That’s way lower than I expected.
Well, these are only the ones reported…
What are the police trying to prevent that’s worse than someone getting killed?
Their feewings
Letting a minority live.
Typically it’s preventing themselves from being killed.
Officially, it’s typically preventing themselves from being killed.
Do you think cops are never faced with a situation where they have to use lethal force to protect themselves?
I’m saying cops have a history and reputation of using force when it is plain not needed. They are trained to do as much. Then they use the ‘fear for their life defence’, because here’s the kicker: their assessment doesn’t have to be the least bit accurate.
See for reference Daniel Shaver. Dude was shot and killed for trying to pull his pants up. Look up the body cam. The cop that shot him was basically exonerated and even managed to win damages for the fact that he shot the guy.
I like the part where I never said otherwise, but you’re supplying single instances of police abusing their power.
Just because some cop involved shootings are unwarranted doesn’t mean every cop involved shooting is unwarranted.
Don’t get me wrong, I want major police reform like you do, but let’s not be disingenuous about the statistics.
I like the part where I never said otherwise, but you’re supplying single instances of police abusing their power.
I provided one example. There are hundreds upon hundreds of others.
Or perhaps I should provide you links about how this is literally how they’re trained to operate?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETf7NJOMS6Y
But it’s not like I’ve been saying that cops never actually face threats. They do. But they treat literally everything as a threat on the off chance that they might accidentally be correct.
The problem is they are being trained to see threats everywhere, even where none exist.
So, yes, they respond lethally to “defend themselves”, only to find out after the fact that they were defending themselves sgainst the wallet they had just asked to see:
https://www.theroot.com/how-does-a-cop-mistake-a-miscellaneous-object-for-a-gun-1849924433
That’s not worse, that’s one less pig in the street.
what number would be acceptable?
1:1 with police actually interceding in capital crimes instead of hiding like scared children?
See Uvalde and Parkland.
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/20/uvalde-police-shooting-response-records/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/29/us/scot-peterson-parkland-shooting-trial-thursday/index.html
Doesn’t include lives unnecessarily affected or people wounded though… so not the full story I’d say, just the extremes which are still bad.
Context matters, though. Having watched enough police body cam videos where people just start shooting at police for standard traffic stops, it’s no wonder why there’s a “kill or be killed” attitude with every American police interaction.
Of course, there are always innocent victims, which is tragic no matter the situation.
But I think there’s a large majority of people who are killed by police as either suicide by cop or because they initiated deadly force first.
