Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager (r) shooting and killing Walter Scott (l).
As of September 24, 872 Americans have been
killed by police in 2015. A mere 1.3 percent of those officers have been charged in the deaths, ranging from manslaughter to murder. As wild as it sounds, the 12 officers who've been charged so far in 2015 represent
the single largest number of officers charged in any year over the past ten years.
According to The Wall Street Journal, more police officers in America have been prosecuted over fatal on-duty shootings in 2015 than in any year going back a decade.
Citing research by Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip M. Stinson, the Journal reports that 12 officers have been charged with manslaughter or murder for on-duty shooting deaths in 2015 so far, more than twice the annual average of five officers a year since 2005.
This, on its face, absolutely
feels like progress. In some ways, it is. More than any year in recent memory, the public is demanding that police officers be held accountable for police brutality, so having more officers charged this year than any recent year (with more than 3 months still remaining) is not coincidental.
However, what we really have here is something that doesn't merit much celebration.
Not one single officer who has been charged with manslaughter or murder in 2015 has actually been convicted. Not one. While a few convictions are still up in the air, we are actually left with the very real possibility that not a single officer will be convicted. It has happened hundreds of times before, in some of the most egregious cases imaginable.
Between prosecutors who don't truly want convictions of police officers and laws which seem to protect police at all costs, it's a bit futile to get your hopes up.