"Police shoot far more people than anyone realized, a VICE News investigation reveals"
Police shoot far more people than anyone realized, a VICE News investigation reveals
December 11, 2017
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/xwvv3a/shot-by-cops
"An exclusive analysis of data from the 50 largest local police departments in the United States shows that police shoot Americans more than twice as often as previously known."
Can we trust Vice News reporting? Yes.
Bias rating of Vice News "Left of Center," proper sourcing and use of facts:
"Overall, we rate Vice Media Left-Center Biased due to wording and story selection that moderately favors the left and High for factual reporting based on proper sourcing."
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/vice-news/
At a minimum, when a police officer fails to "Serve and Protect," and kills an unarmed person, they must perform a "walk of shame" as in Game of Thrones; I am not kidding!
American culture, however, has a significant problem in that we like aggressive, strong, even belligerent police to protect us!
Police shoot unarmed people should go to jail in my opinion. Police should not be given special treatment if they kill unarmed people, PERIOD.
The system must change, training, policies, courts, politicians must not coddle people killers. There must be a serious, not escapable, jail time for each killing of an unarmed person. The police officer who kills an unarmed person must be tried and convicted and do jail time as a felon. Killing unarmed people by police must be a felony in every case.
The police that kill unarmed people must forfeit pay, pay a fine, and contribute to any civil suit costs the city must pay in light of a loss in civil courts.
Police that kill unarmed people must be required to do community service that identifies, clearly highlights their deed, that this cop killed an unarmed person.
"Police shot and killed an unarmed black man in his own backyard. All he was holding was a cellphone."
Officers say they mistook Stephon Clark’s cellphone for a gun. Activists want more answers.
By P.R. Lockhart Updated Mar 30, 2018, 3:11pm EDT
https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/3/21/17149092/stephon-clark-police-shooting-sacramento
"Former police officer goes on trial for killing unarmed 15-year-old"
By Eva Ruth Moravec Eva Ruth MoravecBio Follow August 16, 2018
"Minneapolis Officer Charged With Murder in Australian Woman’s Death"
By Matt Furber and Mitch Smith March 20, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/us/minneapolis-police-shooting-justine-damond.html
"MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman last summer, an incident that led to protests and the ouster of the city’s police chief, was jailed Tuesday on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The shooting of the woman, Justine Damond, by Officer Mohamed Noor on July 15 renewed questions about police conduct and training in a region that has seen a series of police shootings in recent years.
“Officer Noor did not act reasonably,” Mike Freeman, the Hennepin County attorney, said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon, adding that the officer “abused his authority to use deadly force.”
Thomas Plunkett, a lawyer for Officer Noor, said in a statement that his client should not have been charged. “The facts will show that Officer Noor acted as he has been trained, and consistent with established departmental policy,” Mr. Plunkett said."
Police that are afraid to do their job without fear should not be police. If you shoot before verifying a real gun is aimed at you, meaning sometimes you have to be shot at or even shot, you should not be a cop. Do not take that 911 call if you are inclined to shoot before verifying a threat.
"Ms. Damond, 40, a yoga and meditation instructor who was engaged to be married, had called 911 twice that July night to report what she feared was a sexual assault happening outside her home in an affluent part of Minneapolis. Officer Noor and his partner, Officer Matthew Harrity, arrived minutes later.
The two officers were driving through an alley near Ms. Damond’s home with their emergency lights off, prosecutors said, when Officer Harrity reported being startled by a noise and a figure who appeared outside the car. Moments later, Officer Noor, the passenger in the police car, fired a shot through the cruiser’s open driver’s-side window, fatally striking Ms. Damond."
If police training does not incorporate verify before shooting, then that police training is inadequate to "Serve and Protect" citizens! Apparently politicians are involved too, and THEY must step up to protect citizens!
This city has a reputation for killing unarmed peole and it has to stop!
"Ms. Damond’s death added to a longstanding, tense debate over police conduct in Minnesota, where the shooting of Mr. Castile in Falcon Heights prompted large protests, and where demonstrators in Minneapolis camped for days outside a police station in 2015 after an officer shot and killed Jamar Clark, an unarmed black man."
