Police officers in the United States have killed more than 1,000 people so far this year. The number is staggering. Who were these people? What were their lives like? How did the future look through their eyes?
Some of the names are familiar: Korryn Gaines. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. Others perhaps less so: Jessica Williams, Tyre King, Deborah Danner. The list goes on.
Last year, when the Guardian and the Washington Post published their databases on police killings, I made a simple project cataloging the locations of all these sites of violence. Teju Cole called it “Officer Involved” and wrote a short introduction for the piece.
In row after row, we see photographs of corners, streets, suburbs, towns, all in daylight, almost all free of human presence. All these images — in spite of the mysterious lyric beauty of some of them — were captured indiscriminately by the all-seeing eye of Google, either with a bird’s eye view or at street level. They were then selected and set into an array by Begley. In one sense, they are the same as any other stills randomly pulled from Google Maps. But when we look at these photographs in particular, we are also seeing the last thing that some other human being saw. It is an immersion in the environment of someone’s last moments.
Returning to the archive, I’ve reprised the project for 2016 — also sourced from Guardian data and scripted through Google Street View — only instead of focusing on the landscapes, these images point toward the sky.
The police have killed 1,000 people this year. Every frame of this video is from one of those sites of violence. pic.twitter.com/W0g82wPDNn
— Josh Begley (@joshbegley) December 21, 2016
Every frame you see here is taken from one of these ghosted places, captured by the nine eyes of a Street View car.
There will be more deaths, of course, before the year is up. Police violence in this country can feel almost metronomic. May the beat slow down in 2017.
Our policeman’s out of control. In any other country police killings are very rare. We have far too many police employed by our war on the poor. Call it what you want all of the people killed by the police have one thing in common. They are not the wealthy they are the poor. Its all part of the private prison industry .They want all poor people to be in the system. We now makes virtually every tax dollar we collect on military ,police and prisons. We have 25% of the world’s prison population with only 5% of the world’s population. Politicians use fear to divide us with lies about so called terrorism. Meanwhile our government is the soonest of these terrorists. We of uccupy Afganistan poppy fields , our government is in the heroin business that’s why we invaded Vietnam too. Heroin. We live in a fascist police state. There is no hope.
The demographic break down may not reflect the general public BUTTTTT,,,,,, in all fairness…………..
It’s not fair to lump the people who were innocent victims of police violence in with violent criminals who were killed by the police in the line of duty. Painting the violent criminals as not much different than the innocent victims is a strange art, what does it gain besides a larger number?
To bring death to a person is a monumental act weather that be the death of a criminal or innocent.
All legally justified killings by police are not necessary killings.
Actually, “Bob” here’s the facts: you are 55 times more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/03/youre-55-times-likely-killed-police-officer-terrorist.html
I personally have never disobeyed or resisted a lawful police order, but I like many others are acutely aware that the penalty of compliance is often brutality in the form of tight handcuffs, beatings in the alley’s behind our houses, and chronic pervasive surveillance of the narrative (like what you are doing right now).
Then, that is augmented with death by a thousand paper cuts in the secret, interlinked international databases, and hidden slander campaigns waged on those of us who are falsely arrested repeatedly, until they can get something to stick.
Permanent suspects are created by dirty cops and bad social policy. And, you, too, Bob.
As for the crappy education system, remeber this: it is designed to keep them stupid. If you want the perfect exampe: the Anti-Defamation League subsidizes the crappy education system, and ensures that kids are focused on race first, Zonist/Jewish supremacy second, and science math, etc, maybe.
Then add to that the fact that when Michael Brown was gunned down in Ferguson MO, the ADL showed up to make sure the police knew they had their full, white supremacist support.
And Israelification, of course.
The odds of a normal law abiding citizen being killed by the Police is likely less than being struck by lightening or killed by a terrorist. The country has 333,000,000 people; do the math. How hard is it to just do what the person with the gun and a back up of more persons with guns tells you? There are more than a quarter million Police in the USA and fewer than 50 are killed in a year, pretty safe job. Black people are @ 15% 0f the pop. =@45,000,000 and @300 were killed by Police, do the math. The whole thing is mostly media hype. Now, the crappy educational system and the number of people in jail, that is a serious problem.
” a normal law abiding citizen “ ????
And of course Bob ,, that’s you ,,,right ? Didja ever spit in public ?
” How hard is it to just do what the person with the gun and a back up of more persons with guns tells you?
——————————————————————————————————
What if they are trying to gang rape you ? If they are cops and you resist are you now a non-abiding criminal ?
Look pal , in this country , cops have become the domestic arm of the war machine . They are being given surplus weapons from the Pentagon . These are people that have killed or watched killing ( the majority get their first kill as soldiers , some had parents who killed ) and no longer feel remorse about killing . The ones who do feel remorse get out !!
” Black people are @ 15% 0f the pop. =@45,000,000 and @300 were killed by Police, do the math.
_______________________________________________________
OK ,, but there’s one number I’ll include which you left out i.e. ,@1000 total people killed by the cops in 2016 .
Now 300 blacks killed out of a 45,000,000 black population is almost 2.5 times as much as 700 non-black killed out of a 288,000,000 non- black non-black population .
If I use 15% of the total 333,000,000 population is black and out of the 1000 police killings 300 were black then Blacks were killed at 2,2 times the rate of non-blacks , The killing rates are : (Blacks–Killed)/(Black-Population)
and
(Non-Blacks-Killed)/(Non-Black-Population)
Rates that differ by a ratio of 2 to 1 are extremely unlikely in a random ( i.e. Gaussian ) distribution of blacks to white killings across the total population of 333, 000, 000 !! There must be some organized killing occurring .
