2015 Fatal police shootings. Averaging 2 a day for the year.

This is a topic that I find worthy of discussion. IMO, the Washington Post article is fairly well written and seems to provide an interesting beginning for a discussion on a topic of current events in our Nation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...61433083550630

I have three take aways from the article, although I am pretty certain that I have mentioned most of these three tidbits to family and friends long before this article was published. I share them here as my contribution to the discussion:

1. If your family member has a mental illness or severe drug dependency, and they are off their meds or on some bad drugs, calling the police may be the worst choice.

2. Do not run from the police. Running from the police will significantly increase the odds of something very bad happening to you.

3. Don't handle dangerous or seemingly dangerous (toy guns) objects when the police are present and giving you commands.

I ask that the members who choose to comment remember to keep the discussion lively but respectful. I started this thread and I will lock it if the discussion goes sideways.

Now lets see who posts IBTL first [Coffee]

If fatal police shootings are averaging 2 a day for the year, but police fatalities due to felonious acts in the line of duty are averaging 4 a year total, I'd like to see a paradigm shift away from every action being for "officer safety."
Approaching a vehicle with tinted windows makes an officer nervous? Tough.

I once had an officer explain to me, "We're in uniform, you know who we are; but we have no idea who we're dealing with." It made perfect sense when he said it. The problem is that now that statement may still make perfect sense, but the other way around as well. It will take more than a couple inter office memos to reverse that kind of public perception if it has gotten to that point.

The post count does seem slow lately.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...spikes-in-2014

According to this article, in 2014, 50 officers were killed by firearms. 2014 showed an increase in the number of deaths of police officers in the line of duty.

The numbers represents trends, however, each individual case, whether it is a police officer killed or a person killed by a police officer should be examined separately. There are commonalities in violent confrontations, but they are not useful in determining causes for specific incidents.

I know the feeling of uniform identification. It is easy to slip into the mind set of "I know my team by the uniform and if you aren't wearing my uniform, you must be a suspect." It is a bad road to go down and has ruined many police officers, departments and communities, IMO.

For those who may be interested, the Denver DA's Office issued their shooting letter in Jessica Hernandez shooting on January 26, 2015. No criminal charges will be filed against the Denver PD officers involved.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...ors_picks=true

On your first point I would agree. I think I have been pretty clear in previous posts on my stance that things need to change. That being said I was young (around 16-17) when the whole 'tinted window' issue first happened in Missouri. I lived there and knew some of those cops involved. A cop approached a car and was looking right at the barrel of a gun but did not know it. They killed him and sent a message to the rest of the cops by riddling his car with over 10K rounds from what I remember. Regardless of how many, they tore both him and his car up. A lot of police procedures changed after that. Cops should feel, if not safe (it is a dangerous job), not hunted. Civilians should be able to feel the same way. We should ALWAYS be able to call the cops even if off our meds and running (while not a good choice) should not even start to be "increasing the odds of something bad happening". If the cop has to run to catch 'them'..... wear running shoes and call for backup. Getting shot in the back, as recently happened,is not acceptable, period.........EVER like that. People do stupid things. Cops have to deal with those actions.... Welcome to your CHOSEN profession. I have no sympathy for the girl trying to run the cop over and getting shot. Witnesses confirmed that is what happened and her actions IMHO warranted the result. I still think the arbitration should have been more independent (I think ALL cop shootings should be done from outside the jurisdiction) but I have no reason to disagree with the outcome. Cops need to go back to the old reasoning that if they actually shoot thier weapon, there had better be another gun or an iron clad, indisputable reason for doing so. I know I would be held to that standard and they are supposed to be the professionals. I don't know if that means cameras, training, revamp of all the procedures or something else but the current status quo is only going to lead to cops feeling more threatened with more funerals on both sides.

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Originally Posted by Irving

If fatal police shootings are averaging 2 a day for the year, but police fatalities due to felonious acts in the line of duty are averaging 4 a year total, I'd like to see a paradigm shift away from every action being for "officer safety."
Approaching a vehicle with tinted windows makes an officer nervous? Tough.

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10 k into the car. After murdering a police officer they hung out for a couple hours shooting up the car?

KNUS 710 is talking about this right now.

I could take this topic so many places, selective law enforcement which prevents the police from treating everyone equally, our entitlement society which encompasses not only monetary entitlements but behavioral entitlements, the trend towards more security which leads to an authoritarian government which in turn attracts the kind of people who want to impose their will on others.

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Originally Posted by cstone

For those who may be interested, the Denver DA's Office issued their shooting letter in Jessica Hernandez shooting on January 26, 2015. No criminal charges will be filed against the Denver PD officers involved.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...ors_picks=true

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Good, people who shoot at or drive cars at the police ought to be shot. If they'll do those things to the police imagine what they'll do to Joe Citizen.

I've read the number of officer that have been killed a year in firearms confrontations, but how many confrontations have their been where the police have prevailed vs. how many they have lost. Perhaps that is accounted for in the number of officers assaulted per year? Have the number of confrontations with armed suspects risen and has the police training/tactics/mindset pushed them into this position due to the (possible) increased number of violent assaults? It looks like ambush homicides against cops doubled from 2013 to 2014.

Defensive response?

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Originally Posted by LX470

I've read the number of officer that have been killed a year in firearms confrontations, but how many confrontations have their been where the police have prevailed vs. how many they have lost. Perhaps that is accounted for in the number of officers assaulted per year? Have the number of confrontations with armed suspects risen and has the police training/tactics/mindset pushed them into this position due to the (possible) increased number of violent assaults? It looks like ambush homicides against cops doubled from 2013 to 2014.

Defensive response?

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We all (ok most of us) know the reason for that.