When you look at the factual data on police violence, as this report lays out, the blatant racism of most police departments, and especially sheriff's departments becomes obvious. But I think there is something else going on. American police are the least educated, and the least trained of all police departments in any developed democracy. I think that is strongly brought into focus by the murder of Tyre Nichols. I have seen a dozen television news accounts of his murder, and read another dozen website and print media stories. Not one. Let me say it again, not one has emphasized this reality: A Black man was murdered by five Black police officers. It is hard to think of that as racist, but it clearly is an example of poor education and poor training. All of these arguments about funding or defunding the police fail to mention what ought to be obvious. The murderous violence of American police is a function of poor selection of personnel, followed by poor education, and poor training. It has nothing to do with buying military gear. Here is my bottom line: To become a police officer in the United States you should have a college degree, and you should then go through two years of training before they give you a gun and put you on the street.
The year 2022 was the deadliest year on record in the United States for fatalities at the hands of law enforcement. According to the Washington Post’s police shootings database, law enforcement officers shot and killed 1,096 people last year. In comparison, there were 1,048 shooting fatalities at the hands of police the year before, 1,019 the year before that, 997 the year before that, and so on.
These numbers are most likely underestimated. According to Abdul Nasser Rad, managing director of research and data at Mapping Police Violence, the Post “only captures incidents where a police officer discharges their firearm and the victim is killed.” This means that it doesn’t count events like the 2014 killing of Eric Garner in New York and the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, as both deaths resulted from asphyxiation.
In contrast, Mapping Police Violence includes any action that a law enforcement officer takes that results in a fatal encounter. For example, Rad’s project concluded that police killed
Albus Eddie
on Monday, January 30, 2023 at 1:56 pm
We are an incredibly violent culture. This county has been at war almost continually over the past 60 years. As a country we sell Trillions of dollars of weapons and arms each year. This is not a training issue, it is a culture issue. We need to re-align our values away from violence. The politicians that are elected reflect the consciousness of the citizens.
We are an incredibly violent culture. This county has been at war almost continually over the past 60 years. As a country we sell Trillions of dollars of weapons and arms each year. This is not a training issue, it is a culture issue. We need to re-align our values away from violence. The politicians that are elected reflect the consciousness of the citizens.