DO THE FRIGGIN MATH !!!!!
We Americans deserve to have accurate annual stats of deaths/woundings/injuries involving law enforcers and corrections/custodial personnel. The stats need not include legal disposition, e.g., justified/unjustified. Reporting to the federal level should be mandatory from every city/county/state law enforcement agency and jail/prison facilities, both public and private for-profit.
Basic accountability is long overdue.
Absolutely. I agree with you. Reporting to the federal level should be mandatory both public and private for-profit. It is necessary to report to the federal level.
Great video. It emphasizes that the police are really doing their job, and that they are serving their communities and committed to enforcing the law.
A suggestion for next years video, a crime scene image from each of the murders in the US. Just the Chicago murders could be a video in itself, several hundred, since I think there were 4600 shootings in Chicago just this year alone, I think up about a thousand from last year and while there were 492 murders last year, there were 757 to date this year. It probably would be a lot easier to make a Chicago video since it would just be in one city. Probably for the entire country it would be necessary to put the video on very fast forward since there were 16,500 homicides in the US in 2016.
All those crimes captured on security cameras with people being gunned down, strong armed, beaten up, run over, with some of them pleading for their lives would make a compelling video if all those images could be made into video. I think it would emphasize the need for the police in making our communities safe places to live.
Thanks
How many of the 1000 people were crime free and had no criminal record and were not spewing reverse racist diatribes at police?Ill bet none.
At the risk of stating the dumbfoundingly obvious, none of these characteristics matter.
You don’t deserve a death sentence for any crime. You don’t deserve a death sentence for calling a police officer names, and even for the crimes that do earn a death sentence, a guilty verdict must be handed by a jury, it’s not for a representative of the executive branch to decide.
The only question that does matter is whether they represented and immediate threat to the officer’s life. Want to make a new bet on how many of them did?
How many were murdered at a traffic stop ? Strangled to death by undercover Gestapo ? Shot multiple times in the back ? Gunned down because a cop feared for his/her life when confronted by an imagined gun ?
When people get arrested for resisting arrest are they forever listed in the Gestapo’s data bank as criminals ? Are they a day later found hung in their cell ?
If the majority of cops are good cops and it’s just a few bad cops doing the murdering the question is :
How come the good cops don’t arrest the bad cops . Isn’t that what they are paid to do ,, fight crime ?
As some one has pointed out ” GOOD COPS DO NOT ALLOW BAD COPS TO EXIST ” The conclusion is simple :
There is no such thing as a good cop ,
Have a good year all you law enforcement animals .
We Americans deserve accurate stats re: civilian deaths/injuries involving govt. law enforcers, period.
Hey Josh,
Sounds convincing but how many of those 1000 had NO criminal record and were not committing a crime,had not just prior to the shooting committed a crime??In other words, how many were crime free,documented and had zero record AND were not mouthing off reverse racist diatribes at one or more police officers??
I so wish you could do your thing on the aerial BDA photos from every U.S.drone strike. I’d be very disappointed in empire if most of those don’t still exist, somewhere.
Your perspectives on empire’s indulgences are important, Josh, please keep at ’em.
4,4856 US military deaths in Bush II’S Iraq War. Is this a war against US citizens by our own militarized police force conducted on the streets of our nation? 1,000 deaths/year. It would appear so.
The numbers are off.
The “crime prevention” programs that police are not employing would be better called crime creation. Cops are purposely targeting folks that they don’t like, or who have habits that they don’t like, even people who are intensely private.
They are harassing them with their flyover stingrays interrupting their internet, spamming and reading their email, networking with others in the community to harass and intimidate. They do it daily and it is widespread.
I’m sure some of these folks have committed suicide or been murdered. I’m quite sure.
Josea-
You are spot on with your analysis. And it’s not just ‘cops’ per se doing it- this stuff happens to cops too. Too many blame the cops or ‘the CIA,” but the actual workings are more easily understood from the following perspective:
What it is are citizen corps members, Infragard members working at or running ISP’s, as well as the ‘community policing’ initiates and fraternal/sororal society members who have clout and connection in their local communities.
Rotary Clubs, Boys and Girls Club members, so-called Masonic orders, the Lions clubs, and especially the notorious Anti-Defamation League (well known primarily as former mobsters and terrorists turned slanderers and defamation specialists) in general all participate. And they get paid for it from Homeland Security grants and so on.
A great example is Rotary Clubs, which all have a connection with both police, and special ADL liasons(American police are wined and dined by the ADL, and taken on trips to Israel, and taught the mystical power of I/Thou/It, and how to denigrate the ‘other’).
Read about how the Anti-Defammation League runs domestic spy rings here in America that report directly to Israel; then, to the local police and FBI/DHS.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/12/adl-spies/
On one hand, many Rotary work in police and fire, while on the other, the ADL functions as a domestic spy/surveillance/blackmail/ entrapment schemes and they are integrated into neighborhood watch, and other community programs where they effectively use the exact tactics of the Klan of days of old, plus electronics like cell phone jammers, internet subversion at the switch, and more without warrants. They stage bizarre security theater, and stalk people they don’t like.
In many cases they access the internet connection of a ‘target’ and monitor them in real time, using things as simple as Chromecast, or similar devices.
Fusion Centers are widely believed to be the nexus where they plan these personalized domestic terror attacks, and subvert the Constitution, and many so-called mass shooters or suicides are in fact the direct result of these long term operations of ritual defamation , slander, andharassmment. It’s called “organized stalking” and recently, the first NSA whistleblowers Kurt Wiebe and William Biinney have gotten involved to out these practices.
