From the Daily Kos:
n what may be one of the most thorough and informative studies done on police officers who’ve killed people in the United States since 2005, the Washington Post and Bowling Green State University have done an amazing job giving color and context to an American epidemic that has been swept under the rug far too often. In this study, it was determined that out of thousands and thousands of people killed by police since 2005, only 11 officers have been convicted of any crimes whatsoever. Consider these findings from the study:
Most of the time, prosecutors don’t press charges against police — even if there are strong suspicions that an officer has committed a crime. Prosecutors interviewed for this report say it takes compelling proof that at the time of the shooting the victim posed no threat either to the officer or to bystanders.
Last year, at least 1,100 people were killed by police in the United States. That is the highest number on record in at least the past two decades, but the truth is that these numbers have been so poorly recorded that it is hard to tell if the problem is genuinely getting worse or if the number of people being killed by police is finally being reported properly.Whatever the case, the Washington Post study makes it abundantly clear that the deck is firmly stacked against victims of police violence and their families:
“To charge an officer in a fatal shooting, it takes something so egregious, so over the top that it cannot be explained in any rational way,” said Philip M. Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green who studies arrests of police. “It also has to be a case that prosecutors are willing to hang their reputation on.”But even in these most extreme instances, the majority of the officers whose cases have been resolved have not been convicted, The Post analysis found.
And when they are convicted or plead guilty, they’ve tended to get little time behind bars, on average four years and sometimes only weeks. Jurors are very reluctant to punish police officers, tending to view them as guardians of order, according to prosecutors and defense lawyers.
Almost certainly, this stark reality is not lost on police officers. Fully aware that they have a 1 in 1,000 chance of being convicted when they use lethal force, the risk is so minuscule that officers have no real motivation for avoiding it when they have even the smallest hunch or feeling that danger is any sort of possibility. In any industry, if people feel that they are above prosecution or consequence, it’s going to have a detrimental effect on society. When law enforcement officers feel above the law, people die, and often unjustly.
Originally posted to shaunking on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 10:24 AM PDT.
Also republished by Police Accountability Group and Daily Kos.
FROM THE WEB
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Tip Jar (37+ / 0-)
Shaun King
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Because the evil cops are protected from us (8+ / 0-)
by the cult of cop lovers & the evil plantation class.
I voted Tuesday, November 4, 2014 because it is my right, my responsibility and because my parents moved from Alabama to Ohio to vote. Unfortunately, the republicons want to turn Ohio into Alabama.
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What a shameful statistic. (5+ / 0-)
I mean, given all the incidents that have come to attention lately, it’s not surprising. But to see the actual data point is still a shock.
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Unfortunately most people in this country (6+ / 0-)
will say, “So?”
When the study says 1,100 people were killed by police the default thinking will be “How many of them were criminals?” Which is the wrong question to ask. Look at other countries — their police arrest people every year and don’t kill them while doing it. Killing shouldn’t be part of the job description for police.
But since this Wild West/Hollywood “gun-slinger” image of the police is accepted by so many Americans it then leads them to believe almost every victim of the police must’ve deserved it somehow.
The 2016 GOP presidential contenders are a laundry list of pop psychology diagnoses mixed with toxic quantities of dark money. What could possibly go wrong?
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how about (1+ / 0-)
“How many of them were criminals?”
how many fired on police?that count of 1100 really needs to be broken down into classifications.
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randomly picked a report (2+ / 0-)
Police say they found a car reported stolen out of Highland Village and tried to stop the driver. The driver sped away and ultimately crashed near the Rock Brook and FM 3040 intersection.Police say the armed suspect then bailed out of the stolen car and ran toward the RaceTrac gas station on Round Grove Road, where he tried to carjack someone with a shotgun.
That’s when an officer confronted the suspect and shot him, according to police.
Don’t have a problem with that one.
