The police have a problem with killing too many citizens. They kill far too many Black men. They also kill far too many White men and Hispanic men as well. Some cops may be racist, but most of them are just too quick to use deadly force, becoming judge, jury and executioner all at the same time.
Although half of the people shot and killed by police are white, black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. African Americans account for less than 13% of the US population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans. Hispanic Americans are also killed by police at a disproportionate rate.
The police rarely shoot women. According to the Washington Post, of the 6,240 people killed by police in the United States in the last five years, “only” 277 were females. Ninety-six percent were males, while only 4% were females. Are the police sexist? Probably not. Are they racist? Maybe not.
Let me start with saying that no one should be killed by the police unless they start shooting first. Police have the right to defend themselves and fire back. In Great Britain, during the same period, 17 civilians were killed by the police. At the same time, police also killed 100 children during this period in the United States.
Police officers in the United States have a more difficult job than those in Britain or other countries, because the USA is awash in deadly weapons owned by civilians. Every time an officer approaches a car, or a person on foot, he or she could be shot dead. Nonetheless, police officers in the United States need to be retrained to minimize the use of deadly force by learning to:
1. De-escalate the situation; negotiate.
2. Use non-deadly weapons, including tasers, although tasers have caused death.
3. We should develop more non-lethal weapons.
We tranquilize bears don’t we? Why do we shoot humans, and tranquilize bears? According to the Sacramento Bee newspaper, a bear was spotted walking through a California neighborhood and the police were called. The police shot the bear with a tranquilizer gun and then transported the bear back to a remote wooded area where the bear woke up and lived.
The Colorado University Independent, a student-run news organization, recently reported, “In a truly memorable moment, a bear can be seen falling from a tree after being tranquilized by police in Colorado. The young bear, estimated to weigh between 150 and 200 pounds, had wandered onto the University of Colorado at Boulder campus and climbed into a tree.”
Why can’t we use tranquilizer guns and other non-lethal force to detain humans? Why do we have to shoot to kill? Why can’t we shoot the tires of a car rather than hit driver in the head? Why do we shoot civilians in the back when they are running away from the police? Why can’t we shoot civilians in the leg to stop them, rather than killing them?
As we have seen in the George Floyd and Eric Garner police killings, the police don’t need guns to kill. Eric Garner was killed by Staten Island police by means of a chokehold. Floyd, as the world has seen countless times, was deprived of oxygen by an officer’s knee on his neck. Both of these barbaric practices should be outlawed.
Mandatory body cameras can help the police be more accountable. In addition, the US Supreme Court has ruled that police have qualified immunity from civil lawsuits. Congress can limit police immunity and make police officers more accountable and less likely to use deadly force.
A new immunity can be enacted by Congress and by state law to give police immunity if they use a taser or other supposedly non-lethal weapon and a person is harmed or killed. We need to incentivize the police to use non-deadly force.
If the police are issued lighter-weight bullet-proof clothing, it will help protect the police against armed civilians who intend to harm the officers.
There are a wide-range of strategies that we need to adopt to minimize police killings. Now is the time for Congress and state legislators to act, to encourage non-deadly force, to outlaw choke holds and to limit police immunity.
Joel Joseph is a civil rights attorney and chairman of the Made in the USA Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting American-made products. Email joel djoseph@gmail.com. Phone 310 MADE-USA
From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2021
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