What America’s police departments don’t want you to know - By Eugene Robinson

[kpete]

Michael Brown’s death was part of a tragic and unacceptable pattern: Police officers in the United States shoot and kill civilians in shockingly high numbers. How many killings are there each year? No one can say for sure, because police departments don’t want us to know.

.............

Attempts by journalists to compile more complete data by collating local news reports have resulted in estimates as high as 1,000 police killings a year. There is no way to know how many victims, like Brown, were unarmed.

By contrast, there were no fatal police shootings in Great Britain last year. Not one. In Germany, there have been eight police killings over the past two years. In Canada — a country with its own frontier ethos and no great aversion to firearms — police shootings average about a dozen a year.

....................

“You know who dies in the most population-dense areas? Black men,” he wrote on Gawker. “You know who dies in the least population-dense areas? Mentally ill men. It’s not to say there aren’t dangerous and desperate criminals killed across the line. But African-Americans and the mentally ill people make up a huge percentage of people killed by police.”




the rest:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-its-a-crime-that-we-dont-know-how-many-people-police-shoot-to-death/2014/12/01/adedcb00-7998-11e4-b821-503cc7efed9e_story.html?postshare=631417492014245

the rest:

[MindPilot]

1. K & R n/t

[heaven05]

2. NOT hard to believe at all

[BootinUp]

3. .

[Octafish]

4. The cops track every parking and speeding ticket for eternity, let alone criminal arrest records.

Why don't they have to report people they kill in the line of, er, duty? The data might reveal a pattern or something someone capable of connecting dots could discern.

[L0oniX]

14. +1

[JEB]

47. We live under the all seeing eye except

when what it sees implicates the wrong people. We can't have the oppressors being held to account.

[BrotherIvan]

50. The police have become an extrajudicial force in this country

The most suspicious pattern is the call that police forces and management cannot be monitored or reformed because the culture is so specialized and at war with dark forces. Much like the canard of "state secrets" or Terra! parallel to the ever-intertwining of the police with the Pentagon.

[lovemydog]

5. This has to change.

Better training, body cameras, public pressure.

In 2008 there were 846,000 black men in prison. It's hard to find the most recent numbers as that information is also difficult to obtain. It's probably closer to a million.

Warehousing and killing black men is a disgrace and a travesty.

We shouldn't sweep it under the rug. We have to talk about it.

[kpete]

6. thank you

I love my dog too!!!


and yes you are exactly right:

Warehousing and killing black men is a disgrace and a travesty.

We shouldn't sweep it under the rug. We have to talk about it.

thanks for those powerful statements,



and peace,
kp

[lovemydog]

9. Thank you too kepete. I'll keep talking about it

with others. I talk about it offline with friends.

Many have someone they love in prison. Every person in prison is loved by someone. We have to keep talking about it. We cannot lose our humanity. I hope others reading this will post more about it at DU. I read so many good things here.

The good the bad and ugly. Nothing is off-topic as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, I love dogs. I made this username when my dog Angie was healthy & happy. The light of my life. She passed away a couple years ago - dignified to the end. I will get another dog some day. I love dogs and dog lovers.

Have a good day! Peace to you too my friend.

[lykemike]

7. Therein lies the rub..

Since blacks are seen as "other" or worse, to kill them, or perform experiments on them, or warehouse them for labor & profit is only natural. Slavery lives on: It's the American way.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/21694-shocking-facts-about-americas-for-profit-prison-industry

[lovemydog]

10. Yup, the for-profit prison industry is a sham and a disgrace.

Thank you for the article lykemike. Welcome to DU and have fun. Keep posting articles like this (or anything you feel like posting, lol). People read them. Have a good day!

[gopiscrap]

16. I totally agree!

[lovemydog]

63. Greed, greed and more greed.

People making money off the backs of throwing black men in prison. 846,000 black men in prison in the United State.

I'm sick and tired of it. Tired, tired tired.