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Yeah, I did the same thing a few months (3+ / 0-)
ago, in Florida, and the first five accounts I read involved armed and violent suspects for which the police had good cause. That said, we clearly have a problem with too many cops shooting too many people (of all races but especially black males) and of too many other cops helping them to get away with it. Obama should probably dig in a bit more over his remaining two years, get the feds more involved in investigating LEO killings of citizens.
by doc2 on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 10:54:46 AM PDT
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The accounts you read (4+ / 0-)
were often written by LEOs of the same department. The easiest way to eliminate conflicting accounts is by eliminating the ‘perp’.
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Nah, there are some stories that (1+ / 0-)
cops can make up and some they can’t. When the suspect actually has spent some of the day shooting innocent people, we know that it is not something that came out of the imagination of the police.
by doc2 on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 02:15:26 PM PDT
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Other countries don’t have the (3+ / 0-)
number of guns on the street that we do. Over 35,000 people are killed each year by handguns alone. Any country that exhibits so much gun violence is going to have an armed police force that used lethal force.
by doc2 on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 10:52:10 AM PDT
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Right, because criminals in other countries (4+ / 0-)
never, ever use guns. Only American criminals are armed and dangerous. What was I thinking?!
The 2016 GOP presidential contenders are a laundry list of pop psychology diagnoses mixed with toxic quantities of dark money. What could possibly go wrong?
by ontheleftcoast on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 11:00:32 AM PDT
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A very Dkos-like response (2+ / 0-)
(not in a good way).
by doc2 on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 11:03:36 AM PDT
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Better than your RedState one. 😛 (3+ / 0-)
The 2016 GOP presidential contenders are a laundry list of pop psychology diagnoses mixed with toxic quantities of dark money. What could possibly go wrong?
by ontheleftcoast on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 11:05:08 AM PDT
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Very original as well. (0+ / 0-)
Aren’t you worried that soon a robot will be able to replace you, one who is programmed to shout “Redstate!” at anybody it disagrees with?
by doc2 on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 12:16:48 PM PDT
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Hardly. I make far to many typos for that. (1+ / 0-)
The 2016 GOP presidential contenders are a laundry list of pop psychology diagnoses mixed with toxic quantities of dark money. What could possibly go wrong?
by ontheleftcoast on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 02:04:42 PM PDT
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It’s Not the Exaggeration You May Think: (10+ / 0-)
Britain for example:
criminologists arguing that a 2010 rampage in the British countryside could have been worse had the perpetrator had access to stronger firepower. Today, law enforcement officials say ballistic tests indicate that most gun crime in Britain can be traced back to fewer than 1,000 illegal weapons still in circulation.
We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy…. –ML King “Beyond Vietnam”
by Gooserock on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 11:08:42 AM PDT
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A good argument to overhaul the 2nd Amendment (6+ / 0-)
wouldn’t you think? Of course that won’t be discussed, even here. Instead we’ll see FOX and other outlets insisting that minorities behave better around police. So instead of “Don’t shoot!” we’ll get “Don’t run/resist/talk/etc!”
The 2016 GOP presidential contenders are a laundry list of pop psychology diagnoses mixed with toxic quantities of dark money. What could possibly go wrong?
by ontheleftcoast on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 11:12:32 AM PDT
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Since most talking points involve blaming and (2+ / 0-)
shaming (rather than doing anything concrete) might I suggest that Clint Eastward is responsible? I mean how many perps per movie did he kill as Dirty Harry in the 1970s & 80s? How many active LEOs saw his movies as teenagers and thought, “I could make a career out of that”?
The real problem is quite obviously how many guns are available for shooting anyone (and anything) in the USA, but no-one in power is really willing to discuss that issue, so voting the right people in is the only way to change that balance of power.
btw, there are police forces that kill way more “perps” than American cops and make up many more stories, Brazil is one such place… USnot#1by phil09 on Wed Apr 15, 2015 at 03:36:20 AM PDT
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Then ban the guns (7+ / 0-)
Any country that exhibits so much gun violence is going to have an armed police force that used lethal force.
Another fine argument for banning all handguns.
