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U.S. Police Have Shot Dead 385 People In Five Months

It's far from unregulated.

It's regulated by a single entity, the same people that hire them. A government, is ineffective, at regulating everything in comparison to private enterprise is what I am saying
 
Interesting that 92% were 'mentally ill'. Perhaps we can trace this back to the patient rights (PC) movement advocates that put many of the mentally ill out on the streets several decades ago?

92, not 92 percent. Good lord.
 
Resisting arrest is immediate grounds for execution? Interesting concept.

It may be the grounds for justifiable homicide depending upon the circumstances, they can't just let you decide your arrest is invalid and run away
 
When in doubt, let's blame the victims of the problem instead of the actual problem.

It is very rare for someone to truly be a victim of police, and cops have legal authority to protect themselves and effect warrant less arrest. Don't interfere with this powers and you probably won't get shot.
 
In other words be a compliant little robot and we'll let you live. Is this the United States? Land of the free and home of the brave?

I must've missed the right to kill police officers last time I took a class on the constitution, I was probably asleep the day they told me I had a right to assault cops to avoid arrest. Thanks for reminding me
 
Certainly not all

In the last twelve months I recall at least two that were not avoidable by the "suspect"

a 12 year old boy playing with a toy gun in a park, the police roll up fast, get out of the car and shoot the kid, no talking, no attempt to have the kid put the toy gun down, just immediate shooting

a young man playing with a toy gun in a store, the police are called, (tac team) when seeing the man the police open fire, the man had zero possibility of putting the toy gun down.

A third incident did not involve the death, but at a traffic stop in a parking lot the man was out of his truck as the cop pulls up, asks the man for id, the guy goes to get it from the truck, the cop opens fire hitting the man a few times.

Those are just a few

The first one was a split second judgement call, not police malice, it was avoidable in that someone neglected to teach Tamir Rice that it's a bad idea to point replica guns at people.

The second one was an overreaction but incredibly rare. There was also a situation there where a 911 called made a 100% bogus call to get a response. The little wimp who called the cops should've been charged with a Felony level offense and made an example of to other potential swatters.

Those are two out of a thousand, exceptions that prove the rule
 
WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) - U.S. police have shot and killed 385 people during the first five months of this year, a rate of more than two a day, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The victims ranged in age from 16 to 83. More than 80 percent were armed with potentially lethal objects, mostly guns. Ninety-two victims were identified as mentally ill.
The Post's analysis also indicates the daily death toll for 2015 is close to 2.6 as of Friday. At that pace, police will have shot and killed nearly 1,000 people by the end of the year, the paper said.

U.S. Police Have Shot Dead 385 People In Five Months: REPORT

I'm scared as hell. How did it get this bad? When have they turned into bad characters? And why?! Do the police ever evaluate whether any of those killings are avoidable? or preventable? And what can we do to change the situation? Because the situation is really horrible!

Sorry Matthew, they weren't the "victims", they were the criminals. And you are asking what? How criminals got this bad? How there are so many of them?

Dude, we live in a nation of 310 million people and that's growing. What the hell do you think happens when you overpopulate the rat cage? And no, the situation outside the rat warrens we call cities is rather nice thank you.
 
No, I'm neither poor nor black. But apparently I'm uncommonly capable of understanding that my experiences aren't universal. That I have not suffered this harassment does not mean that others don't. That's something that you and many others seem not to understand.

I don't think that is the case. I think people understand. However, since you admit you aren't poor and black, you have no basis from which to make the claims you did.

You might think you know, and it might be important to you personally to demonize people you don't know, but that is all it is.
 
I'll admit that math has never been my strength...but a quick check of the numbers indicates that by what YOU present, the police have shot 365 criminals armed with deadly weapons and 20 that were NOT armed with a deadly weapon, though whether or not they were carrying something like the airsoft gun in Ohio...it does not say. 92 of those shot were mentally ill, indicating they could be suicide by cop candidates.

So what exactly is your fear again?

If the anti-cop crowd was sincerely concerned about anybody killing anybody they would first reach for the low-hanging fruit and focus their anger on the REAL killers who kill on a daily basis (criminals, felons, gangs, etc.,) in numbers that far exceed any deaths attributed to the police. Instead of hating on the solution, they make excuses for the real problem.

