Grand Juries Almost Never Indict Police Officers Who Kill Citizens

Source

The failure of the St. Louis County grand jury to hand down an indictment against the officer who fatally shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown caused uproar and protest, but law enforcement experts say that indictments against police officers are rare.

Give me data please.....

Missing from official records, though, is how many police officers were indicted for excessive force. An independent study in 2010 by researcher David Packman showed 4,841 reports of police misconduct involving 6,613 police officers. Of those misconduct complaints, 3,238 resulted in charges being made, but only 33 percent were convicted and 12 percent incarcerated.

12 % spent time in jail/ prison, thats it? Great! Im subject to a lifetime of low wage slave labor and background checks with limited to no upward mobility and they.... commit worse crimes.... and dont even have to go to court most of the time?

I am outraged by this.

Today i was driving home from work after working my ass off setting tile for 10 hours because i want to be a better person and change my life after lessons i learned from going through the system and i saw a police officer turn his headlights on at a red light drive through the light turn his lights off and slow down, i recorded the whole thing. This infuriates me.

First off...

I see it as disrespect to the community that they dont follow the same rules that they enforce.

So i am going to go to the police department and file a formal complaint and im talking to some buddies of mine i think were going to start going to city councils meetings and applying pressure with our local PD on accountability.

a reply to: onequestion

The source you referenced covers all misconduct charges, not police shootings. I've heard the percent of cop shootings brought up on charges are calculated with a 2 digit number, and not reflected by a percentage.

a reply to: onequestion

I have also seen the same type behavior here as well, they have long been expanding the gap between us and them and the accountability that is held to the police.
It is a failure on all ends really, but people are getting more and more outraged at the inability of the justice system to indict police when charges are deserved, letting them off with a paid vacation and a smiling attaboy.
Murder gets them a paid vacation, rape gets them a paid vacation, threats and sexual harassment gets them a paid vacation...seems to be a pattern there.
Any of that gets anyone else a felony and rightfully so...time to balance the scales of justice.

a reply to: onequestion

Russel Brand recently brought up the exact same point, there is simply no way to check the true extent of these killings by law enforcement which is strange, if there is nothing to hide why is there no transparency?, rules for some eh.

Ferguson: What Value Do Our Laws Have? Russell Brand The Trews

a reply to: TheSilverGate

Yup my sentiments exactly.

a reply to: onequestion

There are several reasons as to why an officer would have a legit reason to turn on his lights to go through a red light then turn them off.

1. He is dispatched to a call such as a burglary in progress. One does not want to alert the burglar with sirens blazing therefore he only uses lights and/or sirens to clear an intersection and will turn them off after.

2. He was dispatched to call that came out as a crime but turned out to be a misunderstanding. For example a citizen calls 911 stating that he sees someone walking down the street with what looks to be a gun. Dispatch sends the call to the officer who initiates lights and sirens. Within seconds the caller realizes they made a mistake and it was not a gun but something else. Dispatch relays the informationan and cancels the call in which the officer turns off his lights and sirens.

3. The officer is called to back up another officer in a serious situation. The officer turns on his lights and sirens and clears the intersection. Well it turns out another officer is closer so the original officer that turned on his lights and sirens to clear the intersection is canceled from the call. He turns his lights off.

4. The officer is patrolling and thinks he sees something suspicious that requires his immediate attention across the intersection so he activates his lights and goes through. Once he is on the other side he realizes he was wrong and subsequently turns off his lights.

I can tell you from personal experience that 1-3 happen on almost a daily basis.

I truly wish people that have such disdain for the police would go on a ride along to experience what happens and why we do some of the things that we do.

I also truly wish more departments would speak out to the public to explain why we do the things we do.

I am sure most on Infowa...I mean ATS won't believe me though.

Just some perspective in a sea of prejudice that is ever flowing through ATS.