Domestic Violence Was A Part Of Most Mass Shootings
Although many people think of mass shootings as random acts of violence, this analysis shows that most mass shootings are not at all random: In at least 53 percent of mass shootings between 2009 and 2020, the perpetrator shot a current or former intimate partner or family member during the rampage. These domestic violence-related mass shootings resulted in at least 632 people shot and killed and 106 people wounded, amounting to almost half of all mass shooting deaths and one in ten injuries.
Nearly 3 in 4 children and teens killed in mass shootings died in an incident connected to domestic violence.
53 percent of mass shootings were domestic violence-related.
Too often, children and teens are the victims of domestic violence mass shootings: Of the 362 children and teens killed in all mass shootings in the past 12 years, nearly three in four died in an incident connected to intimate partner or family violence.
The findings about domestic violence-related mass shootings and where mass shootings tend to occur are interlinked. Nearly all of these domestic violence-related shootings involved at least one victim in a private home , and 80 percent of them occurred there entirely and never moved into a public space.Of mass shootings that were related to domestic violence, 117 of them occurred at least partially in the home and 101 occurred entirely in the home.
Accidental Shootings Highest On The Prairies
The rate of accidental shootings both fatal and non-fatal has held relatively steady over the past five years.
An average of 240 Canadians were hospitalized each year due to the accidental discharge of a firearm.
But the frequency of accidental shootings varies widely, depending on where you live.
People tend to be injured by firearms most often in Saskatchewan, where the rate is triple the national average.
Manitoba and Alberta, respectively, have the next highest rates, while Quebec has the lowest.
In addition to these injuries, accidental shootings also kill about 13 people each year, on average, according to Statistics Canada.
These deaths are dwarfed by suicides, however, which remain the most common way by far for Canadians to die by guns.
Edmonton No Longer Gun
Gun crime tends to ebb and flow in Canada’s largest urban centres.
From 2013 to 2016, Edmonton had the highest rate of violent crime involving a firearm.
But gun crime has been on decline in the Alberta capital and it has since been overtaken, slightly, by Calgary and even more so by Toronto on that front.
The rate of violent gun crime has been on the rise in Toronto for the past four years.
Vancouver, by contrast, which had the highest rate back in 2012, has seen a steady decline in violent gun crime and, by 2017, it had the lowest rate of five urban centres studied.
The use of firearms in crime raises the question: Where did the guns come from?
In the past, police have said most crime guns were smuggled into Canada from the United States. But there’s some evidence that’s been changing, with police in Toronto citing a recent surge in the number of illegal guns sourced from within our national borders.
And the stats do show an increase in the theft of firearms, but there’s a bit of catch to those numbers.
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In 2017 Nearly 100 Times More Americans Were Killed By Police Than Terrorists
Matt Agorist December 31, 2017
In the United States, in 2017, according to the government data, eight events took place on American soil that were classified as acts of terrorism. The combined death toll from all eight terroristic acts in 2017 is 12. Twelve people were killed on American soil by other people attempting to make a political statement through an act of violence and yet we are told the threat of terror inside the United States is at an all-time high. Nothing could be further from the truth.
However, there is another number that is particularly worrisome and it has to do with how many people American police have killed this year. As of the publishing of this article, the number of people whove been killed by police in 2017 is 1,184. This is nearly 100 times the number of people killed by terrorists inside the United States this year and yet the government and the media at large remain entirely silent on this violent epidemic.
While the shootings in Nevada and Texas were horrific and some of the deadliest to take place on American soil, they are not technically classified as terrorism as they were not carried out in the name of a political ideology. Even if we include the deaths from these mass shootings, police have still killed far more people than all the mass shooters in 2017 combined.
Why is it that cops in America kill more people than any other civilized country? Do we have a higher crime rate?
Funding The Police Versus Redirecting Funding
For a period after Floyds killing, lawmakers vowed to cut police funding in many cities. But many of those budgets were restored or increased by the end of 2021. That happened even as the national rate of police killings overall, but especially of Black Americans, increased, according to The Washington Posts data.
Theyre turning these encounters into ghastly encounters, said Mac, the activist. I dont know any other instance where an apparatus can be so bad at its job and continue to get increased funding. It really flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Its just putting bad money on top of bad money.
Beyond defunding the police, she said, redirecting resources should be the objective.
I dont see a way out of this until we look beyond policing for safety for our communities, she said. The very righteous call to defund the police is not just about taking resources away from the police. Its also about where we put those resources to get us beyond these moments of people being killed.
Like others who want to abolish police and systems of incarceration, Mac said funds intended for police should instead address root problems like ensuring safe housing and sufficient clothing, food and mental health and addiction services.
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What Does ‘armed’ Mean
Sometimes the concept of “armed” is complicated.
