So why isn't anything being done to stop police from killing people?

[Redeemer]

Originally Posted by dl316bh

Even if they're indicted - and that's never a guarantee - it means little because they usually get off or at least get a reduced sentence.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/18/us/po...ses/index.html

"Is it really so rare that white police officers serve time for killing black men* and women? According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 70 percent of people charged with some form of killing (including murder, manslaughter, homicide, etc.) in America are eventually convicted. That is what researchers call the “homicide conviction rate.”

But when it comes to police, that rate drops precipitously. Bowling Green State University’s Police Integrity Lost project shows that only 29 officers have been convicted for killing on duty since 2005, mostly on lesser charges. Police are 33 percent less likely than a regular citizen to be convicted of a crime, and the conviction rate for cops charged with some form of murder is 35 percent—half that of the normal population. In fact, in the last 13 years, only one officer has been convicted of intentional murder. And in the rare case in which a cop is convicted, the officer hardly ever does time for killing a black man."

"Part of the reason for the discrepancy in convictions of police officers is that the justice system is tilted toward them. If the conviction rate for officers charged with homicide seems low, the statistics on how few officers are charged is startling. Most cops never even face charges for shooting black victims. Even though 1,146 lives were ended by police in 2015, not one cop was convicted for an on-duty killing that year.

Prosecutors have to work with police departments every day, so many are reluctant to bring charges against the officers who work with them to convict criminals. Even when prosecutors charge the cops, the grand jury process ensures that many officers will never face trial. In most states, when evidence is presented in front of a grand jury, the victim is represented by the state. While this seems legitimate in most criminal cases, in the cases of police shootings, the prosecutors trying to indict the police officers are essentially teammates of the accused."

https://www.theroot.com/white-men-ca...the-1796309966


I wonder how much of that is down to compensating for poor accuracy with more dakka.

I agree that prosecutors are put into a precarious position when having to prosecute an officer which brings the internal validity into question which is why I believe each state should have a special state prosecutor that oversees cases against cops considering that a state prosecutor will most likely have no previous relationship and less bias.

But I disagree the justice system is not slanted towards cops. Officers jobs puts them in that position by nature, think about it. Most cops are engaged in physical altercations when a police killing happens. Meaning they can easily claim self defense and also because murder requires intent it is hard to make a case for this. Its not just a black thing.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...-daniel-shaver
As I said before because of the nature of the job and the fact that murder has to have clear intent or malice it is difficult to convict a cop. You can not find much clearer video. Again if people would simply listen and obey this would not happen nearly as often.

Again from the stats and evidence and studies I have seen this is not a race issue and its not always the cops fault.
I will reiterate this is why I think we need a national standard for training police officers and I think a special state prosecutor should be assigned to review all cases. Also I think we need to teach kids at a early age to listen and respect law enforcement.