Death By Cop In America

[4588686]

THE shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American, by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, is a reminder that civilians—innocent or guilty—are far more likely to be shot by police in America than in any other rich country. In 2012, according to data compiled by the FBI, 410 Americans were “justifiably” killed by police—409 with guns. That figure may well be an underestimate. Not only is it limited to the number of people who were shot while committing a crime, but also, amazingly, reporting the data is voluntary.

Last year, in total, British police officers actually fired their weapons three times. The number of people fatally shot was zero. In 2012 the figure was just one. Even after adjusting for the smaller size of Britain’s population, British citizens are around 100 times less likely to be shot by a police officer than Americans. Between 2010 and 2014 the police force of one small American city, Albuquerque in New Mexico, shot and killed 23 civilians; seven times more than the number of Brits killed by all of England and Wales’s 43 forces during the same period.

 

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/08/armed-police

 

Edited August 20, 2014 by Hasan

[dUSt]

Yeah, but they have to live in Britain.

[4588686]

Yeah, but they have to live in Britain.

 

 

True.

[truthfinder]

Aren't a good portion of British police unarmed? If you don't have a gun, you can't shoot it.

[4588686]

Aren't a good portion of British police unarmed? If you don't have a gun, you can't shoot it.

 

 

Yes, which is kind of the point

[PhuturePriest]

Yes, which is kind of the point

 

The issue is, in America where guns are open to civilians, cops have to have guns in case they run into armed robbers or something. So we're back at a gun legalization debate.

[truthfinder]

The issue is, in America where guns are open to civilians, cops have to have guns in case they run into armed robbers or something. So we're back at a gun legalization debate.

 

Canada has different handgun legislation, but in terms of rifles, Canada has a high per capita gun ownership with a lower per capita gun violence.

[brandelynmarie]

So now I'm wondering what the percentage of cops being shot in Britain is...especially by pholks owning illegal arms...

[puellapaschalis]

So now I'm wondering what the percentage of cops being shot in Britain is...especially by pholks owning illegal arms...

 

Totally not a reliable source, but, this wiki page lists UK police officers killed 'in the line of duty' (which is not always the same as 'on duty'), which includes 71 listed as 'shot'. Since 1900.

 

It does not include the RUC/PSNI; this is probably because the statistics from the Troubles (basically when "Catholic" IRA terrorist scum saw shooting police as a hobby (not that the Unionists were much better, I'm sure) describe a very different situation to the rest of the UK. Police in Northern Ireland, in contrast to the rest of the country, are armed as standard.

 

Civilian ownership of firearms in the UK became decidedly more difficult after a shooting in Dunblane in 1996, when a man walked into a primary school and shot a whole bunch of kids and an adult dead before killing himself.

 

Dunblane was almost 20 years ago, but I can clearly remember the political response to it, and the criticism of that response from the gun-owning sector.

 

(Less useful and unasked for additional info: Dutch police are armed with some-kind-of-German-made pistol as standard. Equivalent Dutch statistics could probably be found, but my google-fu is not strong today. But given racial tensions in some parts of the country, if a cop so much as brushes his gun with his forearm when getting out of his vehicle you can expect a media storm about institutionalised racism and police brutality. I might be a bit skeptical, ahum.)
 

Edited August 21, 2014 by puellapaschalis