[woo me with science]

57. REVERSE the damned militarization. END the programs.

Just adding more cameras to oversee the fascist police state is not the answer. The answer is REVERSING and dismantling the fascist police state. Militarizing the hell out of the cops is the problem, not the fact that they don't have body cameras.

We always are encouraged to start by accepting the status quo, even when the status quo is unconscionable. Militarized police forces should never have happened in the United States of America, and they need to be de-militarized and the programs that militarize them ended.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025897324

[lovemydog]

64. Yes, we need demilitarization of our police forces.

They have become antagonists in far too many communities.

Excellent points, woo me with science.

[mountain grammy]

8. I know one thing; no "bad cop" is ever killed in the line of duty

at least not anywhere I've ever lived. Every time a cop is killed he's the most loving husband and father on the face of the earth, a saint to be sure. The corporate media glorifies any and all police killed in the line of duty. Had Wilson been killed in the altercation, he would be glorified as the most wonderful cop and human being in the world and Michael Brown would be on death row, and it wouldn't have taken any time at all to accomplish this.

Not long ago in Denver, two cops on either side of a privacy fence hunting a suspect. "drop your gun" says one and then shoots through the fence, killing his fellow officer. Very difficult case for the corporate media to explain, so the story disappeared.

[Ino]

42. I love that cop-on-cop violence...

Here's a big stupid pig so excited at the chance to beat someone up, he kicks a fellow officer in the head before he finds out who's who.

#t=11

Are all these cops taking down a violent criminal? Nah... just some kid dodging a fare at the subway.

[easychoice]

51. did the cop who got kicked apply for disability?

or was the bad guy charged with assault because the cop got drop kicked.

[Ino]

58. The kicker got the usual paid vacation

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/10/watch_nypd_officer_kicks_fellow_cop_in_the_head_with_boot_thinking_he_s.html

According to DNAinfo New York’s report, the unidentified officer responsible for the kick, who is from the 60th Precinct in Brooklyn, was stripped of his gun and badge and put on modified duty. The incident is under investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau as well as the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

The one who got kicked got dragged away by another cop, and I didn't see him again in the video. Gee, I hope he's OK

Big Stupid Pig finally got it right though, holding the kid's head down with one hand and delivering a big pig blow with his other fist right into kid's face.

Also liked the little cop who was so anxious to get in the fray that he piggybacked Big Stupid Pig before realizing that he couldn't reach from up there. He eventually found an opening to make himself useful.

[easychoice]

65. yeah the short guy was pretty useless

Who trains these dickheads?There was no reason I could see for any of this crap.
In Seattle This is why the D.O.J. runs our police department.We got tired of them.Everyone here is still scared to death of them.
How did we get here?

[myrna minx]

11. k&r

[Stellar]

12. Good read... Eugene Robinson.

Thanks for sharing.

[L0oniX]

13. Truth!

[jwirr]

15. They do not want us to know. Regarding prison work and profit if a group such as annonomous or

DU or Occupy were to set their goal of finding out I do not think it would be impossible. From there this info could help groups that advocate from African Americans to take the very idea of profiting from prison work to court.

Which prisons have works programs and how much profit do they make and do they pay their workers, how much.

[gopiscrap]

17. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has a work program called Unicor

You even earlier probation if you work full time in this program. They start you out at 28 cents an hour and sell the finished product (many sites, it's furniture) at a huge profit. All Federal Judges, Prosecutors and Probation officers are share holders in this NON PROFIT corporation. There is a huge incentive to give longer sentences and also to revoke probation or parole for the slightest of reasons.

[jwirr]

19. That does not surprise me. When one of my neices was put in a treatment center because she was

considered suicidal. The judge was on the take to steer as many clients to them as possible. My sister and her husband took them on in the courts and closed down the entire treatment center. They would keep the kids there as long as they could. In her case she was joking about suicide and spent 10 months there.

[truedelphi]

35. Thank goodness for people like your sister and brother in law.

And Shame on the people responsible for warehousing entire segments of our society.