+++ The law is a weapon used to bludgeon us peasants into submission. It is not to be applied to the monied elite.
by cybersaur on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 01:40:19 PM PDT
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Yeah, I’d be fine with that myself, but (0+ / 0-)
it ain’t gonna happen, ever. And talking about it only makes realistic change less likely as it freaks out the gun lobby.
by doc2 on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 02:17:04 PM PDT
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get rid of violent cops (2+ / 0-)
But since this Wild West/Hollywood “gun-slinger” image of the police is accepted by so many Americans it then leads them to believe almost every victim of the police must’ve deserved it somehow
The image that all cops pull their gun when black kids comes up to them and asks for help definitely needs to change.If a teacher is consitantly absuive toward students, that teacher will eventually have the certification withdrawn in exchange for dropping charges. Teaching, like some policing, is dealing with unpredictable people who have very little impulse control. It is the duty of the adults involved to be in control of themselves and set an example. We have to forgive lapses in judgement in both cases, but not everyone is suitable for every profession.
So I get that police will shoot others when it is not really justified. More importantly I get that some cops are not in control of themselves, and therefore cannot be in control of a developing situation. Some cops are probably too afraid to be cops. They should not be cops.
So if we actively weeding the police to get rid of people who are violent or looking for an excuse to legally murder someone, like Robert Bates, then it would be much easier to forgive a cop when the situation escalates. However, it seem that many communities are willing to let the violent cop stay to keep costs down.
This is why people are clamoring for conviction of cops, which we all know is a death penalty. It is not because we don’t know that cops are insulted, pushed around, and even shot. It is because we pay cops to handle these situation, and be the adult in control of these situations.
I really like a line from the last season of the old Dr Who, something to the effect of this is our job so lets do it with some style.
“My name is Michelle Dubois. Time is very short. Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once”
by lowt on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 02:14:49 PM PDT
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In some places around the world , (8+ / 0-)
the person in charge , the person at the top , takes responsibility .
If a ferry sinks in South Korea sinks ,
http://www.theguardian.com/…South Korean prime minister resigns over ferry sinking
Chung Hong-won steps down amid rising anger over claims by relatives that government did not do enough to help loved onesIf a road fails in Italy ,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…Head of Italy’s highway agency resigns after Sicily road collapse
Maybe instead of getting the shooters convicted we should ask their boss/s to take the blame for the problems ?
If the top dogs are forced out after the misconduct of those who they are the superiors to , maybe the problem will be worked on to the benefit of the unarmed future victims ?“please love deeply…openly and genuinely.” A. M. H.
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Excellent point. (2+ / 0-)
Public bureaucracies need to be turned from protecting themselves to protecting the public. They’ve come to believe that those two objectives are equivalent; they aren’t. Impunity benefits only the institutions and those who occupy them at the expense of the public.
“I don’t know what country chest-thumping, would-be patriots who want to abolish public education think they want to live in, but it’s not the United States of America.” Digby
by psnyder on Tue Apr 14, 2015 at 08:39:09 PM PDT
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That is not the right stat. (4+ / 0-)
It is not the case that of the 1,000 deaths that there were 1,000 crimes committed. There are plenty of completely justified police shootings of dangerous, armed criminals. The right ratio to focus on is the number of convictions per unjustified use of force. Anecdotally, I think we all know that there is a problem that needs to be more seriously addressed, perhaps federally. But it isn’t a one-in-a-thousand sort of problem.
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Not that simple (2+ / 0-)
The number to focus on is the number of deaths. Other countries get that much lower, even on a per capita basis. We should be able to as well.
Beyond that, “justified” is a very loose term. Some really couldn’t be avoided by anything the police did – guy firing into the crowd when police reach the scene. Some are justified, but might have been avoidable if the police took a different approach. Some are justified in the final moment, but the situation that led to them was provoked by the police and could have been avoided. Some are just flat out murder.
That last needs to lead to convictions and at the moment rarely does. But the others are problems too.
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By “justified”, (2+ / 0-)
he means “the ridiculously cop-favoring laws said it was legal”, ethics be damned.
