US Police set to Kill 1100 People in 2015

American Cops Just Killed More People in March (2015) than the UK Did in the Entire 20th Century

On average, US police kill people at a rate 70 times higher than any of the other first world countries as they 'protect and serve' the American citizens.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/american-cops-killed-people-month-march-uk-entire-20th-century/#EAqdRWfy05IVskyZ.99

ren wrote: It's no secret that Americans like to shoot people. It is their beloved constitutional right to shoot one another. Their government has the right to shoot them and they have the right to shoot their government, and everyone will happily shoot forever after, unless fatally shot during all those shootings, and that's why america is #1 (at shooting itself in the proverbial foot) :whistle:

As sarcastic as this statement may seem, it isn't too far from the truth.

America was founded by armed patriots (a.k.a. terrorists if you were British at the time) who violently overthrew their government and proceeded to replace it with a new government based almost entirely on protecting individual freedom from a tyrannical government. Of all the rights afforded to Americans in the Bill of Rights, owning a gun in order to shoot at an oppressive government is second on the list.

Americans quickly rampaged across the continent killing the indigenous peoples and then attacked neighboring countries until we controlled the whole place. Then we split in half and shot at each other for a while. Soon after we took our guns overseas and decided to solve everyone else's problems the way we do, by shooting at each other.

When we don't have a common enemy, we go back to shooting at each other here at home. Our military overseas usually has some decent intelligence about the enemy and some very impressive artillery to work with. That isn't always the case for police here. When you are a cop in the U.S. and you know there is a very real chance that a person you are approaching could be carrying any one of the 80 million guns (and that's just the legally documented ones) on the street, you might feel like you need flash bangs and armored vehicles. It's peace through superior firepower.

I'm not saying that this is necessarily the appropriate course of action. I'm also not implying that police are never guilty of abusing their authority. What I'm hinting at is the gun-toting culture that exists here. "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hand" is a very real sentiment for a lot of Americans. Add in a dash of contempt for law enforcement and you're just asking for bullets to fly.

cops in America are out of control

if you deny it then youre part of the problem

police do not need bayonets and no one should die for selling cigarettes

imo the problem comes from the idea that we should be enforcing laws and punishing those who break them rather than that we should be focused on reducing crime

again - cops think they are supposed to force people to obey them and that they are supposed to punish people who do not

I disagree

imo our police force should be devoted to understanding crime and reducing crime - thats it

if that were the real goal then you would see vastly different "enforcement" policies and public relationships

the difference between the two perspectives may seem subtle but it is most definitely powerful

I agree with much of what you say, OB1. There are many police officers who are unfit to do the job and abuse their authority. I also believe that the goals of police and policies regarding law enforcement need to be scrutinized constantly. Reducing crime through education should be the priority over enforcing laws after the crime has already been committed.

What I will not say is that "cops in America are out of control" or "cops think" this or that. You are making dangerous generalizations that contribute to the problem. When a person is raised to believe that all law enforcement officers are dangerous and not to be trusted, that person is far more likely to act in a way (i.e. arguing, running away) that could result in an inappropriate overreaction from an officer. That one officer's overreaction may be wrong, just as the behavior of the suspect may not have been ideal, but we cannot demonize all law enforcement because of it. It would be no different than demonizing all Italians because you knew a few who were members of the Mafia. If we paint all cops as bad, we create officers who assume they are dealing with a mistrusting and dangerous public who wants to hurt them. And sometimes officers who feel that way have good reason.

If we cannot trust our law enforcement officers to use the authority granted to them responsibly and our law enforcement officers cannot trust the public to recognize that given authority and respond appropriately, the result is a spiral of fear and contempt that puts everyone in danger.

Meanwhile: Global governments discuss population control methods while advocating for an end to violent conflict.

You're right Ren, and as it would happen, I have a lot of gripes agains the CIVILIAN police force on average. Mostly because I just can't figure out what they are doing so wrong that the Military isn't doing wrong. Then I realize, it might be due to the fact that I policed military people- where they have a lot of different values.

This problem isn't just the police (it is the police, don't misunderstand me), it's also the people. They don't know their rights, and don't challenge people (when appropriate and who it's appropriate to address) to get things to changed. The whole of the problem circulates around all parties.

Police shoot people. So do citizens, they shoot cops and they shoot others. Guns aren't the problem though- it's the gun's handler.

Akkarin wrote: Evidence is presented to support the idea that US police killed more civilians in America than an enemy force did in a war that lasted over a decade - and this gets dismissed?

To be honest, the US military does not try to kill people, they try to achieve the outcomes with the least death and destruction.... believe it or not, despite what some media portrays, which is easy enough given the brutality of war.

The US Police have to react at a higher level (to other nations Police) because of the insane depth and breadth of weapon proliferation in their communities, its just really likely a weapon will be present, and so anyone who is stupid or incapacitated enough to not cooperate with Police becomes a manifestly more serious threat to the Police and community then someone who is cooperating. Compared to the military, the only people who will confront the military are seriously committed to it for some reason.... its a different nature of threat. Once the threat level rises for Police its much easier for accidents to happen, but another downside which is perhaps being experienced is that the Police have to train to a higher level of response more often which normalises that higher level of response to the Police officer who then, being human, lets it influence their normal response. People tend to only have one speed when they do something day in and day out, so the greater the burden on Police, the tougher they are going to end up being under even normal circumstances.

I won't speak to the statistics since I'm on the other side of the planet, too complex for me

american police are known for being abusive and hostile because they are abusive and hostile

what do you guys think of this video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p51PGX-PrqQ

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i think that if this kid was black we could well be reading about his spine being mysteriously severed in the back of the police van

this is what you can expect as normal response from american police

this kid didnt understand the way police handle things; he thought that his rights and his self respect as a citizen and victim mattered in this situation, thats why he got dropped; because he didnt understand that those things VERY OFTEN do not matter

but their ego and their "authority" matter very much

there are good cops - its just that all the crappy ones run around beating people up and choking them to death and that gives the others a bad reputation

the general consensus among the police [strike]is[/strike] seems to be that jack bauer is a better model for what a good cop should look like than andy griffith

imo, we need a few more andy griffiths and a lot less jack bauers