[Major Nikon]

20. There is no profit and there are no shareholders

UNICOR is owned by the federal government exclusively and the products produced are only used by the federal government. The only exception is services like call centers staffed by inmates which may be contracted by private entities. The entire program operates at a net loss and must be subsidized by tax dollars.

[truedelphi]

36. I seriously doubt that there is one major operation in this country where there are no

Kickbacks.

The fact tht UNICOR's operation runs at a loss, when labor is obtained by enforced labor of prison inmates, for minimal pay, tells me a lot, right there. Just that one fact.

Of course, maybe UNCOR is an exception, but then they need its managers to infiltrate the Department of Defense and other departments.

[Major Nikon]

37. You do realize the government is selling the products it makes to itself?

I'm not sure where the kickbacks would come from and where they would go.

[truedelphi]

38. If that is true, then how is the program a loss?

I could see it being a loss if the items being made were sitting warehoused in a storeage facility, but if the government is paying for the items, then there should be a lot of black ink on that UNCOR's ledger sheets.

The goods have a buyer, they are made by people who are working almost for free, so if this program is a loss, someone in management needs a talking to, at the very least.

[Major Nikon]

40. I reckon it's because production costs exceed sales

Which the government could remedy by increasing sales costs, but I'm not sure what the point of that would be. The program was never designed or intended to make money in the first place.

[truedelphi]

55. Good to know.

And for some reson, I find that iIrust people who use the word "reckon."

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. It's like the cops feel it's their job to rid society of "undesirables".

[Scuba]

21. Not one more fucking bullet until they're all wearing cameras all the time.

[Beartracks]

22. The whole "American exceptionalism" thing is a myth.

We're not the only country whose citizens are free, or who fight to "defend freedom."

We're not the only country with a "frontier ethos" and lots of guns.

Yet we're the only one with a high citizen-on-citizen or police-on-citizen body count.

The problem isn't guns, obviously. The problem is Americans.

===============================

[DMay]

23. Police setting fires is what they dont want you to know!

[Maineman]

24. Yet another aspect of our system that has gone astray.

It seems all the messed up aspects of our system are right wing based.

Tough guy policing, out-of-control gun ownership, radical wealth imbalance, money dominated elections, unregulated corporate profiteering, blatant racism, dysfunctional government, unethical members of Supreme Court, out-of-control gerrymandering, highly questionable voting mechanisms and machines, tax breaks for the wealthiest persons and corporations, medical care owned by for-profit entities. Many more, I am sure.

[RedCloud]

27. The deputies, the sheriffs and the soldiers get paid

They get more benes than most people. When the Koch bros. tell them to shoot us where will their aim their guns?

[easychoice]

46. Yeah,don't forget guys like this clown

they are all over the place.

[IMG][/IMG]

[defacto7]

48. Unfortunately,

they don't end up like he did. They usually get away with it.

[left_of_center]

25. vent

Because I'm so new, I can't create my own post, but I'm so angry and outraged at the gall of the St Louis police, I have to write something that maybe someone will read. Got into it with a racist family member, who could have easily just ignored something she disagreed with. Oh my fuck. I hope they all go down.

[kpete]

28. left_of_center

You came to the perfect venting spot.

peace,
kp

[left_of_center]

43. thanks kpete

Hope to make some friends, learn, and not get into unproductive arguments.

[hifiguy]

34. Welcome to DU!

[truedelphi]

39. Welcome to DU, left of center.

I hope you find the site to be what you need.

[defacto7]

49. Welcome to DU....

vent away.

[spanone]

26. k&r...

[DeSwiss]

29. Which is precisely why I've always said:

- FUCK THE POLICE.

K&R





''If we don't fight now, I guess we'll have to be kicked.....''