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Since police Depts. are not required.. (9+ / 0-)
..to publish statistics on this, we need a national database and the according enforcement necessary to force the issue. Make it law @ the federal level that all police institutions from all states must make police caused deaths a part of normal operations to be submitted to a national database:
Criminal justice experts note that, while the federal government and national research groups keep scads of data and statistics— on topics ranging from how many people were victims of unprovoked shark attacks (53 in 2013) to the number of hogs and pigs living on farms in the U.S. (upwards of 64,000,000 according to 2010 numbers) — there is no reliable national data on how many people are shot by police officers each year.The government does, however, keep a database of how many officers are killed in the line of duty. In 2012, the most recent year for which FBI data is available, it was 48 – 44 of them killed with firearms.
This is key:
..police officers. Fully aware that they have a 1 in 1,000 chance of being convicted when they use lethal force, the risk is so minuscule that officers have no real motivation for avoiding it when they have even the smallest hunch or feeling that danger is any sort of possibility. – Shaun King
We Don’t Know How Many Americans Are Killed Each Year By The Police
The FBI says there are around 400 “justifiable police homicides” annually. But a statistical analysis says that figure is likely understated.That number, which has been cited in several news reports, is provided by the FBI, based upon data collectedly the bureau’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program — which relies on the voluntary involvement of state and local police agencies.
So until we can establish new federal level protocols, in the meantime, Here is a group asking for help:
We’re Compiling Every Police-Involved Shooting In America. Help Us. | August 20, 2014
Here, we’re going to take a cue from Jim Fisher, who as far as we can tell has compiled the most comprehensive set of data on police shootings in 2011. Fisher’s method was simple: He searched for any police-involved shooting every day for an entire year. By our lights, this is the best way to scrape this information—any time a police officer shoots and hits a citizen, it will almost certainly make a local news report, at least. However, this is a time-intensive process, and our manpower is limited. Having gathered some of the data, we can say it will take the few of us here a very long time to do this on our own. So, we’re setting up a public submission form and asking for help with this project.
Thx Shaun King – good looking out
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Quibble with the post (1+ / 0-)
“the risk is so minuscule that officers have no real motivation for avoiding it when they have even the smallest hunch or feeling that danger is any sort of possibility.”
Yeah, or if they just feel like killing somebody.
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its time we (2+ / 0-)
started calling the cops what they really are, thugs, racists, criminals, you name it.
for those that claim all cops aren’t bad i agree but until the supposed good cops start speaking up and acting like good cops they will be painted with the same brush, unfair maybe but no more unfair than the murdering of unarmed males of color with no consequences for the police aka thugs, racists, criminals.
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guardians of order (3+ / 0-)
when the police murder a citizen they are NOT ‘guardians of order’…….they are MURDERERS
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legitimized murder (3+ / 0-)
when an officer says that he/she ‘feared for their life’ they are citing the well worn phrase, taught during training and reinforced by their attorneys, used as JUSTIFICATION for any misdeeds they may have committed…. citizens can/have used the same phraseology to justify their actions as well. The biggest difference between the police and a citizen when the ‘fear’ terminology is invoked is that the citizen is held to a higher standard of justification while the police are granted carte blanch because of the badge, uniform and gun…….it should be the other way around, the police SHOULD be held to a HIGHER standard, after all, they are supposed to be the ones trained to be ‘guardians of order’ instead of ABUSERS OF POWER AND POSITION
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Shaun King (1+ / 0-)
Thanks for posting this. Sorry that there’s the need.
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Cops and Firing Their Weapons (1+ / 0-)
I posted something last week which was inarticulately put forth. What I meant to say is, why all the concern about police officers shooting unarmed people?
As it was stated in the movie The Departed:
Cops become cops because they WANT to use their weapons.After they use them, kill someone while on duty, they cry to therapists and are allowed to go back on the job.
No one is more full of shit than a cop, except a cop on TV.
I am not saying they want to KILL people. But THEY WANT TO USE THEIR WEAPONS. END OF STORY
Boycott Wal Mart/Papa Johns/BP/Angie’s List- and Jack Welch is still a pr*ck
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Along those lines (1+ / 0-)
I will be interested in seeing what they charge the Officer in the Scott case with. If they charge him with 1st degree murder, it is as if the fix is in in the same way that it was with the Furgeson grand jury. They won’t get that conviction whereas a lower level will likely allow the jury to convict. They would be able to say, “Look, we tried him, but he wasn’t convicted” even though it would be the level of charge that got him off.
