On Police Shootings

US police kill more than two people a day, report suggests

Data collected by the Washington Post newspaper suggests that the number of people shot by US police is twice as high as official figures claim.
The paper said that during the first five months of this year, 385 people - more than two a day - were killed.
The number of black people was disproportionately high among the victims, especially unarmed ones.

Well, that's not really surprising.  Probably even more than that.

A national debate is raging about police use of deadly force, especially against minorities. To understand why and how often these shootings occur, The Washington Post is compiling a database of every fatal shooting by police in 2015, as well as of every officer killed by gunfire in the line of duty.

Do we have to pretend there's some mysterious secret here ?  The cops are trained to behave in a certain way, are encouraged to see every civilian on the street as a potential threat, especially since the era of the 'War on Drugs' and then the 'War on Terror.'  They are heavily armed, and have access to military-grade firearms.  They often wear body-armour.  Their departments obtain armoured vehicles scarcely distinguishable from tanks, along with all kinds of ex-military equipment via generous federal programmes.  The cops themselves are sometimes scarcely distinguishable from soldiers, even wearing camouflage uniforms.  And they are trained to value their own safety over that of those they supposedly serve.  And they are human.

Fear is the strongest emotion in the human brain.  And humans are hard-wired to distinguish between in-groups and out-groups, to see out-groups as a potential threat.  Our fears are of course often deeply irrational, and rooted in internal prejudices, often including, partly as a result of our inherent wiring, racism.  But generally, we are given to fear The Other.  (A fear frequently manipulated by the political classes, but that's another subject).  The Other may have a different skin-colour, may be of a different class, may wear different clothing, may suffer from a mental illness, may speak with a different accent, may have a slightly different form of worship.  In a way, it doesn't matter.  They are Other, and we fear them, even when we know our fears are irrational.

Just about everyone knows this experience, and probably from both sides.  That homeless guy mumbling to himself looks a little suspect.  Better step over to the other side of the street.  Every person of colour in America has been on the receiving end, probably for most of their lives.  Everyone who in any way looks or sounds a little different from their peers has experienced it.  Teenagers experience it from their elders.  Every man at some point has probably experienced it, from women understandably wary of physical assault or rape at the hands of men, not knowing who that guy on the subway or walking in the park is, what kind of person he might be.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, the imagined threat is non-existent.  But it could be so very real.

Of course, the majority of cops aren't women.  And the majority aren't from minority racial groups.  They're mostly white men, often policing communities in which they don't themselves live.  On foreign turf.  On what, with their increasingly military-style training they eventually come to see as a battlefield.  And the primary tool with which they are equipped as they do their rounds is a gun.  Not on a rack back at the precinct.  Not a gun securely stowed away in the patrol-car.  A gun strapped to their hip.  Ready at hand for all eventualities.

And then they come into contact with The Other.  Maybe they were called to the scene.  Maybe they were on patrol.  But there he or she is.  The possibly dangerous drug-addict or homeless person.  The woman with the scary tattoos.  The possibly Middle-Eastern-looking (quick, they do wear turbans over there right ?) guy speaking in a foreign language.  The sixteen-year-old black kid who somehow becomes magnified in the cop's imagination into a hulking monster.  Senses on high-alert, pulse racing, hand on hip...  Wait, is he reaching for ?...<BAM>  He was just reaching for his driver's licence ?  Too late.  He's dead.  Shit.  Better get the story straight.  Call it in.  'Shots fired.'  What will you tell the interviewing panel ?

Police are authorized to use deadly force only when they fear for their lives or the lives of others. So far, just three of the 385 fatal shootings have resulted in an officer being charged with a crime — less than 1 percent.

Well, it doesn't really matter.  You're not going to be charged.  Your fellow officers may even help cover up evidence if it keeps you out of trouble.  And why not ?  You were just doing your job.  Following training.  What if he had a knife ?  He could have been on me in an instant.  Twenty-one foot rule, remember.  Got to get home safe at the end of the day.  And you were afraid.