1114 People Killed By Police in 2014
1. Up 30% from 2013 even though violent crime is at record lows
2. 58 officers were killed by violent assault
, roughly 50% of all officer deaths in 2014.
2. 58 officers were killed by violent assault
, roughly 50% of all officer deaths in 2014.
Admittedly, it does not look good... The police may need to police their own better, but I think the government is creating tension and contributing. they give the orders, authorize military tactics, provide military style equipment, make the laws and are creating a police state.
Stay safe everyone.
Of course, even a lot of cop activity that is actually authorized by law (or at least tolerated by management) is just as evil as the unauthorized actions if not more so. All drug enforcement, for instance, belongs in this category, and so does enforcement of anything else in the very broad category of victimless crimes (see Ringer's "Restoring the American Dream" if you can't come up with the list yourself).
We may be at greater risk now, with plenty of cops around, than we would be without any. And if that's so, then the whole argument against anarchy collapses.
well funny thing, that...the government does not keep statistics on this....citizens have to cobble together this information. In the meantime, they keep clear statistics on police deaths and why. There are over 1M police officers in the US-this does not include, FBI,CIA, HHS, TSA and military. 58 deaths last year...as far as safety statistics goes for a career....
I wish we could glorify the officers but hold them to strict standards. In all areas of the law, citizens may be forgiven for minor infractions, going "five over" the limit of whatever law we're talking about, but not on-duty police officers.
What I just said, though, is a moot point because we have a more serious problem with policing, and a lot of that is tied to general acceptance of intrusive gov't.
Another comment noted two university researchers that say that the numbers being published to date are from 50% to 100% shy of actual numbers. It just looks like there is no way to come up with the actual numbers.
But whether it's 1 or 10,000, it's too many unless it's a shootout situation, and way too many of those reported are not. I personally do not wish to support a police state that kills it's citizens. I want suspects brought to a judge and a trial of their peers. I don't want Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp out there 'resolving' these issues for us--that's not the jobs they are hired for.
I prefer the cop to be dressed in a clown outfit (with the floppy shoes and big nose) riding in a clown car and the only weapon he has is a squirt daisy pinned to his clown tie.
I looked at the latest 10 deaths (as of 12/24/14) and other than what appeared to be a murder/suicide of a cop and his wife (and even that could have been a double-murder as the report is not definitive), ALL of the deaths were clearly JUSTIFIED. Hell, you point a gun at a cop and expect what? We need to add some rationality to the conversation. Someone should take on the job of analyzing ALL of these deaths and provide CONTEXT before we simply brand 'death by cop' an epidemic; simple statistics without context is more than useless, it's dangerous. What the hell do we pay them for but to protect us (and themselves) from the nuts and evil in our society? This clearly puts a target on their back. They have a very difficult job and should be held to a very high standard but convicting all cops because of statistics is patently unjustified.
Personally, I think that our society has become more dangerous than when I was young because of the altruistic pap taught in our schools and churches, and spread via mass media. Technology has also made the planet smaller in the sense that bad people can move about more quickly and inflict more damage. It's no wonder cops are paranoid.
The only thing I can argue slightly is the job of the police. I believe their job is to investigate criminal activity, not to protect us. True, if they take a criminal off the street it protects people from a future crime but a crime has to be committed before they can stop them. So in reality they are hired to clean up the mess. They carry a weapon to protect themselves not others.
Respectfully
Ed
The man that bases his principles on life and every man's rights to that life and all that goes with that life, lived without initiative force in the face of all opposition to that ideal, that man is a hero.
http://personalliberty.com/court-denies-...
At least the courts were able to brand the operation what it was: legal thuggery.
it stands for gender/race
Thank you :-) Loved your book also.
Thank you :-) Loved your book also.
1) The killings are the result of those who feel they can behave violently and continue what they're doing, whether the police are around or not. Ultimately, they're going to encounter superior firepower when the police radio for backup.
2) The increase of the number may be due to the fact that there are increased numbers of people who disregard the law and feel violence is justifiable.
3) Perhaps the police are reacting with greater prejudice out of concern for their own lives. They do have a very difficult job that persistently puts them in harm's way.
Most likely it is a combination of the above and eventually cooler heads will prevail. Even Ayn Rand felt that lawlessness will never benefit a country and that originating force exerted by anyone or any organization should be put down by authority.
FBI Statistics 2013:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/cri...
11,302,102 Arrests in 2013.
That is a percentage of .0098% of arrests translate to a death by officer assuming that these deaths occur while an officer is trying to arrest someone.
Now if you decide to add ALL times where police are responding to something then that percentage is even lower.
Seems to me they have a really good record there.
