We have a uniquely American problem in which civilians are getting massacred by police on a near-daily basis, Lee Camp says on the latest ‘Redacted Tonight’ episode about the problem of out-of-control policing in the US.
Just several days ago, video emerged showing Milwaukee police Tasering NBA player Sterling Brown for the ‘crime’ of parking in a disabled parking spot.
“But he got off easy,” Camp said, given that police in the US have already killed over 400 people since the beginning of 2018.
In comparison, Lee explained, in the 12 months to April 2016, British cops discharged their weapons just seven times, with three people killed.
“They had only fired their guns seven times in a year! An average American cop discharges their weapons seven times just to open their beer can. When the little metal tab breaks off, you know, you gotta get the gun out. And then they fired three more times to celebrate once they get the beer open,” Camp said.
He continued: “Our cops have killed over 400 people so far this year. And of the 1,100 2017 killings, officers were charged with a crime in only 13 – one percent of all killings by police! Just one percent are even charged with anything. It is basically open season on Americans by our own police forces”.
He reported that over a half of all these killings began with police responding to suspected non-violent offenses or cases where no crime was reported. Besides that, in a little under half of the killings, the victim didn't even have a gun. Most of those who were completely unarmed, and yet killed anyway, were people of color, he said.
“It is not that cops don't kill white people… they kill more white people than Wendy's Baconator sandwich. But it's that the white people [who] cops kill are more likely to be waving a gun around. The black people are often not,” Camp explained.
He also noted that, on average, police recruits get only eight hours of training on how to de-escalate tense situations and spend 58 hours learning “how to shoot things.”
“So it sounds like shooting things is about seven times more important than trying to avoid shooting things,” he observed.
If police did not kill people who were not posing a threat with a gun, there would have been 638 fewer deaths in 2017 – a 57-percent reduction.
“I think it is pretty undeniable that we have a uniquely American problem in which civilians are getting massacred by police on a near-daily basis,” Camp concluded.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives passed a bill recently to impose federal penalties on people who deliberately target law enforcement officers with attacks. According to The Intercept, the bill exemplifies “the very worst sort of legislation: at once unnecessary and pernicious.”
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