Hater's gon' hate. What can ya do? My guess is that none among them have a hair on their ass. Their short sighted and skewed viewpoints also make me question their intellect and ability think critically.

Then it dawns on me that I can't fix stupid so I usually move on leaving them wallowing in their ignorance. But that's just me.

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I'm scared as hell. How did it get this bad? When have they turned into bad characters? And why?! Do the police ever evaluate whether any of those killings are avoidable? or preventable? And what can we do to change the situation? Because the situation is really horrible!

All fear is reasonable to the one who is experiencing it so lets try and see if knowledge can remove the fear as it so often does. First lets take note of the fact that the shooting data appears to indicate a race blind police force. Despite the amount of publicity that has gotten the statistics say that its half white half minority so that seems relatively even. Next lets look at this sentence "Based on census numbers for the areas where the killings took place, blacks were killed at three times the rate of whites or other minorities." This sentence is rather obtuse, though perhaps experience on this site will have sharpened peoples minds enough to recognize what it really says. This is not a measure of total number of black people killed versus whites or minorities it is based on how much of the population they are. For instance if the area was 90% white and 10% black, then if one black person was shot and three white people were shot blacks would be being killed at three times the rate of whites. Its important to notice when this kind of information comes up as it can provide a distorted perspective.

Now lets look at the stuff that really impacts the danger to the average citizen. "More than 80 percent were armed with potentially lethal objects, mostly guns. " Given this information that means that in more than 80% of the cases the victim was armed, and not just appeared to be armed they had a potentially lethal weapon, which is another way of saying a lethal weapon that they had the potential to use on the officer. Given that the average citizen does not have a lethal weapon on his person unless someone has a reasoned objection I believe we can eliminate 80% of the killings as not valid for the average citizen to worry about. This takes us from 385 victims to 77. These 77 are at least able to be classified in the same category as the average citizen in that they were not carrying a weapon on their person at the time. That takes the odds of being killed by a police officer to 77:318 million or 0.000024%. Even these numbers though do not account for the number who might be mentally ill, or who physically attacked the police but such data would be difficult to compile.

What most people forget is that there is a significant balance to even those killings that are truly in the wrong. We have a society where the laws are enforced (this is becoming less true by the day but its still mostly true). The average person does not need a weapon to talk down the street, their house does not get robed, and they do not get killed in their beds. This is not to say this never happens but what the police do is make these occurrences rare. This is because the average citizen weighs the dangers of a crime against the gain from the crime and finds it not to be worth it. The reason most people dont speed excessively is that they dont want the ticket. In order for this kind of deterance system to work the police must have the authority to issue these tickets and punishments when they catch a perpetrator. If for instance all you had to do to get away with a crime was beat up a policeman, and the police did not have the authority to resort to greater, or even deadly force then every criminal would try and beat up the cops to get away. There has to be a consequence, and an immediate one to resisting arrest physically or the cops cant do their jobs. Verbal resistance or passive resistance should not get you shot of course but cops in the modern world are like soldiers in Iraq. The majority of the population hates them, and there is a small but significant portion of the population that will kill them given any chance to do so. Police officers are under extreme stress in their jobs, as much as soldiers in certain areas of the country, and with far less armament and with less protection.

Hopefully all of this makes police less scary to you, they really are doing their best and as long as you dont physically assault them while they are trying to arrest you, you are safe from being shot.
 
If you obey the law and don't act like a thug in general, you'll be fine.

I promise.

This manufactured crisis is getting old.
 
Police might be entirely justified in shooting to death a person who was running away, if they knew that person had just killed someone intentionally and could not stop him from escaping in any other way.

Tennessee v Garner says otherwise. The officer would need probable cause to suspect that person was going to harm someone else. Simply killing one person may not, depending on the specific circumstances, be enough to fulfill the probable cause requirement.
 
You have no authority to kill someone who resists a citizens arrest, even if you think they are a threat.

And NC does not allow citizens arrests. Shoplifters cannot be detained by store owners/workers here, not even security people.

Depends on the circumstances. Citizens generally may use reasonable force.

You are correct regarding North Carolina. A citizen in NC may not arrest but may detain someone until LE arrives. As best as I can tell NC is the only state in the Union that doesn't allow for citizen arrests.
 
