Police Shooting: The Scope of the Problem
In the USA, there is more and more news about police shooting at criminals and innocent people. Police shooting is often associated with a particular attitude to the victim’s race or ethnicity. In addition, these shootings are often unregistered, and the number of such murders at the hands of a police officer varies from state to state. The Lancet article conducts a study of conditions in which there is a significant number of police shootings; in addition, this article examines which races most often suffer from police brutality. Although police violence often goes unpunished, people still seek to draw the attention of the authorities to this fact by researching this topic.
Police killings occur almost everywhere, but the most high-profile police crimes happen in the United States. Oklahoma has the highest death rates at the hands of police officers, which are 95% per 100,000 (The Lancet 1241). The number of deaths is increasing from decade to decade, and reporting these crimes is often understated. Naturally, in every state, this situation has occurred and is taking place, but the highest rate of murders by police officers is recorded in Oklahoma, Columbia, Arizona, Alaska, Nevada, and Wyoming (The Lancet 1241). The police remain unpunished, which damages the whole situation because they understand that there will be no punishment for such crimes.
The locations of police shootings can also be identified incorrectly. According to The Lancet, incorrect identification of police crime scenes may be because data on a murder committed by a representative of the law are hidden and not recorded (1250). In addition, pathologists can also act in the interests of the police and hide the correct information. Furthermore, the victims of police shootings are people of different races and ethnic groups, which can also lead to incorrect determination of the location of the shooting and subsequent murder.
Many people of different nationalities and ethnic groups become victims of the police. Black Americans are the most common victims of police brutality (The Lancet 1250). Yet, in addition to black Americans, white people, Hispanic and non-Hispanic natives, and many other races and nationalities also often come under fire. Such diversity demonstrates that police officers undoubtedly often have a biased attitude toward people of certain races, but still, impunity allows such lawlessness to spread and kill anyone they want. People continue to suffer from what the police can afford, and the authorities are inactive. Even social movements that demand justice and punishment of police officers for taking the lives of innocent people do not bring accurate results.
In conclusion, people are trying by any means to attract the attention of the authorities to one of the most acute problems of police lawlessness today. This problem is connected with the fact that the police take the lives of people who have not committed a crime and remain unpunished simultaneously. Some data on murders are carefully hidden and not recorded, which is undoubtedly a significant problem. People of different races and nationalities suffer, and the number of murders varies from state to state. Nevertheless, the authorities have practically no actions that could stop the police and their arbitrariness. People are trying to attract the attention of higher authorities to an urgent problem, but so far, no solution has been found. Meanwhile, the number of deaths from police shootings continues to grow.
Work Cited
The Lancet. “Fatal police violence by race and state in the USA, 1980–2019: a network meta-regression.” Elsevier, vol. 398, no. 10307, 2021, pp. 1239-1255.