Posted on 04/10/2015 6:50:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As the nation grapples with the latest incident of a police officer fatally shooting an unarmed black man – this time in South Carolina – many have asked a simple question: How often does this happen?
The answer is: No one knows for sure, exactly. Even the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report, considered the gold standard of crime data since the 1930s, is in many ways out of date and flawed. The nation’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies are not required to compile data on officer-involved shootings.
At a time when shootings in North Charleston, S.C.; Ferguson, Mo.; and Madison, Wis., are raising awareness about the issue, such data would be crucially important to understanding where problem areas might be and how to address them, say many activists and analysts. Indeed, other police reforms, such as body cameras, independent investigations, and reforms to the grand jury system would all be of only limited value without transparent statistics, they say.
Ultimately, the only way forward, they add, is a federal law compelling police departments to compile the data and send it to the FBI. While there are no signs such a law is imminent, an array of smaller moves – together with the growing chorus of criticism – suggests there are the beginnings of movement on the issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Not to side-track this issue, but I just watched the Dash-Cam video on another web site. It shows movement in the passenger seat of the victim’s car. I looks like there is someone there.
Anyone else see this?
With the latest couple of videos that have come out, one an officer blasting away at an unarmed guy running away from him and the fella on horseback, on the ground, hands behind his back being brutally beaten/kicked by no fewer than five cops....are the cops really here to serve and protect?
This year, there have been several officers for Harris county and Houston police departments indicted on providing protection for drug runners, rape, domestic assault. The list goes on.
Seriously out of control. If this could happen to them, it could happen to you or your son/daughter.
Yes there is a passenger in the front seat. So far, it has not been disclosed if the person has been id’d or has been interviewed.
where ARE all these videos ?
Yet, these are all reported to the UN as part of the statistics that were used to show guns are the problem.
The problems here are manifold, but I think the end game is the nationalization of the police, which idiots like James Clyburn have been advocating recently. Once they go that route, we'll have progressed past Weimar Germany and become Nazi Germany.
With every police department under the yoke of the Federal government, Americans can guarantee their servitude for generations.
This might help Sharpton's folks, but overall, it will be meaningless as long as Latinos are reported as whites.
Everyone knows that there was a passenger in the car, that was no secret.
Only local people should control or change their police but it seems inevitable that in the worst neighborhoods they won’t change their police and they won’t change their own behavior.
It took republicans at the state level to appoint an effective police chief in Detroit and the people love him. He came from outside and wasn’t somebody’s politically connected cousin. Crime rates are falling across the board, response times are down to around 8 minutes from an hour or more. Best of all he’s encouraging people to arm and protect themselves.
Yes, there's always going to be some rogue cops who go over the line. But to pretend that thousands of innocent, average citizens are terrorized and threatened with their lives by the leos daily is preposterous.
Just wondering....how many police officers have been killed in the line of duty?
How many Americans are killed by agents of the government?
You phrase it that way and you know why we don’t know.
#1 cause of officer in the line of duty deaths is traffic fatalities.
>>With every police department under the yoke of the Federal government, Americans can guarantee their servitude for generations<<
One of the reasons that these steroid freaks are getting by with this sort of stuff is they know citizens will not push back.
There is a point where folks will just say, “enough is enough”.
>>Anything to federalize the police<<
Some states/jurisdictions may buy into a federalization, but not sure some of your more conservative states like Texas, Montana, Alabama, Tennessee would go for it. Just a hunch.
It amazes me how many chiefs are against this idea. Americans should be universally armed, IMO.
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