Police Homicide in 2015

There were no accurate figures about how many 'Mericans have been killed by police in a year until the UK Guardian decided to count the number killed in 2015. The startling number is 1,126. It is the highest per capita death by police violence in the developed world with blacks twice as likely to be killed by police than whites. The death rate is 70 times that experienced in the United Kingdom. Of course that population is not armed to the teeth with guns like the US population. Watch this brief video to get the details:



The Washington Post conducted a similar survey and found over 1000 police homicides in 2015, yet the Post story was framed in such a way as to minimize the impact of such a significant number of deaths--"only nine percent involved unarmed civilians"-- at the hands of police. Even an armed suspect, if not directly threatening the safety of a police officer or others cannot be legally shot down in cold blood; that happened to a Chicago teenager, Laquan McDonald, who had a knife is in hand but was walking away from a police officer at a distance. Nevertheless, he was gunned down with sixteen shots recorded in a dash cam video of the incident. Even if a police homicide results from an error in judgement there is a crime to fit those circumstances:  negligent homicide. The fact is police are often given a carte blanche by authorities to use their guns to solve a tactical problem their training may not equipment them to handle.

credit: Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune
Wackydoodle sez: "If'n y'al groan, it may be used against y'al!