An investigation into why and how police murders are committed has uncovered a few startling facts. Most startling, perhaps, is the fact that more than 60 of the cops who participated in a fatal shooting in 2016 had done so at least once before – indicating that it is a number of corrupt, violent cops who are responsible for the bulk of police shootings regardless of the motive or situation.
In the investigation conducted by The Post, they uncovered information about the police officers who had been involved in shootings this year, noting that out of the data they gathered, more than 60 of the 811 officers who committed fatal shootings this year have been involved with other fatal shootings in the past.
Were all of those officers evaluated after previous fatal shootings, and if so, how did they happen to be put into another situation where they were forced to take fatal action?
Additionally, Post reporters tracked nearly twice as many police shootings as the FBI had recorded, indicating that some serious record-keeping errors are painting an incorrect picture about the state of police violence.
The Post’s investigation mostly confirmed what we already know: more white men were killed by cops, but proportionately, three times as many black men were killed when contextualized by national population.
Many who were killed were armed with either a gun or a knife. Four percent were armed with a fake weapon.
1 in 4 who were killed suffered from mental illness.
Most of these things were reported in both 2015 and 2016, showing that neither years’ reporting was an anomaly. These are trends by police in America, and unless something is done to change the culture, it will continue.