[iscooterliberally]

30. They don't want us to know that they are far more likely to kill us than Ebola. n/t

[DefenseLawyer]

31. It's hard to know statistically, which is by design

but anecdotally, there are not only more police shootings, but the reaction has changed also. There was a time, say 20 years ago, when any police shooting was itself "news" (and I mean locally, where it happened, not national news). The officer was placed on leave and there was an investigation that was covered in the press. Of course, like today, it rarely was anything but a whitewash, but at least it was covered. Now, a police shooting is mentioned in passing, almost as an afterthought, in the basic story of the crime itself (if that's even covered) and the administrative action that follows is never covered. Of course I'm talking about garden variety use of deadly force in our cities, not the select few cases that make national news. In short, even if there were as many police shooting "back in the day" as there are now (which I don't think is the case) there is no denying that a police shooting was certainly more of a "big deal" back then as far as the local media is concerned.

[jayschool]

32. And when student journalists report this in Colorado

no newspaper in the state would pick it up.

Here's the story about the numbers of officer-involved shootings here:

http://cunewscorps.com/colorado-underreports-officer-involved-shootings/

[mountain grammy]

44. Not even the Daily Camera? How sad. The Post is useless

like most corporate media. Thanks for the post, I will follow the CU News Corps.

[jayschool]

45. Nope.

We make all of our stories available through the Colorado Press Association. The Post and the Camera have been good about it in the recent past, but this story got no takers.

Odd.

[ReRe]

52. That was an EXCELLENT article...

... send that thing to the biggies. Screw CO! Thanks for linking it, jayschool.

[hifiguy]

33. Gene Robinson always tells it like it is.

He is a great columnist and one of the few left at the major papers.

[lark]

41. Nail meet hammer.

This is totally right on. Cops killed a mentally ill elderly black woman at my old job in front of 8 people. All were horrified! The woman was crazy but not dangerous and was just trying to get a handout. She was hanging out in the parking lot and got hit by a car when she jumped in front of them as they rounded a corner. Cops were called, she was up and moving around when they got there, begging for money. Cops told her to move away, she didn't. They told her again and told the co-workers to leave the area. They moved back, but didn't leave. The lady started acting even more bizarre, singing and swaying and yelling, all the time bleeding from several cuts. Cops start to get in their car, lady starts walking rapidly towards them, one of the younger ones paniced and shot her - said she was going to attack. All 8 called the Chief of Police who wouldn't return their calls. They called the newspaper but the story that got printed was not the truth, it was told from the lying rookie cops' POV. This happened around 20 years ago, so this is nothing at all new. Cops are often dangerous, especially if you are "different".

[Iwillnevergiveup]

53. PROUD 200th REC

Mr. Eugene Robinson - journalist par excellence!

[ReRe]

54. This fact really pisses me off....

... they damn sure know our every move and e-mail and text, and tweet and instagram and snail mail physical address, and license plates and sos numbers and facebook account and DU post,and and employer, our fucking income and amount of taxes we pay, if we're married and how many times we've been married, our fucking family tree.

But we don't know anything about them. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch.

Who polices the police? Nobody. And that's why they get away with murder all the time. There are 3,140 some odd counties (or equivalent) in the U.S. Why could We the People not start keeping account of the number of police killings in our counties. Newspapers could do this, as they have access to the police depts. But can we even trust them?

[lonestarnot]

60. One over here yesterday.

[ReRe]

61. One what over here yesterday?

... Sorry, I always seem to miss all the excitement.

[lonestarnot]

67. A cop killed a brown or black man over here.

Last edited Thu Dec 4, 2014, 10:15 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014957589

[bigdarryl]

56. It's funny how Eugene Robinson has a good insite on Ferguson but on his buddy Joe Scarbough show

He sat there like a idiot and said nothing when Scarborough was spewing his hate on Micheal Brown

[lonestarnot]

59. If ever there were a need for a national data base, this would be it.

[cannabis_flower]

62. Question?

You know, on Wild Kingdom they shoot animals with tranquilizer guns. Why can't they do that sometime?

[lonestarnot]

68. Apparently populations that have skin that is not white need to be reduced and that can't be done

with tranqs.

[dreamnightwind]

69. excellent question

Hell, shoot them with indica, they won't be violent after that.

[lonestarnot]

70. What is that? Snort...

[uponit7771]

66. +1