In recent years you can't help but to have noticed the occurrences of police interactions that have resulted in citizen deaths. These occurrences have resulted in a lot of exposure in the press. And obviously most of this exposure has not been positive for the police. So it would be rather easy and expected that a majority of the citizenry would come to the conclusion that we have a police problem. That the use of deadly force has gotten out of hand. And that many of these encounters are racially charged and motivated. There have been countless protests and demonstrations and destruction of property. Any behavior by the police that results in the death of someone, other than someone who poses and immediate deadly threat ( I guess we need to qualify that...) can at face value be deemed unacceptable. All of the premises that we expect, and take for granted such as due process, innocent until proven guilty, to serve and protect are removed from the equation. In these cases it appears that the police took the role of judge, jury and executioner. The cartels, the mafia and the banana republics may be accustomed to and accept such behavior but we're not and we don't. Even the wild west back in the day had judges. They weren't consulted on all matters. but, hey, we had them.
So, just exactly how big is this problem? If it happens even once then it's a problem. If there is any loss of life then it's a problem. But is it a pandemic problem? According to numerous studies and accounts only .003% of all interactions between a resident and a cop result in the use of deadly force. Of the over ten million interactions with police officers every year only a thousand of them involve deadly shootings. Are all of those deadly shooting's unjustified? Hardly. First you'll have to identify and exclude all the cases where the officer was defending himself. The perp pulled a knife or gun or some other weapon and threatened the officer or someone else. Fully justified. Or anyone else for that matter to defend themselves or anyone else. But the documented statistics say it's not prevalent, rampant or pandemic as the press would have you believe. Not all police officers are good lawmen who routinely exercise good judgment. There are bad apples with badges and guns. And sometimes they kill people that shouldn't be killed. This is a serious crime and should be punished accordingly. When it's a police involved shooting, they should be punished the same as anyone else. No exceptions. There are plenty of bad apples among us all. They're in every group, organization, cabal, profession, community, religion, literally everywhere. The difference is when most of us make a bad decision no one else is affected and certainly no one is killed. But when a police officer makes a bad decision with a gun in his hand it never ends well. Police officers are in a very unique position when it comes to the use of deadly force. The benefit of the doubt immediately goes to the police. If a citizen used deadly force and it is not obvious they were acting in self defense, they are detained while the matter is investigated. And they certainly are not given the benefit of the doubt. Not to say that police officers should not be given the benefit of the doubt, in most cases they should be. But every instance should be investigated thoroughly and objectively.
Invariably in every case whether the incident is white on black, white on white, black on white or black on black the issue of racism is injected. No matter the color combination race is rarely if ever the issue. Just as in rape, sex is not the issue or the motive. Use of deadly force is a complicated occurrence that is not motivated by race. Much of modern policing is driven by crime data and community demand. In most cases there was a direct threat to the police officer's life with a deadly weapon. Deadly weapon attacks on police officers happen on average 27 times a day in just 2\3 of the nation's police departments. If you threaten a police officer with a deadly weapon your chances of surviving the encounter are not good. As well they shouldn't be. It's an issue of cultures clashing. It's an issue of selecting the right people to do the job of policing and properly training them. And properly supervising them. The police are an armed force. Why do you think the armed forces; Army, Navy, Marines... train and live by strict discipline and code of honor and chain of command? When you have a large group whose mission and task involves the need to be armed, how else could it be done?... Strict discipline, code of honor and chain of command, and lots of accountability. Police need to and should do the same. Police misbehavior should never reach a court of law. It shouldn't happen in the first place. With competent supervision and training there would be a lot less misconduct. And a lot less incidents of the use of deadly force. Throw in a little common sense on the part of everyone involved and you'll have a much more desirable outcome...