You are very correct.
These pricks are using military grade RF weaponry on civilians to maim, torture and slow kill.
I gotta admit, Josh, you have a real creative talent. I’m not sure who else is doing this sort of thing – data as a medium for art – but each new project you do kinda blows my mind. Such fresh (unseen!) approaches to common themes, which have been completely exhausted and drained of impact elsewhere. Many kudos to you.
That is a minute 20 I will never get back.
And this isn’t even counting the cases of men who were stalked, and then pushed for years until they picked up arms, and were soundly murdered- Darren Seals in Ferguson reported being stalked by “ten detectives who told me I had better choose my friends more wisely”- and then he was found shot dead in a burning car.
The Baton Rouge killer, Omar Mateen, the San Bernardino killers and many more all claimed they were being harassed, and many documented that harassment- and eventually they chose to take up arms as their situation seemed hopeless.
The problem is calling these what they are- targeted killings of Americans. But because they have the appearance that these guys plotted or planned, as opposed to reacting to years of threat and intimidation; or sexual blackmail in the case of Mateen.
Many if not all of these cases all share mobbing, internet harassment, and years of contact with both hidden electronic harassment (emails hacked, phones jammed, cars driving by your homes, gas-lighting, etc.), and community policing that uses hidden means and methods of subtle threat and attack (my favorite is when security guards all mob up behind me anywhere I go).
Crypto-hasbara like Mona have a hard time ‘believing’ such could be true, because often the ADL or another group ‘community corps’ of domestic snitch/spies is involved. So, in a climate of Israeification, and the ADL privately fnding jnkets to Israel for American police chiefs who then return and treat dissidents as terrorists rather than people with rights; and the FBI et ass in bed with the ADL and every other domestic terrorist or spy operation in America, well, good luck getting these guys on the body count as victims, rather than ‘mass shooters.’
But the phenomenon is easily explained when we revisit the tactics of the ADL stirring the pot and stalking targeted persons on their enemies list, who they later turned over to the police. We need more of the ‘good police’ who can’t be bought or blackmailed like the little ADL sponsored goy whores that they have become.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/12/adl-spies/
I can’t watch this, just reading ” we are also seeing the last thing that some other human being saw.” Made me cry.
I fucking Love it ! and it’s no accident that he put that many images of that filthy spooge they’re spraying from Jets at high altitudes. Great Job Josh!<3
Somebody should check if the killer cops are working for the CIA/FBI, they profit from insecurity. the CIA manage private military industry. They militarize the police. profit, profit…
Since terrorists are not killing as many people each year as the police will not be better to replace the police by terrorits for law enforcment?
Just asking…
I used to live around some pretty dark areas of Chicago…back in the days that murders would happen, but not at the present pace. I used to know what to wear and not to wear, where to walk and where to avoid, how to look and how to walk. Any cop on those streets KNOWS they are outgunned. The bad guys use the most modern automatic weaponry designed to inflict maximum damage instantly. As I was driving out a fast food place once, I yelled at a guy that drove in at the exit point causing me to brake. He rolled his window down and pointed a gun in my face… “sorry buddy” was all I said… he rolled his window back up.
what does that have to do with their gunning down unarmed innocent people?
Simple…I used to be on the other side…we were not unarmed and back then killing a cop was not a political option, it was bad for business. People on both sides that have not been in the war zone will never understand it. As for us bad guys it was much easier for us to kill each other since nobody really seemed to care. The current crime rate in my city is not due to the high rate of unarmed innocent people.
but that’s not what the article is about. a lot of the victims of cops are unarmed. not to mention that little torture center in chicago. you’re assuming the cops are targetting bad guys. looks more like they are targetting easy marks.
You would certainly benefit in ignorance reduction were you to do some research into just how many of these people were ‘unarmed’, ‘innocent’ or ‘compliant’. You are a fool if you think police officers get some sort of pleasure out of killing unarmed citizens just minding their own business, but then, not all minds are able to sort through the MSM’s BS and lies and as long as places like The Intercept are around to perpetuate such bogus claims and pour gasoline on all the ‘Hands up don’t shoot’ idiocracy which has been proven as lies but remains as a battle cry, then there will be people uniformed enough to write articles such as this, and worse – read them.
Nothing wrong, per se, with looking JUST at deaths from police officers, but simply stating the number is “staggering” when not viewed next to other numbers that put things in perspective is highly biased. I’m not on the left, but I do make attempts to find good progressive journalism in order to keep my mind sharp. The Intercept is high on that list of sites, but this article fails.
Here are a few other numbers you might want to consider (2016 deaths by):
suicide: 40K
drunk driving: 33K
drug abuse: 24K
homicide: 16K
texting while driving: 6K
gun murder: 11k
annual arrests for violent crime is something like 500K.
Could the percentage of police encounters that result in harm to victims be reduced. Yep, but I’m not sure I see this article making any real attempt at addressing how to do that.
So your comment was just a lead in to your criticism of the article. Sorry, pretty much of a non sequitur.
What does follow if your numbers are correct is that “you” are about one tenth as likely to be killed by a policeman as murdered by a bad guy with a gun. You might have hoped for a lot smaller number than that.
try watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75RTkGbiJpk&feature=youtu.be
Isn’t anyone even slightly bothered that almost all shootings by police originate from some non-criminal activity?
It seems to always be about some traffic infraction and someone doesn’t go along with the script.
A traffic ticket is a legally just a summons. Do people really deserve to be killed because that refuse service of process?