Now let us look at another profession and make a comparison:
The medical profession.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/inpatien...
The CDC estimates approximately 51.4 million procedures performed per year in the USA.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl...
The Scientific American estimates that 210,000 people die every year during and/or from surgery and specifically medical mistakes.
That is .408% chance you will die from a mistake by a medical professional with numerous years of higher education.
You are FAR, FAR more likely to die at the hands an incompetent doctor, or one that made an "oopsie" than a cop anytime of the day or year. Then lets add, for the most part YOU MUST BE DOING SOMETHING WRONG or at least wonky to be "engaged by a cop."
Time to STOP picking on cops and let them do their jobs.
Most people who are "engaged by a cop" haven't done a darn thing wrong. Nor had they, even in the past when (most) cops gave (white) people the benefit of the doubt. But the state now bans so many behaviors (and even situations) that aren't wrong at all, that no one is safe from cops.
The reason I say that is because there was a huge uproar in my city when a teenager got pulled over for speeding and ended up dead. The kid had initially stopped, but refused to cooperate with the officer and ended up attempting to drive off with the officer at his window. He dragged the officer more than 30 feet until the officer shot him and killed him instantly.
This story was all over the local news for months, but since both the teen and the cop were white, we were spared from hosting Al Sharpton. We had peaceful protests and an investigation, but it all happened peacefully and thankfully ended without any more blood shed.
My point is that we need to establish how many of these deaths were the product of resisting arrest, etc., and how many were a result of overly aggressive police. Without determining causation and tracking that, we are left with pure speculation - hardly a scientific pursuit.
How about letting the courst do their jobs and ferret out the mistakes, and recognize that we need to be focusing time effort and enrgy on REAL problems where we can get a big BANG for the buck in fixing problems. Like drunk teenagers who are responsible for far more deaths, injuries and cost to our society than the miniscule number of potentially racist cops,.
Even with flaws in Law enforcement you are still so close to that 99.999% Six Sigma perfect, that indicates you do NOT NEED TO FIX something that is NOT BROKEN.
Next on a Sig Sigma chart, based on parts per million, i.e. number of arrests vs. deaths the Chart working from 1 Sigma to 6 sigma looks EXACTLY like this.
Sigma Millions DPMO Total Flaws /(Deaths)
6 Sigma 11.302102 3.4 38.43
5 Sigma 11.302102 233 2,633.39
4 Sigma 11.302102 6,210 70,186.05
3 Sigma 11.302102 66,807 755,059.53
2 Sigma 11.302102 308,537 3,487,116.64
1 Sigma 11.302102 690,000 7,798,450.38
This places death by Cop, not necessarily errors at between 5 and 6 Sigma. Companies would have wet dreams if they achieved that. Even IF your only looking at a noticeable statistical sampling across this country, 400 out of 17,000,
Again I will reiterate Cops to an OUTSATANDING job and efforts need to be placed elsewhere in "fixing" the issue.
VERY, VERY, VERY few deaths by cop vs., the number of times cops are engaged for "something."
Sub-point being the cops do not need "fixed", retrained. What needs fixed is the part of our culture that exalts bad behavior, and parents who leave their bastard monster brats to do whatever they want all their life. THAT is what needs fixed. And your "nit picking about millionths is ludicrous at best when the main point does not change at all.
granted, this makes sense as in Seattle they accounted for like 22.5 % of people shot and killed.
One thing is clear from the recent deaths; waiving a gun, committing a crime or resisting by not obeying an officers instructions, can cause serious bodily injury or death. The police don’t know who you are and can only assume the worst so as to protect their lives. You have nothing to fear if you don’t commit a crime, waive a weapon in front of the police, or disobey them.
WARNING, display of, pointing of, or use of this firearm in the direction of people or police can be harmful and/or fatal to your health.
1) Just based on the number of REPORTED arrests, and the number of people killed you reach .0098%.
2) KNOWING that there are most likely FAR MORE unreported dispatches of police the % chance you will be killed most certainly goes down even further.
I am not sure what about reasonable statistics people do not understand, so my explanation and reasoning was not flawed at all. And based on ONLY what was reported, and understanding that all deaths most likely were reported, .0098% is almost 99.999% perfect witch is the holy grail of six sigma quality control.
Also if your using samples, 400 out of 17000, and also understanding that those that DO report are not generally the small town of 30,000. your national percentage would still be roughly the same. INSIGNIFICANT number of deaths by cops. Then you can break those down of the deaths that the VAST, VAST, majority someone WAS doing something bad.
So as an ex-cop, here is my question to you , how many "innocent" people ARE in jail? We know some are, but how many really are?