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It may be the grounds for justifiable homicide depending upon the circumstances, they can't just let you decide your arrest is invalid and run away

Actually you can. The police cannot use deadly force to detain you if all you are doing is running away. So says SCOTUS.
 
I must've missed the right to kill police officers last time I took a class on the constitution, I was probably asleep the day they told me I had a right to assault cops to avoid arrest. Thanks for reminding me


Uhh exactly where did I say that? I was commenting on the idea that you need to do everything the officer says, like provide ID when you are legally not required to, in order to avoid a busted head.
 
WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) - U.S. police have shot and killed 385 people during the first five months of this year, a rate of more than two a day, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The victims ranged in age from 16 to 83. More than 80 percent were armed with potentially lethal objects, mostly guns. Ninety-two victims were identified as mentally ill.
The Post's analysis also indicates the daily death toll for 2015 is close to 2.6 as of Friday. At that pace, police will have shot and killed nearly 1,000 people by the end of the year, the paper said.

U.S. Police Have Shot Dead 385 People In Five Months: REPORT

I'm scared as hell. How did it get this bad? When have they turned into bad characters? And why?! Do the police ever evaluate whether any of those killings are avoidable? or preventable? And what can we do to change the situation? Because the situation is really horrible!

Perhaps if you read your own figures (see bolded) you might not be in such a state of terror. Let me repeat for you: More than 80% were armed with potentially lethal objects, mostly guns. Now, a rational person would be terrified, not of the police, but of those armed criminals that police are out there confronting.
 
If the anti-cop crowd was sincerely concerned about anybody killing anybody they would first reach for the low-hanging fruit and focus their anger on the REAL killers who kill on a daily basis (criminals, felons, gangs, etc.,) in numbers that far exceed any deaths attributed to the police. Instead of hating on the solution, they make excuses for the real problem.

Hater's gon' hate. What can ya do? My guess is that none among them have a hair on their ass. Their short sighted and skewed viewpoints also make me question their intellect and ability think critically.

Then it dawns on me that I can't fix stupid so I usually move on leaving them wallowing in their ignorance. But that's just me.

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I agree completely. Those that are still championing the OP clearly demonstrate just how stupid and ****ed up the anti-cop movement is. It was stated in the OP and has been clearly pointed out...80% of those shot were armed with deadly weapons. Of the total of TWENTY people shot that were not armed with deadly weapons, it has been shown that several of THOSE were carrying replica weapons, at least one used a vehicle for assault and several more resisted arrest and attacked cops.

TWENTY unarmed people (and many of those 20 attacking cops) in a nation of 360 million people with over a million cops engaging in hundreds of millions of officer/citizen criminal contacts every year. Yeah...that's something for people to lose their minds over.
 
Actually you can. The police cannot use deadly force to detain you if all you are doing is running away. So says SCOTUS.

Nope, you're misreading the case at hand. They can shoot fleeing suspects depending upon the crime they're suspected of committing. Better hoped no one called 911 reporting you as a murderer the cops are looking for when you run
 
Perhaps if you read your own figures (see bolded) you might not be in such a state of terror. Let me repeat for you: More than 80% were armed with potentially lethal objects, mostly guns. Now, a rational person would be terrified, not of the police, but of those armed criminals that police are out there confronting.

I just love stats, facts and figures. Takes all the air out of those emotion driven debates. Save me a lot of time in deciding what is real and what is not in a world full of snake oil peddlers.
 
It may have been posted previously in this thread - I confess to not having read all the entries - but I read in one of my Toronto newspapers this morning that Baltimore has just experienced its 38th murder, just since the day that the six officers in the Freddie Gray death were charged by State Prosecutors. Since that day, police have chosen not to actively fight crime involving blacks in those neighbourhoods, fearing being subjected to charges for simply doing their jobs. That provides me with an easy understanding of why the police may shoot and kill 385 to date or up to 1000 in a year, primarily in US cities.

Here in Toronto, five times the size of Baltimore, equivalent in size to Chicago, we have between 50 and 60 murders in a year, somewhere slightly over half by gunshot. People in the US march for less police action and less police apprehension of criminals because in a few rare cases a suspect dies in the process. Tell you what - take a look at Baltimore and imagine less police visibility in your neighbourhood and see if you'd like the results.
 