Painfully powerful. Art in service of truth. Thank you
Glad the police are dealing with these violent criminals even in the face of Marxist agitators funded by foreign interests
And the stupid just keeps on coming.
Thanks for reminding of what I left behind me there Joe, I almost started getting homesick for a moment there until you piped in.
U.S. citizens are the biggest cowards in the world, so they give their cops carte blanche to do whatever they want in exchange for being protected from the swarthy masses. Because agencies like the police attract violent mean-spirited and racist assholes, this constant killing is the result. The cops definitely need to be unmilitarized and reigned in, but are Americans willing to do that? I highly doubt it.
Truth indeed.
They’ll do what they are told to believe is a product of their own “rugged individualized minds” without questioning whether it really was the product of their own experience limited intellects or a slyly crafted order.
That’s about all I’ll expect from my ex-compatriots these days, aside from the ubiquitous red herring chases that replace actual investigation and reasoned thought.
Good news for Intercept fans:
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), partnered with Facebook to suss out fake news, with help from Poynter and Snopes*, is financed in part not only by Soros and Bill ‘n Melinda–but also by Omidyar Networks. Yay.
_
* Caught last week creating straw men:
http://dailycaller.com/2016/12/09/caught-snopes-deliberately-omits-key-details-to-protect-kerrys-state-dept/
Ahh the king or queen of the non sequitur is heard from again. Geezus.
It’s like he has words, but they carry no meaning at all. Bill Gates is clearly… what? Funding something good. Same with Soros. In fact, the more people fund something, the less influence they have individually.
That’s why Russia funding US & other extremists is bad – literally no-one else will fund them, so they become Putin’s Puppets.
Yeah..the Daily Caller caught somebody catching the Daily Caller. Right.
Hi all, Hi Josh.
First let me just say this is such a worthy project. Hearing of these shootings and the lack of accountability so often breaks my heart. “May the beat slow down in 2017.” Amen to that!
Now please, please don’t take this personally, but a) I COULDN’T play the video either with IE or firefox (but I might be able to tweak my firefox…) I ended up going to your twitter and was able to finally view. Now, please again, don’t take this personally, but b) I found the images went by WAY to fast for me to even focus on one. Maybe it’s generational (being over —- :-), but I just found it too overwhelming and couldn’t even finish watching.
I think that the people at the top are scared, and ruthless. The policies they institute enrich themselves at the expense of not just the American public but the world. They are quite aware of this but can not really stop themselves, even when it becomes obvious that their policies are causing social discontent and disorder.
Which means their police have to be more brutal, and their controls on the population more draconian. It’s not the first time this has happened, but it is the first time the stakes have been the eco system we need to survive.
Sit around sometime and think about how many of the problems we face as a species root themselves in greed and aggression.
Brutality is part of the problem, but I think impunity is the more fundamental part. Cops have used crap like, “I thought my life was in danger” to get out of trouble for murdering people. That should not be a legitimate excuse for a cop killing a civilian, but unfortunately it is. The army of the rich (cops) have gotten virtually unlimited immunity from their masters, and this is how that’s playing out.
Someone should address the crimes happening in “secret” by our “secret police” and their military tech being used while extorting funds from the public to commit treasonous crimes under the false guise of safety and security.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh1zvsTb9_U&t=18s
Hey f4ur: the targeted individuals issue needs to expand beyond the notion of online crazies by including other groups in the overall narrative.
Here we see a common theme-the targeting of actually mentally ill people in order to drive them out of real estate thta can be gentrified. Note the headline icludes “targeted”
http://la.curbed.com/2016/11/18/13682290/rent-control-lawsuit-discrimination-koreatown
“Some of the names are familiar: Korryn Gaines. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. Others perhaps less so: Jessica Williams, Tyre King, Deborah Danner. The list goes on.”
And others, perhaps even less so…like any one of the other 700 whites, latinos, and ‘others’ who were killed by police in 2016.
Just curious whether or not the author is trying to make a veiled point, or if he just doesn’t think these other killings are relevant.
Thank you for this comment. But this leads to the “all lives matter” comment and we see where that often leads to.
…yet it has nothing to do with All Lives Matter. Police abuse and unaccountability is extremely serious. It affects everyone and I think my question is relevant…especially because this article isn’t really politicized on its face (or at all). So clarity is needed.
Otherwise, I think this is an interesting and thought compelling project.
You’re data’s wrong and you missed critical information in the article.
First, utterly nowhere did Begley even mention race or speak critically of the police. Indeed he explicitly stated that his project was an homage to ALL people killed by police in 2016 – thus the total of 1000 frames.
Second, I don’t know where you got that 700 white,latino, others number. As of Dec 1, 2016, in this year there have been 438 white people killed by police (not including Hispanics or “others”). That works out to 47%. In the same period, there were 223 black people killed by police. This works out to 24%.
Given that in America blacks account for 24% of people killed by police while only representing 12.6% of the population, the police in general need to revisit their use-of-force guidelines through a completely clear process that insures public input, and oversight.
See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/
“First, utterly nowhere did Begley even mention race or speak critically of the police.”
That’s a terrible straw man. Where did I say that Begley mention[ed] race or sp[oke] critically of the police??
Here’s what I said, pay attention:
‘“Some of the names are familiar: Korryn Gaines. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. Others perhaps less so: Jessica Williams, Tyre King, Deborah Danner. The list goes on.”
And others, perhaps even less so…like any one of the other 700 whites, latinos, and ‘others’ who were killed by police in 2016.