Roy Wellington’s 15-year-old nephew Duane Christian was shot and killed by police in June of 2006 while he was behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle. Although Christian did not have a weapon, Toronto Police believed he was driving the car in a threatening manner.
“I personally don’t think my nephew was trying to hurt anybody. I don’t think he was going to use that vehicle as a weapon at all,” Wellington said. “I think he was doing what a scared 15-year-old person might do if someone pointed a gun in their face and a flashlight, and that is run.”
Wellington believes police failed his nephew.
“These officers forgot my nephew is a member of the community and placed the importance of recovering a stolen vehicle over the value of a life. To me that’s pretty callous,” he said.
“I don’t believe that these officers have a real commitment in these moments of making sure that everyone survives this encounter. I believe that that is a failing of policing.”
How Many People Are Killed By Police
Thursday, July 14, 2016
How many people are killed by police?
Its a simple and important question, but, until this year, the shocking answer was we have no idea. There is no central authority systematically keeping track of killings by law enforcement, and police in most states are not required to report the use of lethal force to anyone.
Government Data: Worse than Useless
The FBIs annual crime report does keep track of homicides reported by police as justified killings by police. As defined by the FBI, justifiable homicide by law enforcement means the killing of a felon by a peace officer in the line of duty. From 2000 to 2014, the FBI reported an average of 390 justifiable homicides by police each year, with a very slight upward trend.
The obvious question was, how many unjustifiable killings were committed by law enforcement? There is no report for that at all: unjustified homicides by police would, in theory, be recorded as generic murders. Moreover, because police departments themselves decide what is justifiable, theres plenty of room for doubt about whether all those homicides really were justified or whether police actually reported all of their killings.
So despite two federal databases, there was no clear picture on the number of police killings, and the data was hopelessly muddled by states and agencies not participating or reporting conflicting numbers.
A Post-Ferguson Accounting
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Months Days And Times Of Incidents
- More officers died from felonious assaults that occurred in May than in any other month in 2017.
- More officers were involved in fatal assaults that occurred on Fridays than on any other day of the week.
- 17 officers were fatally injured in assaults that happened between 12:01 a.m. and noon.
- 29 officers were fatally injured in assaults that happened between 12:01 p.m. and midnight.
Who Was Killed By Police In 2017 More People Died From Officer Shootings Despite Black Lives Matter Movement
Beatrice Dupuy U.S.Police ShootingJustine DamondPolice KillingsPolice shootings
A “sweet little boy,” a straight-A student and a bride-to-be were only three of the hundreds of people fatally shot by police in 2017. Police have killed 964 people this year, according to the Washington Post‘s fatal force database. That’s one person more than 2016 despite claims by police departments that they’re increasing the use of body cameras and improving training.
Out of the 964 people killed, 66 people were unarmed. The Black Lives Matter movement brought police brutality to the forefront after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. But some reports argue that the group has “lowered” its visibility to work on improving policy. With the national conversation turning away from police brutality, some high-profile shootings took a backseat this year, including 6-year-old Kameron Prescott and 40-year-old Justine Damond.
Prescott was fatally shot on Dec. 21 in Schertz, Texas. The boy was killed four days before Christmas when a stray bullet struck him in the abdomen as police responded to a call about a car thief. The suspect, a 30-year-old woman, tried to break into Prescott’s home when police opened fire on her and the mobile home, striking Prescott.
Kameron Prescott.
Shaun King
Prescott’s teachers and classmates said he loved to make everyone around him laugh. Fourth-grader Ryland McGlothlin told KENS that his friend was a “sweet little boy.”
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Us Police Shootings: How Many Die Each Year
On Sunday morning, three police officers were shot dead in Baton Rouge. This attack came just 10 days after five police officers were killed in Dallas. Both events were revenge attacks for the killing of young black men by police.
The bloodshed has shocked the US, leading President Barack Obama to call for calm. But how many police officers are killed in the US in a normal year? And how many people are killed by police?
What About National Laws
For example, Mexicos new National Law on the Use of Force does not limit use of lethal force to situations where it is necessary to protect the lives of others. It does not require that officers use the minimum level of force to resolve a situation.
In the USA, nine states have no laws at all on the use of lethal force by law enforcement officers.
Often countries shut down the doors of justice domestically and victims have to rely on international tribunals to seek truth, justice and reparations.
In 2011, Amnesty raised concerns about the lack accountability in France for the deaths in custody of Ali Ziri, Mohammed Boukrourou, Lamine Dieng, Abou Bakari Tandia and Abdelhakim Ajimi, all men from ethnic minority backgrounds. After struggling to get justice in France, three of these cases were referred to the European Court of Human Rights, which has so far found that French police violated Ali Ziris right to life, and that their treatment of Mohammed Boukrourou constituted inhuman and degrading treatment.