"Why police so rarely get charged for killing unarmed black men like Stephon Clark"
By Erwin Chemerinsky Special to The Bee March 27, 2018 12:45 PM
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article207012138.html
"Stephon Clark. Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Walter Scott. Laquan McDonald. Freddy Gray. All unarmed black men killed by police officers.
Clark, the most recent of these victims, was killed on March 18 by two Sacramento police officers who fired 20 times at him. The officers said that they saw a gun, but all that was found was a cellphone near Clark’s dead body. We must do a better job of understanding how this happens, of preventing it from occurring, and of holding police departments and police officers accountable when tragedies take place."
In addition to policies and training that prepare police to avoid killing unarmed people, there MUST be better screeing of officers with a propensity and habit otoward violence.
" . . . [author did a study of 75 officers and concluded . . . there is a] serious systemic problems in the LAPD that created a culture that tolerated police violence. I also have seen this in cases I have handled, including one where a police officer mistakenly shot at a car and killed three people within it.
All of this convinces me that a police killing like that of Stephon Clark is not a random mistake, but a reflection of much deeper problems in policing in the United States. To be sure, I agree with Mayor Darrell Steinberg that there has to be much better training of police in the use of non-lethal alternatives, in handling confrontations, and in the implicit racial biases that shape behavior.
But such training is not enough. We must do a better job of identifying officers who have a propensity to use excessive force."
Use of deadly force, gun or no gun, choke hold or baton, must be a last alternative before the police officer him/herself is in danger of death. If they cannot handle that responsibility, they should not take the job.
Police killing of unarmed people in America must stop.
THE COURT HAS TO STOP MAKING IT EASY FOR COPS TO KILL UNARMED PEOPLE!
"The U.S. Supreme Court has made it very difficult to hold officers and police departments accountable. In 1982, in City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, the court made it often impossible for federal courts to enjoin illegal police practices. Adolf Lyons, a twenty-four-year-old African-American man, was stopped by the police for having a burned-out taillight. An officer administered a chokehold on Lyons and rendered him unconscious. When Lyons awoke, he had urinated and defecated. He was spitting blood and dirt. He was given a traffic ticket and allowed to go.
Lyons discovered that 16 people in Los Angeles had died from the use of police chokeholds; almost all, like him, were African-American men. Lyons sued the city of Los Angeles for an injunction to stop police officers from using the chokehold except when necessary to protect the officer’s life or safety. The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that Lyons could not sue for an injunction because he could not show that he personally was likely to be choked by the police again in the future.
The court said a plaintiff who is seeking an injunction must show a likelihood of personally suffering future harm. This makes it enormously difficult to get an injunction against abusive police behavior.
At the same time, the court has made it very difficult to sue cities for money damages when there is excessive police force. The court has held that a city can be held liable only if its own policy violates the Constitution and causes the excessive force.
Likewise, the Supreme Court has greatly limited the ability to sue an officer who violates the law. For example, the Supreme Court has held that officers have “absolute immunity” and cannot be held liable for money damages for testimony they given in court, even if it is perjury and even if it leads to the conviction of an innocent person.
And in case after case, the court has said that police officers cannot be held liable for the use of excessive force because they did not engage in behavior that “every” reasonable officer would believe to be unconstitutional."
If I were a police officer knowing the police chief and department, the courts, and the local Mayor (all local politicians) are going to excuse any "justified" shooting / killing if I make a mistake, I am not as careful as I would be if jail time was looming, and a civil suit as well. If I kill an unarmed person, I should fear for my life for real, not shoot them or choke them "just in case" they are a threat to harm me.
In Dallas, this female cop probably thought she could get away with murdering a neighbor when he, in my estimation, did not look at her "right."
"Dallas police officer could face stiffer charge for killing unarmed neighbor, DA says"
By AnneClaire Stapleton, Darran Simon and Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN
Updated 2:14 PM ET, Tue September 11, 2018
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/10/us/dallas-police-officer-amber-guyger-arrest/index.html
