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Often
we hear the echo of our security culture tell us policing is an inherently
dangerous job, and that therefore we should give deference to these people’s
judgment whenever potentially hostile situations arise. In such scenarios
whereby the killing of a civilian occurs, we are perpetually told the use of
lethal force was not only necessary, but simply part of an ‘incredibly dangerous’
profession — that these killings merely are a result of cops protecting
themselves in life-threatening situations.
Well
I call bullshit.
On
October 22 last year, Andy Lopez, a Mexican-American 13 year old boy, was shot
seven times by Santa Rosa officer Erick Gelhaus, a man with a history of using
excessive force in his duties. Lopez was walking home from a friend’s house
holding an airsoft toy-gun designed to resemble an assault rifle. Gelhaus has
claimed he thought the child was holding an AK-47, a detail suggesting he could
see the toy-gun with clarity. Gelhaus says he shouted to the 13 year old to
drop the ‘gun’. Andy turned around, allegedly holding the toy up. Lopez died
thereafter, taking multiple gunshots — one of which through his chest — when
Gelhaus opened fire.
Gelhaus
did not wait for backup. He did not investigate what he thought he saw. He was
in absolutely no danger. His judgement smacked of shoot now, think later. In
fact, Andy Lopez, like the rest of us, was more in need of protection from
Gelhaus the moment the deputy saw him than Gelhaus needed to ‘protect’ himself
from Lopez.
Cops
Are More Likely To Shoot You Than You Are To Shoot Them
Last
November the Activist Post ran a story about the propensity of police officers
killing civilians. Stated was the following:
"Since
9/11, and the subsequent militarization of the police by the Department of
Homeland Security, about 5,000 Americans have been killed by US police
officers. The civilian death rate is nearly equal to the number of US soldiers
killed in Iraq. In fact, you are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police
officer than by a terrorist.”
That
statistic is alarming enough considering if the 4,489 American soldiers killed
in combat in Iraq constitute a condition of war, then the killing of 5,000
American civilians by United States police departments ought to be viewed as a
war on we the People by our very own government.
Still,
having watched the Lopez family struggle for justice thus far, I wanted to know
better how more civilians have been killed by cops in the United States than
soldiers have died in Iraq.
I
decided to compare the number of American citizens’ deaths by police directly
to the number of police officers’ deaths by citizens since the start of the
Iraq war; after all, if an officers job is so dangerous, it is we the policed
who make it dangerous.
Since
2003, as documented by the FBI, there have been approximately 587 deaths in the
line of duty directly as result of civilians’ felonious actions, i.e., lethal
assault, shooting, manslaughter etc. Below is the breakdown by year.
Officers
Feloniously Killed Since the Start of Iraq War
2003
— 52
2004
— 57
2005
— 55
2006
— 48
2007
— 57
2008
— 41
2009
— 48
2010
— 56
2011
— 72
2012
— 48
2013
— 53 (data not yet available, substituted 10 year average)
Total
= 587
The
Myth of the Most Dangerous Job
After
a minute of simple math (5,000/587 = 8.52), what might seem obvious became much
clearer: A cop is far more likely — 8.5 times — to kill you than you are to
kill a cop. Stated another way, when an officer comes into contact with you,
you are far less of a threat to them than the perception our culture
proliferates. The police are, in fact, more of a threat to YOU.
The
idea that police have an incredibly dangerous job is what we Southerners call a
tall-tale, a stretch of the truth to bolster an ego unwilling to accept
mediocrity. Not to take away from what many fair-minded officers do every day,
but as those stubborn things called facts would have it, policing is less
dangerous than farming, fishing, logging, and trash collecting, as well as six
other professions.
Now
is the time to burst the cop myth and to stop giving them the deference to
murder our friends and family in the street.
John Geer, unarmed and shot dead by the Fairfax County Police, left to bleed for one hour before help arrived while the cops were ten feet away
