However one defines “misconduct,” it does not include the inappropriate use of lethal force by police sworn to protect and serve the civilians they have responsibility for. Implicit in their mandate is the idea of fairness: that they must be evenhanded in applying the awesome life & death powers they have been entrusted with as part of their mandate.
When one reviews the spate of cases that have surfaced in multiple venues around the nation since Michael Brown’s summary execution by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO last August, the most salient characteristic has been the death of the victim. Beyond that has been the impunity of the police who often executed people on short notice with little or no apparent reason.
In case after case, lethal force was employed on the flimsiest possible basis. When a public protest followed; as happened in Ferguson, it was forcefully put down by heavily armed police in helmets and body armor. The next step was an in-house investigation by the department in question. The more egregious cases were then assigned to a grand jury while the officers in question were placed on paid administrative leave.
In what may signal a change in that established pattern, the officers involved in two of the most egregious recent cases may actually be facing prosecution for the killings they were involved in. The first is Charleston, SC
officer Michael Slager, who was caught on video firing multiple times at a fleeing black man named Donald Scott after stopping him for a minor traffic violation.
The second is the indictment being sought by a Maryland prosecutor named Marilyn Mosby for the death of Freddie Gray who somehow sustained lethal traumatic injuries within 45 minutes of being arrested by Baltimore police on a minor weapons charge. As this is being written, CNN is replaying the video of a Dallas policeman recklessly brandishing his gun as he subdues a 14 year old black female who was part of a group of mixed race juveniles that had been allegedly disturbing the peace at an upscale pool party.
What is painfully evident is a pattern of excessive use of lethal force by American police against citizens of color and/or others with little political clout: the poor, the elderly, or the mentally
ill.
Unbeknown to most, (apparently including the media) is that several unofficial websites had been tracking killings by American police, pretty much as they occur, for the past few years. The two most efficient are clearly not related to each other (nor do they seem mutually aware). They are (List of killings by law enforcement agencies…) and Killed. by police.net.
Both are anonymous; they can be found on Wikipedia. They are clearly maintained by anonymous volunteers. Although using different formats, both include links to newspaper & TV reports of the killings. There is simply no baseline for comparison for neither the FBI nor any other federal. Agency tracks or reports such data. One obvious difference between the US and other nations is in the number of unregistered firearms stored in American homes and the ease with which they can be acquired, used, and worked on by hobbyists, hunters, and others as a result of pressure from the NRA and other organizations in our powerful gun lobby.
