Originally published January 27 2015
America descending into street wars between cops and citizens as fatalities skyrocket beyond any other country
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) Violence between police and citizens is increasing, according to data and statistics, as analysts and experts search for answers to decrease shootings and other acts of civil unrest.
Even as the search for answers continues, however, others have found that there is a distinct disconnect between police and the citizenry that they are assigned to "serve and protect."
According to the Free Thought Project, a think tank and policy analysis organization, hundreds of citizens were killed by police in 2014 -- a figure that was higher than the previous high in 2013.
"While violence among citizens has dropped, violence against citizens carried out by police has been rising sharply. When we look at citizens killed by police over the last two years, deaths have increased 44 percent in this short time; 763 people were kill[ed] by police in 2013," the think tank said, quoting figures at KilledByPolice.net, a website which tracks such statistics.
Meanwhile, in 2014, the figure rose to 1,100, the think tank noted, quoting the tallying site. "That is an average of three people a day," said the think tank.
To put that figure in context, the think tank said that, in all of last year, just 58 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Fewer soldiers were killed in war than citizens back home in "the land of the free" in 2014, by a large margin," the group said.
More prisoners than China
How can such figures be inherent to a "free country," the think tank asked rhetorically before pointing out that, according to recent data, the U.S. is hardly as free as many believe. In fact, according to the 2014 Legatum Prosperity Index, which measures a number of factors such as, of course, prosperity, but also governance, education and health, ranked the U.S. 21st in "Personal Freedom," down from 9th in previous rankings in 2010 (New Zealand was 1st). The U.S. was behind such countries as Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Uruguay and Costa Rica.
Other rankings, such as one analysis performed by Reporters Without Borders, puts U.S. "freedom" well below the top:
After a year of attacks on whistleblowers and digital journalists and revelations about mass surveillance, the United States plunged 13 spots in the group's global press freedom rankings to number 46.
In other first-world economies and countries, police killings are notably rare, the think tank reports:
Let's look at our immediate neighbors to the north, Canada. The total number of citizens killed by law enforcement officers in the year 2014, was 14; that is 78 times less people than the US.
If we look at the United Kingdom, 1 person was killed by police in 2014 and 0 in 2013. English police reportedly fired guns a total of three times in all of 2013, with zero reported fatalities.
From 2010 through 2014, there were four fatal police shootings in England, which has a population of about 52 million. By contrast, Albuquerque, N.M., with a population 1 percent the size of England's, had 26 fatal police shootings in that same time period.
In China, the think tank reports, there were only 12 killings by law enforcement personnel in 2014, though the population is four-and-a-half times the size of America. And in the period of 2013-2014, there were no police killings of civilians in Germany, the think tank said.
"Militarization"
There are other disturbing trends that speak ill of "American Freedom," according to the think tank:
-- The U.S. imprisons nearly 25 percent of all people imprisoned the world over, though it has only about 5 percent of the global population, "an extremely disproportionate share of people imprisoned globally."
-- In all, there are about 2.2 million inmates in the U.S., while China -- a much more authoritarian state -- imprisons 1.7 million, though that country also has a much higher execution rate.
-- The "war on drugs," in addition to what President Dwight Eisenhower described as the "military-industrial complex," was created by the mindset that the United States "police" the world, and that has "created a deadly combination."
-- The passage of military equipment and gear to local police departments has "militarized" them, which could be at least partially responsible for an increase in police-related violence.
Sources:
http://thefreethoughtproject.com
http://www.killedbypolice.net
http://media.prosperity.com[PDF]
http://www.freepress.net
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