queridiculo wrote:
But I was also struck by Chauvin's unwavering resolve to defend his actions and for him to stand by what he did as if it was just another day in the office.
...
How Chauvin could sit there content with a plea of not-guilty through all of the proceedings with this damning evidence out there for everybody to see is a testament to how big of a problem policing in the United States is.
Like all of those other sadistic cowards that have gone free before him, he truly thought that he too would be protected by the badge.
This lack of accountability that empowers these small, weak men and women to terrorize those that need protection the most has to stop.
He had every reason to think that considering that while police kill upwards of a thousand people a year, over the 15 year period from 2005 to 2020 there have only been just about 30 convictions of officers under charges admitting their culpability in death of citizens. (Homicide, manslaughter etc). And 10 more that were convicted of a lesser charge like "official misconduct".
Wikipedia.Updated estimates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics released in 2015 estimate the number to be around 930 per year, or 1,240 if assuming that non-reporting local agencies kill people at the same rate as reporting agencies.
Statistica. Chart: Number of nonfederal police officers arrested for murder who have been convicted between 2005 and 2020, by charge
In the United States between 2005 and 2020, of the 42 nonfederal police officers convicted following their arrest for murder due to an on-duty shooting, only five ended up being convicted of murder. The most common offense these officers were convicted of was the lesser charge of manslaughter, with 11 convictions.
Think about it, about ~15,000 people killed by police in that period. Only 30 convictions.
We lost 1/5 that amount in the World Trade Tower/Pentagon hijackings and now can't bring toothpaste on the plane.