In the Tulsa case, charging the deputy with second degree manslaughter sounds like the level that is justified by the negligence that occurred.
Of course additional evidence could change either case.
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That stat is slightly misleading (1+ / 0-)
I’m not for a minute defending any police killings, but just stating “Last year, at least 1,100 people were killed by police in the United States,” in an article which then goes on to talk about police shootings is slightly misleading. Some of those killed were in accidents (i.e. someone being hit by a car). The website 538 did an analysis of the incidents listed by taking a sample and figuring out the percentage in the sample of police shootings, arrest related deaths, and accidental deaths. From their sample of 146 cases, 85 percent of them were police shootings. Now that is the figure we should be looking at. Not only does focusing on shootings show just how awful the problem is, but it removes the criticism that the statistics are including accidents, etc. Just my two cents.
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2 things..accountability and leadership (1+ / 0-)
Thats whats missing. This crap starts from the top. If police depts across the nation decided this was going to stop it would. And if those shooting unarmed humans would be held accountable and pay for their crimes then it would stop. This isnt about body cams…thats the most ridiculus solution to this problem. These cops dont care because their leaders dont care and courts wont punish them. Hell the cop had a dash cam running when he shot that unarmed man running away, in the back, 5 effing times. Cam didnt stop him from playing Rambo.
I used to have at least a bit of respect for cops but no more. I cringe when i see them now. I dont trust them one bit. They lie and thug and fuck with people all the time. Dressing up in riot gear, beating innocent people with batons and tear gassing for no good reason other than they know they can and no one will call them on it.
What else to call this chaos other than a Police State?
Night after night…day after day. They strip your useless hopes away…Dylan
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That’s a higher conviction rate than I thought. (1+ / 0-)
Why do I have the feeling George W. Bush joined the Stonecutters, ate a mess of ribs, and used the Constitution as a napkin?
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I would gladly let every cop walk (0+ / 0-)
… as long as we could collectively indict and convict every one of the criminals in the financial sector who continue to cause not only pain but death to masses of people around the world. These criminals are even less prosecuted than bad cops and it shouldn’t be so.
And while we’re at it, let’s convict every person associated with National Security who have gleefully tortured or authorized torture of others. Dick Cheney would be a good start and I wouldn’t mind John Yoo getting frog marched out of Berkeley, either.
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One begat the others; evil rich people created (1+ / 0-)
this crap.
I voted Tuesday, November 4, 2014 because it is my right, my responsibility and because my parents moved from Alabama to Ohio to vote. Unfortunately, the republicons want to turn Ohio into Alabama.
by a2nite on Wed Apr 15, 2015 at 03:49:11 AM PDT
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It’s all part of gun culture. (1+ / 0-)
We are a society awash in guns, with a culture to match, one permeated by violence. A violent law enforcement subculture and a justice system utterly deferential to LEO violence are part and parcel of it. It is hardly the case that they are uniquely violent among a pacific population or that they are an historical aberration.
It could well be that focusing on the problem of police violence is a way of getting a purchase on the broader, more encompassing and endemic problem. It’s worth a shot and certainly beats the inaction embraced by most of our elected representatives.
“I don’t know what country chest-thumping, would-be patriots who want to abolish public education think they want to live in, but it’s not the United States of America.” Digby
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Suppose police acted with perfection (0+ / 0-)
I mean suppose that police are so highly trained and their sensory perceptions and dilemmatic decision making skills are so well developed that every time they killed a suspect, it is 100% justified, 100% of the time
Wouldn’t the headline read:
New study: For every 1,000 people killed by police, none are convicted of a crime
That’s obviously not the case. We know that police officers are not perfect actors. Sometimes they act with criminal intent, sometimes they act with criminal negligence, and sometimes they just misperceive something or make decisions that ultimately proves to be the wrong one, even if reasonable under the circumstances at the time the decision was made.This diary makes no attempt to parse through these distinctions, let alone acknowledge them. Instead it lumps them all together in a way that would lead to the hypothetical diary title above if police officers were perfect actors.
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