***Just curious whether or not the author is trying to make a veiled point, or if he just doesn’t think these other killings are relevant.***’
My data’s wrong??? Really? Help me out here, what’s 1000-223?? It’s actually more than 700, isn’t it? And if 223 are black, it stands to reason that the other 777 are white, latino, and ‘other’. Correct?? Yes, absolutely.
You either have no idea what I’m saying, or you’re terrible with math.
I made the very true observation that the only people Begley mentioned (Korryn Gaines, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Jessica Williams, Tyre King, Deborah Danner) are all black….even though 77.7% of all police killings involved people of every color. Clearly, his sample group is not representative of the true nature of the problem.
So again, my question is… Does the author think those other killings are irrelevant in discussing the issue of police abuse/unaccountability, or is he trying to make an insinuation?
Usually articles and discussions on police killings are loosely tied to BLM, but I think in this case the author is merely picking from a list of familiar names that people have seen in the news. I was honestly surprised at how race blind the article was in the first place.
The fact that the only names that ever make it to the news are black people is a separate article in and of itself.
Also trying to get people to understand basic math is a losing prospect because your numbers didn’t fit their narrative and thus had to be rejected out of hand rather than at face value.
Josh, thank you for this.
This February will mark the 9th anniversary of my sister’s partner being killed in his own home by law enforcement. His crime? Pissing off a police confidential informant by taking in a homeless girl they’d been using in a theft ring. She and her baby were in the home the night the police raided it for the stolen baby clothes that had been delivered to the house by Children’s Services, along with the girl and the baby. Clothes and items stolen by the CIs, not my sister or her partner.
The CIs had been calling their home nightly telling them they were going to come and kill them. So when the police showed up at midnight, creeping around the home with flashlights, lit gun sites and flashbang grenades, he thought he was defending himself against the people who’d been threatening his family. He’d even reported the threats to the very cops that ended up killing him.
It’s so onerous to expect the police to do their job though. You know, actually check information given to them by people lying to keep their own asses out of prison. To this day, none of those people have gone to jail. And the cop whose shoddy work lead to this unnecessary death was promoted to head of the crime lab. What a world.
January will be the two year anniversary of my sister’s passing. She basically died of grief and mental illness exacerbated by losing the one person who could actually take care of her. She was three years younger than me, but looked ten older. Grief will do that to you.
I’m not foolish enough to think that every death at the hands of LE is unwarranted. But I also believe that there should be systems of accountability so that when such a death does occur, everything that can possibly be done to prevent another one happens. I have no idea what such a system would look like. I only want to see fewer people living with the kind of pain my family experiences. The losses are truly immeasurable.
@Pedinska –
What a heartbreaking story. I’m sure even sharing it here take some stamina and courage.
Your observations are so on-point, so common sense. Hope that that message somehow gets through.
so very sorry to learn of this tragedy.
best wishes for your family
It’s a poignant way to tell the story, Josh Begley.
America is so big you have an infinite carpet in your minds under which you sweep your filth and wrongs. It is your greatest weakness.
Maybe some day in the name of balance you could do an article from the perspective of a police officer who patrols high-crime areas. That will never happen since this website is increasingly turning into the Daily KOS and Huffington post and trying to stir up racial flames in this country. Journalists like you are never trying to get to the truth. Your agenda pretty much ensures you never ever will. Thank you for helping to elect Donald Trump. Enjoy your worst nightmare come true for the next four perhaps eight years.
Cops can take off their uniforms and be regular people when they’re off duty. They do a JOB. A job they clearly need to adapt in order to serve tbe public.
If you keep victim blaming then expect nothing to change.
And pandering to your narrow political views doesn’t make something fair or balanced. If you’re annoyed then they probably got you thinking outside your comfort zone which can be a good thing.
It’s good to get out of one’s comfort zone, especially when trying to come to terms with issues as serious as the deaths of so many people (yes, some no doubt warranted) that involved police use of force.
First, IMHO: there are many awesome police officers for whom the vitriol and rancor currently being leveled at the police is utterly misplaced. Back in my RCN days I even had the honour of working with some outstanding police. However, neither criticism of officers who wrongfully kill someone, nor the public’s demands for redress of grievance or for changes in police procedures can be called “victim-blaming”.
Second, I don’t see where Begley was “pandering to narrow political views” as he stated no opinion other than expressing how tragic it was that these people died.
Finally, this had utterly nothing to do with cop-baiting – why are you so upset? Begley didn’t write anything blaming anyone with anything. His entire piece – both the text and video were merely a heartfelt response based on fact, to a tragic reality of police-involved killings, with the goal of helping to remind the audience that those killed were important and unique.
Fact: In the US in 2016, police killed over 1000 people.
Fact: This is an incredible tragedy.
Fact: The lives of the people who were killed had meaning and value.
Fact: Officers were involved in every one of those deaths.
Stephen Colbert once ironically noted that “reality has a well-known liberal bias” – but that doesn’t make them any less real.
Remember that when we dismiss facts just because they don’t agree with our political views, we wind up making decisions based on bad information.
All I read was: “How dare you only write about a problem and not sugar coat it?? How dare you only write about a problem!!” Wow…… ((What’s next? Don’t write about slavery unless you also write that there were also white people who tried to help. Don’t write about nazis unless you add that some tried to save Jews.” Here: Don’t write about bad cops unless you highlight good cops too. Yea… That’s ridiculous….
And what is it, that Intercept agenda? Please, let us all know what devious designs these journalists have. As I’ve read the comments section over the last couple of years, increasingly I see these one-off assertions that, whatever the topic (but usually ones critical of race inequality, Christians and right leaning policy), there’s some commenter throwing their hands in the air and claiming bias.
