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“Police need all that military grade equipment because they have a dangerous job!” What about farmers, roofers, fisherman, loggers, and landscapers? Rate the most dangerous jobs by fatalities, and those are far more dangerous. Cops don’t crack the top ten. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm">https://www.bls.gov/news.rele...
Even then, let’s compare apples to apples. Let’s compare the number of cops killed on duty to the number of people who cops killed. To be clear, I am not encouraging any deaths. But if the danger towards officers is truly that dire, those numbers should at least be comparable.
Luckily, the FBI keeps detailed track of officers who are killed in the line of duty. Last year, 89 officers lost their lives serving their communities. 41 of those deaths (46%) were deemed accidental and 48 (54%) were the result of felonious acts. https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2019-statistics-on-law-enforcement-officers-killed-in-the-line-of-duty">https://www.fbi.gov/news/pres...
Compare that to 1,099 people who lost their lives at the hands of law enforcement last year. That’s over 12 times as many people. And those are only cases that have been confirmed by nonprofits, since no government agency has released any official data. https://mappingpoliceviolence.org"> https://mappingpoliceviolence.org
Of those 1,099 deaths, 818 of victims were officially reported as “armed”, leaving 281 who were not. That means that police killed over 5 times as many unarmed people as the number of officers who died at the hands of suspects. https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/nationaltrends ">https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/nationalt...
Keep in mind that being “armed” does not necessarily make someone a threat. Lest we forget victims like Philando Castile who chose to exercise their “Second Amendment Right” without intending to harm anyone. Thus, we have to assume that police claim even more “innocent” lives.
This doesn’t even factor variables like race into the equation. For example, 15% of officers killed were black, compared to 33% of unarmed “suspects” who were black. “People of color” made up 17% of officers murdered but 58% of unarmed police fatalities. https://policeviolencereport.org"> https://policeviolencereport.org
Another figure that caught my eye: in the wake of the 48 felonious murders of officers, authorities identified 49 assailants. So on average, police were able to catch at least one person for each death. Compare that to only 1% of officers who are charged after killing someone.
What’s my point here? In heated debates like this, I think it’s vital to examine data to gain as many insights as possible. I highly encourage you guys to do your own analysis, but it’s pretty clear to me that there’s a huge imbalance of justice taking place.
