Why do police in this country kill so many people? This doesn’t happen in other countries anywhere nearly as much. We are off the charts when it comes to law enforcement killing citizens. Virtually always, law enforcement investigates the killing, declares itself blameless, and the shooters go free. Since the killings often happen to people of color and / or the poor, the powers-that-be don’t much care, especially since the prison-industrial complex keeps many of them employed and getting re-elected.
The unintended consequence is more and more people stop trusting police. Long term, this bodes very badly for the country. Police cannot work effectively if people in an area simply won’t talk to or cooperate with them. And that’s exactly what’s happening. This has a spiraling downwards effect as police feel more isolated, so they come on even harder, which causes more people to not trust them.
I lived in Los Angeles for thirty years and did my best to avoid any contact with LAPD at all ever because they have a deserved reputation for thumping first and asking questions later. Lots of people I know in L.A, feel them same, and I’m talking about whites with good incomes. Imagine what it must be like for a black teenager in Watts or a young Latino in East L.A.
It turns out that 1,000 deaths-by-police is not a crazy number.
I can’t get my mind to ingest that number.
In Great Britain, the usual number, per year, seems to be zero. Give or take one?
Germany reported 8 deaths by police service weapons in a two-year period.
I’m in shock. We really have to look at this. To pretend that calling attention to it amounts to some kind of verbal war against police is ridiculous.