From what I can see, the most consistent theme at The Intercept is challenging the concentration of power and influence, global and national power brokering, unchecked authority (the above article fits in that bucket), and corruption. They do this regardless of political affiliation.
We’re all very aware of the dangers involved in being a law enforcement officer. It’s no small task and they deserve our collective respect for the risks they take every day. That said, the use of force, not to mention militarization, has been completely unchecked and under reported for decades. That the spotlight across media of these last few years has focused on unequal legislative policy and policing that vilify communities and perpetuate cycles of poverty and violence? Okay. You go ahead and cry foul about giving a face and a story to these people who are dead. People that continue to live in this cycle and, because blue uniforms have the challenge of high risk areas, live with the everyday threat of disproportionate, mortal response from those charged to serve and protect.
Things must look pretty good from that high tower.
My point is this: we are always being told ” we need to have a conversation about __”insert topic Here”__. How are we supposed to have a conversation if only one side of the story is presented? This is especially true with the topic of race. It is impossible to have a conversation in todays climate because as soon as an opposing viewpoint is presented, accusations of being a racist, bigot, etc always gets thrown out and ends the conversation . I’m not entirely convinced that many journalists want the problem solved anyway..only want to pour flames on the fire to get readers and a platform to stand on. Look at the Michael Brown story. It was proven that he never had his hands up in the air saying don’t shoot…yet the media ran with that version of that story even though the source(Browns friend at the scene) should not have been taken as gospel. Both were high on three types of drugs..toxicology reports don’t lie. I would like to have some critic review applied, but with the exception of a few journalists on this site, very few seem to bother with it.
Totally appreciate your point of media making stories big for their own purposes. These days every tweet the Don makes is somehow a big story. However, and I say this again, this topic has been under served for far too long. Fanning the flames with regards to lives being lost through excessive force? Fan away. Check that authority. It’s rare that force, in my opinion, isn’t excessive. Personally, I think firearms are a cowardly and dangerous approach to conflict resolution, and a lazy and dangerous approach to most other applications. A gun is a tool made for the convenience of killing, and in my view killing should never be convenient. We have enough technology, and can develop more, for our officers sworn to serve and protect to incapacitate rather than kill.
I also acknowledge your point of differing viewpoints creating immediate assumptions that the alternate viewpoint is informed by something “deplorable.” I agree that’s a bummer. That said, plenty of discrediting happens to victims (dead people) based on their race or their drug habits. Especially the drug habits, which is absurd. It’s not widely discussed that studies show upwards of 20% of law enforcement abuse alcohol, somehow the more socially acceptable drug despite it tops the list in being destructive. Are they likely to be drinking while on shift? Probably not normally, but then these individuals that are being killed aren’t in uniform either yet get demonized for it. They’re not too different than those 20% of law enforcers, with the exception that the law would likely be disproportionately on the officer’s side in a pickle, giving them the benefit of the doubt and a look the other way.
That this story exists is in response to a long history of only one story being told.
I agree that the story needs to be told..just told in a fair way that represents all angles. Thnx for nice thoughtful response
The rate of police killings in the US is much much higher than that of any other highly developed country, and can’t be explained as the product of its crime rate. Your suggestion about “balance” (an MSM principle) does nothing to address the problem.
The US has always been a much more lawless country than most others…well documented by foreign writers for many years now (De Toqueville).. I have never been a big fan of the police, but am smart enough not to argue with them. Go to ANY country in this world and ask them if it is smart to start an argument with a cop or to escalate a situation……….there are much more to these stories than the simple-minded media lets on to. That’s why we need to hear the stories of the cops too…..maybe even stories of the families of cops that have been murdered in cold blood in recent months. This isn’t in the interest in “balance”..its in the interest of finding out the truth so we can actually make good policy decisions as a nation.
most dangerous occupations:
Fishers and related fishing workers, at a rate of 116 deaths per 100,000
Logging workers, at a rate of 91 deaths per 100,000
Aircraft pilots and flight engineers, at a rate of 71 deaths per 100,000
Farmers and ranchers, at a rate of 41 deaths per 100,000
Mining machine operators, at a rate of 38 deaths per 100,000
Roofers, at a rate of 32 deaths per 100,000
Refuse and recyclable material collectors, at a rate of 29 deaths per 100,000
Drivers / sales workers and truck drivers, at a rate of 21 deaths per 100,000
Industrial machinery repair and installation, at a rate of 20 per 100,000
Police and sheriff’s patrol officers, at a rate of 19 per 100,000
This does not diminish the dangers in law enforcement. It’s the only occupation above that involves murder being a large percentage of cause.
Personally I feel if you reform the environment you reform the individual. Condensed poverty and violence go hand in hand. Police are rarely shot in a nice suburb.
Trump has little if anything to do with this article. The startling number of police shootings are a symptom of a deeper problem that should be thoughtfully investigated.
The Trump comment was added because I believe that that incident was a point that changed many peoples minds in this country. As I mentioned before, the idea that someone high on drugs robs a liquor store, gets killed by a cop and then the media runs with a story of “hands up don’t shoot” (which was Browns accomplices version of what happened” is elevated to martyr status doesn’t sit well with people who work hard everyday and are generally just trying to raise their kids and do the right thing. They also saw Browns Dad go on national TV and say “Burn this bitch down” and get away with it as parts of the city burned. I also think that if you reform the environment, you can reform many people, but this is going to take the help of the community. That is why we need to have the voice of police departments heard.
