And it’s not just the scale, relatively speaking ‘only’ a little over a thousand people are killed by police in a given year. Compared to some other things, it’s small potatoes.
But!
These are people with the power of the state, these incidents tend to disproportionately affect minority communities, and the police are nearly immune from consequences. We have direct video proof of gross police misconduct, instances where police straight up lie to justify shootings, even cases where police have planted weapons on the victim after the fact, al caught on video.
To pick a not entirely random example, Phillando Castile. The old mantra from people used to be ‘just do what the cop says and nothing bad will happen, ergo if someone gets shot they did something to deserve it’. Well in his case he did what he was supposed to, informed the officer that he legally had a gun in the glove box, as you are supposed to.
The cop freaks out and seconds later he’s dead.
We’ve got no knock raids (another major, but separate issue) being done on the wrong houses, and the homeowner winds up dead, or a toddler has a flash bang thrown through their window into their crib causing nearly deadly injury.
These things have been happening for years. And the problem isn’t that incidents happen. Yes, every single wrongful death is tragic. The bugger issue is the response. There is almost no accountability. The officers close ranks and, rather than confront an officer who acted eggreguousl, they attack the fact that the misconduct was caught on film. They try to prevent the release of dash or body cam footage when it would show their claim and report inaccurate, or perhaps even maliciously false.
Because the fact that you could have an encounter with the police, do what you are supposed to do and be innocent of wrongdoing, wind up dead, and have the police cover it up and claim you were a threat, perhaps even fabricating evidence? That has profound impacts on people. That has profound impacts on communities. That makes everyone less safe because , now, would you really want to call the cops? I mean if you live in one of those neighborhoods that faces the kind of policing I don’t out here in white muddle class suburbia, is certainly think twice about it over some petty matter. Have neighbors fighting? Unless I see a gun, no way. There is a very real, and not inaccurate, perception in those communities that the police aren’t there to protect you, they are there to protect themselves. And inviting the police often increases the chance of a situation turning deadly.
And that is why the David French article is wrong @gman1225. It’s wrong because when the officer who killed Castille faces no consequence, and the police attack the fact of the footage rather than the bad officer, people lose faith. It’s wrong because this
In addition to focusing on race, Vox explains the frequency of police shootings by reference to the legal rules of engagement governing the use of force. “Legally, what most matters in these shootings is whether police officers reasonably believed that their or others’ lives were in danger,” they write. “Not whether the shooting victim actually posed a threat.”
Think about that statement. How, pray tell, is a police officer supposed to discern whether a shooting victim “actually” poses a threat other than through their “objectively reasonable” beliefs? How can anyone tell?
Is bullshit of the highest order. He immediately poses a hypothetical about a man brandishing a knife. But what about all the instances of people without weapons. What about the time where the racist asshole in a Walmart calls the cops and straight up lies about some kid holding a B.B. gun he had picked up off the shelf and was minding his own business shopping, and the police storm in and execute the kid who had never posed a threat to anyone, and was not aware of the police until the moment he was shot? What about people brandishing nothing other than their wallet or cell phone who wind up dead?
No David French you do not get to ignore those. And if they make your argument weaker or even untenable? Perhaps you need to rethink it then.