Perhaps if you read your own figures (see bolded) you might not be in such a state of terror. Let me repeat for you: More than 80% were armed with potentially lethal objects, mostly guns. Now, a rational person would be terrified, not of the police, but of those armed criminals that police are out there confronting.

And what about the other 20%? Don't you think that the government killing 20% of the citizenry is a problem?

I find it nothing but amusing that the same people who claim to have been afraid of "Obama's death panels" are totally ok with the police killing hundreds of people. Is it ok as long as they're potentially Democratic voters?
 
Why would a public defender's office be involved in charging police with violating a person's civil rights?
They would be contesting an illegal arrest or search. But moreso, they wouldn't be. Because public defenders have many times as many cases than they have time to work on, and so our criminal justice system is largely a plea bargain factory for incarcerating poor people who can't actually afford to defend themselves in a fair trial. And because poor people can't afford attorneys to press civil suits, so there's no one else to do it.
I don't think that is the case. I think people understand. However, since you admit you aren't poor and black, you have no basis from which to make the claims you did. You might think you know, and it might be important to you personally to demonize people you don't know, but that is all it is.
I'll be sure to remember this post the next time you comment about people on welfare, or someone of a different race or religion than you. Since you aren't those people, you have no basis to make claims about them.Or maybe we have objective facts, studies, and statistics about things and the plural of anecdote is never data. So regardless of what you feel is correct based on your own experiences, they have nothing to do with the greater world around you.
 
Nope, you're misreading the case at hand. They can shoot fleeing suspects depending upon the crime they're suspected of committing. Better hoped no one called 911 reporting you as a murderer the cops are looking for when you run


You are mistaken. Here's the decision for you to read if you like. The salient point is here:

Held:

The Tennessee statute is unconstitutional insofar as it authorizes the use of deadly force against, as in this case, an apparently unarmed, nondangerous fleeing suspect; such force may not be used unless necessary to prevent the escape and the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others. Pp. 7-22. [471 U.S. 1, 2]
 
I agree completely. Those that are still championing the OP clearly demonstrate just how stupid and ****ed up the anti-cop movement is. It was stated in the OP and has been clearly pointed out...80% of those shot were armed with deadly weapons. Of the total of TWENTY people shot that were not armed with deadly weapons, it has been shown that several of THOSE were carrying replica weapons, at least one used a vehicle for assault and several more resisted arrest and attacked cops.

TWENTY unarmed people (and many of those 20 attacking cops) in a nation of 360 million people with over a million cops engaging in hundreds of millions of officer/citizen criminal contacts every year. Yeah...that's something for people to lose their minds over.

LOL! I know, right!?!?

Heck, just in Chicago ALONE......

Through Monday, the city recorded 78 homicides, about a 26 percent increase over the entire three-month period last year, when there were 62, Chicago Police Department statistics show. There was also about a 13 percent rise since 2013, when there were 69 from January through March.

The number of killings is six more, though, than through the first three months of 2011, when it was 72.

Shootings rose by about 40 percent during the first three months of this year, according to the statistics. Through Monday, there were 355 shootings, compared with 253 through all of March 2014.
<snip> Chicago homicides, shootings up in 2015 - Chicago Tribune

Why aren't these anti-cop apologists protesting up and down MLK Blvd., in Bigtown, USA, where the REAL killing is taking place? I mean, if they are all that concerned for the criminal element.

I dunno. I think I have wasted enough time trying to understand those people. Time to change the channel.
 
It may have been posted previously in this thread - I confess to not having read all the entries - but I read in one of my Toronto newspapers this morning that Baltimore has just experienced its 38th murder, just since the day that the six officers in the Freddie Gray death were charged by State Prosecutors. Since that day, police have chosen not to actively fight crime involving blacks in those neighbourhoods, fearing being subjected to charges for simply doing their jobs. That provides me with an easy understanding of why the police may shoot and kill 385 to date or up to 1000 in a year, primarily in US cities.

Here in Toronto, five times the size of Baltimore, equivalent in size to Chicago, we have between 50 and 60 murders in a year, somewhere slightly over half by gunshot. People in the US march for less police action and less police apprehension of criminals because in a few rare cases a suspect dies in the process. Tell you what - take a look at Baltimore and imagine less police visibility in your neighbourhood and see if you'd like the results.

At least the ones in Baltimore are free to be fully armed!
 
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