You are a Democratic Party operatve who is pissed off that your candidate, Hillary Clinton(who was so lousy that she hadn’t prepared a concession speech) lost her chance at being President of War on Russia!
So now, the USA is a meth lab, instead of a crack house.
ps…you want sympathetic police stories? Watch cable TV…there’s gobs of that swill.
Powerful. Peace at home can help bring peace Abroad.
http://veteransforpeaceindianapolis.blogspot.com/?m=1
Police are killing more u.s. civilians than any terrorist group.
Not sure about any of you humans, but I don’t care who it is – you try to kill me, I will for sure try to survive, even if that means I must kill you. It’s happened millions of times on Earth – we’re not going to hell. Let’s stop letting the cops kill because they can – they should not kill. US Marines are taught to maim, not kill. Why are the police allowed to kill and no maim? They are pussies that’s why and became cops to murder people legally.
Only 1,000? What of the 150 billion animals killed out of wanton and indoctrinated belief that humans should dominate other species? Any half wit can reason that the violence we inflict on the innocent animals comes back to haunt us and makes us a more vile and wretched population. Intercept needs some articles about Veganism.
good satire
If you’re talking about eating meat: We live on a planet where animals eat each other; get over it. Humans and humanoids have been eating meat for millions of years, and humans need the vitamin B-12 that only animal products provide. People do overeat meat, which is a major environmental problem, but that’s not what you’re getting at.
If you’re talking about humans overpopulating and otherwise destroying animals’ natural habitat, I fully agree. There are far too many of us and we individually consume far too much, especially in rich countries, though not limited to them — some poor people drive and have cell phones after all.
Jeff, you’re an imbecile.
> If you’re talking about eating meat: We live on a planet where animals eat each other; get over it.
SO just because animals do something means we should do it, too? So murder is fine, because animals do it? Logical fallacy #1.
> Humans and humanoids have been eating meat for millions of years
SO just because humans have done something for a long time it means we should keep doing it? So murder is fine, because we’ve done it for millions of years? Logical fallacy #2.
> and humans need the vitamin B-12 that only animal products provide.
Wrong, B-12 comes from bacteria. Animals are supplemented with B-12. Science fail #1.
> People do overeat meat, which is a major environmental problem, but that’s not what you’re getting at.
It is what I’m getting at. It takes 8-10x more resources to produce animal products. There is one reason only to eat them: selfishness. There is no other reason, except maybe indoctrinated denial, which is what you’re exhibiting.
> If you’re talking about humans overpopulating and otherwise destroying animals’ natural habitat, I fully agree.
Nothing to do with human overpopulation, everything to do with humans’ appetite for killing 150 billion animals yearly.
> There are far too many of us and we individually consume far too much, especially in rich countries, though not limited to them — some poor people drive and have cell phones after all.
A vegan planet can sustain 10+ billion people without problems.
Educate yourself.
Why is it bad/wrong to kill and eat animals??
Why is it bad/wrong to kill and eat humans? Why do you follow indoctrinated Christian inspired attitudes that man is separate from nature and thus should pillage, rape and murder his environment?
Hahah…Why is it bad/wrong to kill and eat animals??
EVERYTHING you said is wrong.
This is what a fanatic vegan sounds like folks. No point in talking to them, they’re psychotic.
This is what an imbecilic carnist sounds like. Some gibberish nonsense screwed into your head by FDA, just totally brainwashed into an insane and abusive ideology. I simply pity you. You must have the most mediocre of minds to be so dull you can’t understand why abusing others is wrong.
Personally, I feel saddened to see your viewpoint written off as radical – even if by an unthinking, heartless moron. It really shouldn’t be a radical opinion to hold that it just might be wrong to raise billions upon billions of sentient creatures in generally inhumane conditions, only to slaughter them after a short, pitiful existence.
I do eat some meat, but I’m a hypocrite: I also find it morally reprehensible that we do it as a “civilized” people – at least that we do it with such reckless disregard and to such a degree that we’re even hurting our own welfare. If we’re going to go on killing and killing and killing, the least we can do is get laws on the books requiring vastly better treatment for livestock. Even if you don’t believe they have a right to not be raised solely to be killed upon reaching maturity, surely we have enough compassion as a species to find animals deserving of not living in agony, as well.
Thank you for working to bring a moment of life and thought to what is otherwise a statistic. Your use of pictures of the sky is powerful and disturbing. I cant help but be reminded of one of my favorite lines from the Great Gatsby, near the end of the book.
“He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass.”
-F. Scott FItzgerald
it will not slow down
it will increase
children born in 1995 on
have seen nothing but war killing murder
they will use that tool as policemen
it will get much worse
what you need to look into now is
contract murder by police
this will be by police who have already killed once as police or killed while in the military or whose partners have killed before
this would occur in shytown, city D, los onhelleece, noleans, miami, nyc, jersey city area, philly, st louis, memphis, atlanta, san fransisco bay area
Wherever there is evil, wherever there is pain, wherever there is ignorance, wherever there is injustice — there is a way to write a Javascript to get Twitter hits out of it.
By and large the Police pose just as dangerous a threat to the public than the publics encounters with criminals. This factors in all accounts of violence perpetrated by police, not just murder. Rape, harassment, brutality, theft, extortion, shooting of family pets, pointing weapons at children, breaking into wrong home, planting of evidence, false accusations & testimony, accepting bribes, selling drugs, selling protection, spying without proper warrant or none at all, etc. etc.
With the federal government now militarizing the police we can expect matters to only escalate.
