Matt Ferner of the
Huffington Post writes an article titled,
Los Angeles Law Enforcement Officers Kill About One Person A Week. The article is based on a report from the Youth Justice Coalition called "Don't Shoot to Kill," which describes the 589 people killed by Los Angeles law enforcement since 2000.
The report, titled "Don't Shoot to Kill," examines homicide data from the Los Angeles County coroner's department and incorporates details from numerous media reports on specific incidents. Between Jan. 1, 2000 and August 31, 2014, the report found, law enforcement officers in Los Angeles County used lethal force resulting in the deaths of at least 589 people. That's almost one death a week, for nearly 14 years.
From 2000 to 2006, the report says, overall homicides in L.A. County ranged between 1074 and 1231 per year. During that period, officer-involved killings made up between 2.5 and 4.5 percent of that total. However, since 2007, as overall homicide rates have trended downward -- there were 941 total killings in 2007, but only 595 in 2013 -- law enforcement use of deadly force resulting in homicide "doubled to between 4 and 8 percent" of the total, the report reads.
The report found that of the 314 people killed between 2007 and 2014, 97 percent were male, a combined 82 percent were black or Latino and 52 percent were under age 30.
The YJC report offers a number of detailed recommendations to help reduce police and community violence. It calls on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to launch a civil rights investigation into officer-involved shootings and the use of force countywide. It also calls for demilitarizing the police through the elimination of surplus military equipment, as well as the end of stop-and-frisk searches, gang databases and gang injunctions.
Just last month Los Angeles Police Department officers shot and killed Ezell Ford, who was unarmed and black, raising tensions in the city.
Attorney General Eric Holder should launch a civil rights investigation into all officer-related shootings nationwide. We also need major reform of our drug laws which turn too many ordinary people with mental health and social issues into criminals and strengthen criminal gangs and networks.