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.

[Diddle E. Squat]

We agree on that. Not mocking your issue, just initially approaching with a healthy cynicism, given the proliferation of cophating threads here lately.

[Diddle E. Squat]

most people at the FR agree the cops have too much power and need their wings clipped

Baloney

[Porterville]

Salami

[CHICAGOFARMER]

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!

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Most people do not know that 18 of 21 Cincinnati perps had fired first or had a firearm when killed. The race card and the bias news media against firearms is at work here.




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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.

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I see that you need some help here. The police do not protect anyone in the United States. Police only clean up the crime scene. You should read Dial 911 and die by Ricahrd W Stevens. Your eyes will be opened to the fact that each citizen is responsibile for thier own self defense.

There are about 450,000 LEO's in the US. of that number 120,000 are street cops, the rest being clericals, supervisors, investigators, etc.

Of that 120,000 cops, three shifts leave 40,000 cops per shift for 300,000,000 million or one cop per 2500 citizens.

You are safer in Disneyland with FL 350000 CCW citizens.

[Cultural Jihad]

we all have been screwed by cops at some point.

Speak for yourself. Are you an ex-con? And if so, what were you unjustly accused and convicted of? Is the root cause of your ideological outlook on the world really traumatic toilet training episodes?

[CHICAGOFARMER]

The citizens of this country are just lowly 'civilians' to them

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Sorry to correct you, but "subject" "slave" "no longer free men"

[dasboot]

I am convinced that all police applicants have to take an IQ test, and if it is too high, they're not hired.

The IQ and psychological tests have been abandoned by the department that hired me after they were determined to be unreliable predictors of performance, and offensive to the sensibilities of desirable applicants. (I have diarrhea: A) Once a week; B)Once a month; C) Once a year; D) Never [actual question from the 'honesty index' test I took]

I was advised by the psychologist that I might be better off declining a cop's job: I was too creative, honest and intellegent. She said that ['big picture' capable] persons were prone to frustration and boredom-fatigue. I ignored her advice.

Hiring in the larger muni departments in my state is done exclusively by Civil Service test score, veteran status, monority status and lack of disqualifiers like felony conviction. Departments may or may not use additional tests like psychological surveys. But I don't think the latter could be legally used to discriminate. I think they were/are largely a research tool.

[Porterville]

Brother is a cop, seen his peers... loser cops are a bane on the system sorry anal-fixation-person, you are one of th 85% who follow.

[eno_]

Nobody accuses anyone of "doctor hating" and yet the numbers for deaths due to errors in health care are horrifying.

The problem is that police have become degenerate: More violent, more insulated from the citizenry, more heavily armed, authorized to be more intrusive, more unionized, more bureaucratic, and more costly and less effective - as measured in crime solution rates - every year. There is very little that distinguishes most big-city cops from big city public school employees, except the gun and bullets.

Why would conservatives embrace public schools? Why would they embrace today's cops?

[Judith Anne]

The contempt of many here on this thread for police officers is apparent.

Sometimes I wish some of the brainiacs who make crude jokes would do police work for a living, a couple of years. There are a couple of staties and a county mountie in my family. I can understand contempt for crooked cops, but they are by far the tiny minority. Most are just hardworking, honest people who pay their taxes and try to do their job. They may not be what is you consider the cultural elite, but most are educated.

It IS extremely complex and difficult work. Ridiculing and blaming, tarring all officers with the jokes you so casualy post, is easy.

You may not be smug and self-righteous, holier than the police, but you sure seem like it to me, tonight.

[Porterville]

I think there is a cop on this thread who would disagree with you, I know as a brother of a cop it seems you have myopia

[narses]

"...only change the policy to empty pipe and change the shoot to kill policy."

What, exactly, do you mean "empty pipe"? As for "shoot to kill", since the policy is to shoot when in mortal danger, that needs to remain the same.

[CHICAGOFARMER]

every year. There is very little that distinguishes most big-city cops from big city public school employees, except the gun and bullets.


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Yep it is sad. It can be called me too!!. For example two bank robbers rob a bank in LA and have a shoot out. The following week, news stories are running rampid about cops being under gunned. Each police department wants a top of the line swat team with high power rifles in every squad car. The news media just hammer the american public with blood and guts news stories. What bleds leads.

[Arpege92]

"To many here, LEO's can do no wrong."

And many here think LEO's are always wrong.

[eno_]

Civil Service test score, veteran status, monority status and lack of disqualifiers like felony conviction.

With the low remaining qualifications, no wonder we get armies of steroid-case no-necks who didn't make noncomm. Wal-Mart has better HR screening.

[CHICAGOFARMER]

Sometimes I wish some of the brainiacs who make crude jokes would do police work for a living, a couple of years.

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It is a known fact that honest american citizens with CCW licenses committ less crime that LEO's as a group. Why is that??

Why is it that honest american citizens with CCW permits are labeled as the bad guys and LEO's the good guys but the numbers say otherwise??

[marktwain]

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

I also doubt the numbers. I recall another thread where the number of unjustified shootings by police per year was give as about 30, or 10% of the above figure.

[wi jd]

Close 40 drown in buckets and 80 drown in tubs.

That is why we should ban buckets and tubs.

[Patriot1998]

It's a shame that the police now days get away with murder! I quess that's what happens in police states? I say the police have way to much money and power. It's time to scale back and show them that they are not in control of the people any more IF it's not too late.

[eno_]

The problem is the whole system is bent, from bad laws like "click it or ticket" to the far too many SWAT teams, to the unions, to the training, etc.

You don't get bad policing by accident. Policies, laws, hiring practices, "diversity," and political correctness made cops the way they are.