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Killings Per Capita Vary Across Cities
Police killings per capita vary dramatically across America’s largest cities, the data shows.
The rate of police killings is highest in St. Louis, where police killed about 18 people per million residents annually between 2013 and 2019. In New York, where the rate of police killings was the lowest, police killed about 1.3 people per million residents in those years.
St. Louis is also significant because of its proximity to the site of one of the police killings that was key in catalyzing the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2014, Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old, was shot by the white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo., located about 10 miles outside St. Louis.
Wilson was not charged with a crime and a 2015 report by the Department of Justice found that his actions were not “objectively unreasonable.” But Brown’s killing, and the phrase “Hands up, don’t shoot!” became symbols of the Black Lives Matter movement that developed over subsequent years.
Assault Weapons Led To 6x As Many People Shot Per Mass Shooting
High-capacity magazines
High-capacity magazines allow a shooter to fire more rounds without pausing to reload. The more rounds a shooter can fire consecutively, the more gunshot wounds they can inflict during an attack.Peter Rhee et al., Gunshot Wounds: A Review Of Ballistics, Bullets, Weapons, And Myths, Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery 80, no. 6 : 853-67 While nearly every assault weapon used in a mass shooting over this period included a high-capacity magazine, an additional 20 mass shootings involved the use of high-capacity magazines with other guns. In total, at least 42 mass shootings involved high-capacity magazines, which resulted in 422 people killed and 710 people wounded. Of those 42 mass shootings that involved high-capacity magazines, three-fourths occurred in public places.Of the 43 mass shootings that involved high-capacity magazines, 27 occurred entirely in public, and another five occurred both in a private home and in public. As a whole, the mass shootings we know involved the use of high-capacity magazines resulted in nearly five times as many people shot on average as those that did not.Type of magazine used is known in 76 incidents. Incidents in which magazine capacity was unknown have been excluded. Mass shootings involving a high-capacity magazine resulted in an average of 10 people killed and 16.9 people wounded per shooting, compared to 4.6 people killed and 1.1 people wounded when smaller magazines were used.
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Police Killings By Us State 2022
While the overwhelming majority of police actions are completed safely, scenarios also arise in which police officers administer lethal force, causing the death of civilians involved in the situation. Police killings are a subject of considerable controversy and often inspire both deep debate and far-reaching investigations. The fact that minorities, particularly blacks, appear notably more likely than whites to die during a police encounter is an area of particular concern.
Police in the United Stateskill more people than do police in any other advanced democratic country. Moreover, the trend seems to be increasing, with 2021 recording the highest number of police killings yet registered . The actions of police officers involved in killings are often heavily scrutinized, with the dual goal of determining the officer’s aptitude/culpability and seeking out safer police procedures that ensure preventable deaths are indeed prevented.
Police Are Almost Never Charged After Killings
Despite the large number of police killings annually, police are almost never charged for excessive force violations. Between 2013 and 2019, 99% of killings resulted in no charges, according to Mapping Police Violence.
Prosecutors are often wary of bringing charges against police because of the steep hurdles to obtaining a conviction.
A doctrine known as “qualified immunity” also protects police from excessive force lawsuits in cases that don’t involve a “clearly established” violation of the law.
An investigation by Reuters published last month showed that, over the past three years, police won more than half of the excessive force suits in which they claimed qualified immunity, a sharp increase from prior periods. Qualified immunity was “making it easier for officers to kill or injure civilians with impunity,” the news service reported.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, who announced the charges against Chauvin, acknowledged the difficulty of bringing charges against police officers in a press conference on Friday.
“This is by far the fastest we’ve ever charged a police officer,” Freeman said.
Floyd’s family has called for charges to be brought against the other three officers involved in his arrest, and for Chauvin’s murder charge to be escalated from third degree to first degree, which would carry steeper penalties.
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What About Unarmed And Not Aggressing
In addition to a variable indicating whether the deceased was armed, the Washington Post codes the threat level of each case. The classification is rudimentary. There is an attack category representing what the Post deems the most direct and immediate threat to life, with all other situations coded as other or undetermined. The Post cautions that the other category includes many incidents where officers or others faced significant threats, especially situations where a suspect brandished a knife and refused to drop it.
Some analysts have thus focused on situations where the suspect was unarmed and not attackingsometimes relying on the coding contained in the Post database or similar projects, and sometimes coding the incidents themselves. Through 2020 in the Post data, 208 cases meet this narrower definition. In these cases, 32% of the deceased in these cases were black, versus 26% of all other cases .
On average, the Post records about 11 fatal shootings of blacks in this category per year. Although this approach does a better job of zeroing in on cases that might be unjustified or at least fall into a gray area, it still covers a broad enough range of situations to justify caution.