Quote:
Originally Posted by wittynickname
So regularly, police in the US find that unarmed petty criminals are deserving of lethal force? That is the crux of my entire argument--why is it so common for officers in the US to use deadly force? If it's so rare in other countries, why is it so common here?
|
From the numbers I've seen, US cops use lethal force in less than 1% of their encounters with the public. But because there are SO MANY encounters, the numbers are way higher than one would expect.
We can argue back and forth over the various reasons for this, but we'd need to start whipping out economists, psychologists and sociologists.
Part of me wonders what "respect for authority" has to do with it all. Not to mention "community based policing". If you don't see the cops as bad guys set on taking all your liberties away and instead know the officers who are in 'your' area and can trust them to be fair and treat you fairly...incidents between cops and public are going to go much better.