other partner going to do? wait to pull his trigger, don't bet your life on it.
To: CHICAGOFARMER
So you think it is an "accident" when Officer Friendly pumps 40 pieces of lead into a suspect?
28
posted on
12/08/2003 6:21:10 PM PST
by
ambrose
To: CHICAGOFARMER
A minor point: a traffic stop is not a felony stop. A felony stop is a procedure used when there is probable cause to believe the occupant(s) are armed AND dangerous.
One more thing. There is a lot of chatter about ego and poor judgememt among cops lately. This is, I think, based upon fact. The old way of having new guys "broken-in" by the vets on the department are generally gone. The new paradigm has it that this was destructive to the training of the newbies, and a preventative for the assumption of 'generational' bad habits. The actual reason, I think, is that the old guys remember about things like probable cause....a concept largely abandoned by the automatonic yoots on the force today. Don't want to confuse the new guys, do we?
29
posted on
12/08/2003 6:22:40 PM PST
by
dasboot
To: CHICAGOFARMER
1 - I doubt the numbers. I'd like to see the source.
2 - I doubt that all of the dead are "innocent" or "unarmed"
3 - Disarming the cops is as stupid as disarming the honest people.
30
posted on
12/08/2003 6:22:42 PM PST
by
narses
("The do-it-yourself Mass is ended. Go in peace" Francis Cardinal Arinze of Nigeria)
To: Monty22
The police state is right around the corner and coming fast.
To: Porterville
I am convinced that all police applicants have to take an IQ test, and if it is too high, they're not hired.
To: ambrose
So you think it is an "accident" when Officer Friendly pumps 40 pieces of lead into a suspect?
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So this is police policy to pump 40 rounds. This guy evidently was an innocent victim. I recall this shooting having occured about 4 years ago in NYC. The four cops were fired, or the victim family received a larged cash award.
To: Trickyguy
I am convinced that all police applicants have to take an IQ test, and if it is too high, they're not hired.
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Cute.
I once wanted to be a cop, then I decided I should graduate from high school first.
To: CHICAGOFARMER
With a national population of about 3 hundred million I would say law enforcement does a remarkable job of protecting the public from those who would do them harm. Many of the Cincinnati cases had the deceased using weapons against the police, yet the main stream news media keep reporting and insisting that the deceased were unarmed. Unbelievable!
To: CHICAGOFARMER
Hydrant Mark
36
posted on
12/08/2003 6:29:03 PM PST
by
ChefKeith
(NASCAR...everything else is just a game!)
To: narses
1 - I doubt the numbers. I'd like to see the source.
2 - I doubt that all of the dead are "innocent" or "unarmed"
3 - Disarming the cops is as stupid as disarming the honest people.
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1. I will look up a three year old source to support this source if I can find and post it.
2. Absolutes are always wrong. There could be a couple of punks in this group that squeezed thru. You know how newspaper writers are sometimes their views and sources need checking.
3. Don't want to disarm, only change the policy to empty pipe and change the shoot to kill policy. It is stupid to disarm the police, like it is stupid to disarm citizens.
To: conservativecorner
Well said. The greatest guarantor of Constitutional rights is the very government which the anarcho-ideologues like to bleat about.
To: Porterville
Couldn't agree more, 1/2 of all police do not belong. They are uneducated mop-heads with too much power/ego. The other half are well educated only trying to do a good job.... The problem is this, the dumb asses are encouraged to be cops while the educated are not... Sad but true. Police hiring should be a lot more selective, and place a far larger emphasis on psychological profiling to elimiate the enthusiastic uniform fetishists.
39
posted on
12/08/2003 6:33:23 PM PST
by
eno_
(Freedom Lite - it's almost worth defending)
To: Porterville
Bull, most people at the FR agree the cops have too much power and need their wings clipped.Perhaps you're right, but I've seen far too many of the opposite kind that would dedefend a bunch of ninja-clad cos mercilessly gunning down an 80 year old lady for having the unmitigated gall not to get from her couch to the door in less than the (now) supremecourt minimum of 20 seconds when on yet another drug bust gone wrong because the cops couldn't be bothered to check a housse number. it happens here all the time. The citizens of this country are just lowly 'civilians' to them who'd better jump when they say 'frenchman'.
40
posted on
12/08/2003 6:34:19 PM PST
by
zeugma
(If you eat a live toad first thing in the morning, nothing worse will happen all day.)
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