Post analysis finds few prosecutions among thousands of fatal shootings by on-duty police

[MrMickeysMom]

Ref: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/04/11/thousands-dead-few-prosecuted/?wpisrc=al_alert

Among the thousands of fatal shootings at the hands of police since 2005, only 54 officers have been charged, a Post analysis found. Most were cleared or acquitted in the cases that have been resolved.

I've been viewing posts and videos here, listening to what my fellow DUers have to say. Again and again, there are low post numbered therein…

Are the more "privileged" of color that silent? Have any of you written to the aforementioned police departments informing them that we are watching them closely? Or, are you afraid of being watched closely yourselves? Actually, I'm not afraid of that at all, since we are already watched closely.

May as well tell them what you think and how unacceptable you think this is.

[RealityAdvocate]

1. What percentage of the shootings are NOT justified?

It seems silly to think police are not frequently put into situations in which deadly force is justifiable.

I'm surprised at the 54 charged number -- that seems higher than I would have thought, and surprisingly appropriate as a percentage of total police shootings.

[HereSince1628]

3. Any such number is subject to reporting errors, systemic and otherwise

By systemic I mean structures that determine who/what category of persons gets to make reports, how and which institutions get to define justifiable, etc.

The assent by courts that pain is a legitimate means of LE gaining compliance completely boogles the mind about the morality of the rightness with which authorities define justability.

The
n there the issues of non-institutionalized but present issues that surround whether or not citizens are looking for such problems and reporting and whether the news media is sharing them. Currently American society has an attitude wherein institutional excuses and rationales aren't accepted and the misuse of force is being increasingly called out and publicized.

For decades police controlled the narratives around these events and the media dutifully and boringly went about the task of reporting findings of often pro-LE boards of internal and community oversight that force, lethal and otherwise was justified.

[MrMickeysMom]

4. Define "frequent", and I'll tell you what constitutes most of local calls meanwhile...

Truth, borne by statistics where I live in SW Pennsylvania show that in this town of about 28k people, most police calls are for traffic violations and retail thefts.

Shootings justifiable? Look at the number of times police have to shoot, and the type of call it was. THAT should tell you that an extremely small number are justifiable. "Tasors are a blessing", so goes the opinion of those who would normally drawn their service revolver.

Now, instead of asking what percentage of shootings are NOT justifiable, why don't you explain why the percentiles ARE justifiable?

[RealityAdvocate]

5. How many officers are assaulted annually?

[RealityAdvocate]

8. The answer is roughly 50,000

[MrMickeysMom]

10. 50,000 per what total number?

"roughly"?

[RealityAdvocate]

13. Yes roughly.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/leoka/2013/officers-assaulted/assaults_topic_page_-2013

Roughly 50,000 of 533,000.

[MrMickeysMom]

15. Officers Assaulted

Assault In common law, assault is the act of creating apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact with a person.

Are we comparing the number of persons assaulted or killed?

[RealityAdvocate]

19. I'm not sure what you're saying.

There are roughly 50,000 cops assaulted annually. Some of those are deadly force assaults.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Reality is that policing has not been as safe as it is these days

since the early late 1960, early 1970s, or that crime statistics have crashed starting in 1992. Yet. the siege mentality and the culture of police, the militarization, has increased.

Want to talk statistics? I am all open to it. By the way, the assault number you quoted is from the UCR, for 2013,

The exact number is...49, 851

And law enforcement is hardly the most dangerous job out there either. For some odd reason fire personnel do not keep flogging that horse though, and theirs is far more dangerous than police.

[Taitertots]

17. And all the guilty parties should be arrested and none of them should be killed

Are you going to take the position that murder should be the response to police assault?

[RealityAdvocate]

18. Most are arrested and not killed.

It's unrealistic to expect there to be zero police shootings. There are plenty of murderers, rapists and other violent criminals arrested every year. Some of them don't go down without a fight. Some of them fight to the death.

[Comrade Grumpy]

20. You mean like when they beat the shit out of somebody, then charge them with assault?

Or when some guy's face assaulted the cop's fist?

I grant that police are sometimes assaulted, but I'm also old enough to treat official police reports as works of fiction until otherwise verified.

The cops have managed to earn all the mistrust, fear, loathing, and skepticism they face.

[treestar]

7. We're supposed to assume every single one was

a white cop viciously shooting a black kid.

It probably would be more complex than that.


And the article contains no statistics about all of the shootings - only one breakdown for race of the 54 - where it was more predominant for white cops to shoot black citizens.

[MrMickeysMom]

11. I don't know how we could assume anything...

If anything, this article CALLS for those statistics to be logged in a transparent way. We have a long way to go before we know the truth.

Meanwhile, I ASSUME that we have a pre-conceived notion growing up that the police will act in accordance with the law in a step-fashion manner to reduce escalation of aggression at either THEIR level or the ACTOR's locus of control.

Good policing would assure that this be the model. Bad policing doesn't give a shit how badly you finish what you're responding to.

[beachbum bob]

2. in every instance I imagine the cops swear they were in fear of their lives

we need braver police....the only reason data is not required to be reported is to keep the public in the dark on the total number of citizens who are killed or die at the hands of law enforcement....other wise knowing such data could possibly piss us off..........

[MrMickeysMom]

9. What we need is transparency from local police departments AND...

… a citizen's police review board, which any local government can create. The people on this board should serve no longer than one term, and that term should be appointed every two years in a staggered fashion.

That will help the transparency.

[treestar]

12. And it may be true in some cases

Braver? Good grief. Though I have seen the sentiment they should be willing to be killed rather than ever defend themselves.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

16. The excuse that they were in fear of their life is all they need to shoot someone, it seems

If that is the case, then we either need braver or more honest people to be cops.

Let's face it, the system is broken, cops will NEVER turn on each other, they all saw "Serpico"