Professor: Cops are getting the benefit of the doubt
Bowling Green State University Professor Phil Stinson, a former cop himself, has been trying to determine just how many people are killed by police, how many of those killings are determined to be crimes.
However, it’s not easy. The data he admits is not perfect, the reporting scant, law enforcement agencies, he says, sometimes don’t cooperate and respond honestly to surveys; but according to Stinson, in 2,718 cases involving police shootings from 2005 to 2011, just 41 sworn officers were ever charged with manslaughter or murder.
What’s more he says, is that in ten years of data on sworn officers involved in any kind of misconduct, on the job or off. Officers charged with crimes ranging from theft to murder are 33 percent less-likely to be found guilty, than the general public.
Prof. Stinson said, “They’re treated differently, and the people who have to make the decisions, either the charging decision in terms of returning an indictment or ultimately determining guilt in a criminal case. They’re just reluctant to do so.”
Nowhere is that more evident than Albuquerque. Municipal statistics since 2010 show the city has an officer-involved shooting rate twice that of Chicago, eight times that of New York, yet not a single Albuquerque police officer has even been charged, let alone convicted of using excessive force in the last 30 years."
Video at link: http://wwlp.com/2014/12/09/professor-cops-are-getting-the-benefit-of-the-doubt/
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