Very well said my friend. Totally true. It’s a police state
Whites were the victims in approximately half of the police related shootings in the US during 2016. When measured with regard to the percent of population that a particular ethnic group occupies, American Indians suffered the highest incidence of police related shootings. Yet the only examples of police related shootings offered by the author involved black victims. DISCRIMINATE MUCH???
Blacks are a special category. They are blameless and helpless victims who can do nothing for themselves. Their defense is the burden of all good white men and women.
Consider the government, namely republicans and NRA advocates, have banned the CDC from collecting data regarding gun violence in the US it’s easy to call your statistics into question. Many of those stats people cite are by departments themselves who have financial incentives to report certain things and keep others quiet.
There really is no source for unbiased data when it comes to gun violence in the US. Nice try with the race baiting, I guess. Trolls gotta start somewhere.
There really is no source for unbiased data when it comes to gun violence in the US. Nice try with the race baiting, I guess. Trolls gotta start somewhere.
Actually, the statistics that I quoted were from the Guardian News website which purportedly tracks police related shootings in the US in real time. It has become the standard source for liberal blogs when addressing the issue of Police related shootings. If you have a better source then, by all means, provide it. Absent another source, we have to work with what is available. But hey, it really wasn’t about the accuracy of statistics, was it?
Why should the Center for **Disease** Control have anything to do with gun related statistics??
Also, Karl cited the same statistics in the source to which the author linked.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database
Do you doubt those stats and Begley’s article?
Karl is right about Native Americans even if he’s a racist.
Thank you Josh for presenting the killings of these persons to me in such meaningful ways…to us.
I was also shocked to find that it only took me five minutes to discover ten women as well as to realize the diversity of those dead and to consider the devastating effects on their families and the level of ear in our society. Is there a U.S. map, loaded with the demographics plotted … age, gender, race, time of day, legal or administrative actions taken et al?
Not quite – The Guardian coverage has been extensive (as noted).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/
From WaPo, click on the “see data” 2016 and/or 2015. 2015 is posted, but you can check out the data in rawer form on GitHub: https://github.com/washingtonpost/data-police-shootings/commit/2f0bd26e9a89b369cae7f19d3308c50a3eed0e46
Checks and balances, public accountability, transparency… what quaint notions.
The corporate state has determined that their well armed support staff no longer need to adhere to words on ‘pieces of paper’ … that is so ‘powdered whiggish’ of folks.
get ready for some ‘macho’ authoritarian exertions of power.
technology roll outs to ‘serve humans’
…it’s a cookbook.
Those ain’t just over powered cell towers popping up.
Here is an interesting look at how American police forces could reduce the use of deadly force:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2016/11/how-to-reduce-use-of-deadly-force-by.html
Obviously, the current law enforcement situation in America’s large and small urban areas is not working.
“Police violence in this country…”
__
Hey Josh, why not make note of the “Criminal violence in this country?” You wont because you, as well as other leftist propagandists, are bent on demonizing cops. You ‘progressives’ like try these cases in the court of fake-news mainstream press. People like you suck. You suck. Get a real job.
How incredibly insightful. Why do you believe that anyone gives a damn what you think?
KH – You have no idea about what I believe. Say something insightful, dullard.
Because police are different than criminals… or didn’t you know that?
Remind me again of what the Bundy slobs got for their stunt in Oregon…
Bundy “slobs” as you call them got one killed. Turns out government was not their friend and it’s not over yet. Whose your friend?
They should have all been shot when they pointed guns at federal officials in the first criminal crap they pulled in Nevada. These people are absolute scum of the Earth; in fact they’re much worse, actual scum are just another form of naturally evolved life.
“Turns out government was not their friend…”
They ATTACKED the government, who is, uh, “we the people”. They considered themselves above the people…in other words, they are snobs in cowboy hats.
You’re the one insulting police by equating them and criminals.
Criminal violence (excluding police) has declined substantially in the last few decades. Your argument is not tenable. Please don’t make more comments on this site.
Dear Sigh:
Stop being a goddam parrot.
HERE, L-O-O-K: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/politics/violent-crime-report-us-cities-homicides-rapes
Hey Josh, why not make note of the “Criminal violence in this country?”
Here you go (emphasis mine):
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/427758/careful-panic-violent-crime-and-gun-crime-are-both-dropping-charles-c-w-cooke
There is a history of violence against Black people since they carted them over as slaves.
After slavery was banned, they did this thing in the South, where they would sweep people up as criminals – for something like telling a teenager not to throw rocks at them.
Georgia had a great idea: As criminals, their labor would then be sold (convict labor).
“Provisional governor Thomas Ruger awarded the first convict lease to William A. Fort of the Georgia and Alabama Railroad on May 11, 1868. Fort was given 100 African American prison laborers for one year at the price of $2,500. Fort was responsible for taking care of the prisoners’ basic needs during the year that they were in his possession. Sixteen prisoners died during that first year while working for private entities.
From the government’s point of view, the program was successful. In 1869 the state decided to lease out all of the 393 prisoners in the penitentiary for no fee to the contracting firm Grant, Alexander, and Company to work on the Macon and Brunswick Railroad. Although it was agreed that the convicts would be treated humanely, reports to then-governor Rufus Bullock indicated that leased convicts were being overworked, brutally whipped, and killed while under the care of Grant, Alexander, and Company.”
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/convict-lease-system
Speaking of Progressive, in 1908, they banned the (40-year old) convict lease system.
By that time, we had already developed a criminal system where Black (and brown) people would be punished for just being Black (and brown).
So why don’t you read up on a little history before you put fingers to the keys and confirm that you are an ignorant and well-uninformed citizen?
The banality of evil…
This is so sad i just can’t look…