Cops Killed More Than 1,000 People In America Last Year

Policing in America hasn't changed at all, in spite of the growing calls for reform from across the country. At least 1,055 people were shot and killed by police last year, the highest number since the Washington Post began tracking killings by police officers. And once you dig into the statistics, the numbers become even more shocking as they paint a picture of a police system that is disturbingly unprepared to do their jobs. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

According to a new analysis from the Washington post that has been Mon monitoring police killings in the United States since 2015, new analysis reveals that 1055 individuals at least were shot and killed by police officers in the United States in the year 2021. This of course is the highest number of people killed by police officers in the United States since the post started keeping track of it. So the, the highest in, you know, seven years, 1055 Americans shot dead by police officers last year. So we're talking about an average of close to three per day, three people in this country every day killed by police. And of course the average number of police shootings is, uh, killings is about a thousand per year. So a little bit higher than usual, highest they've ever reported, but not, you know, a sign again, increase, I guess you would call it that. But once you dig down into these statistics, things get even darker. Let me read some of this all, but 15% of people shot and killed by officers were armed. They claim 94% were men, roughly 14% had known health struggles. 16% of people fatally shot last year were killed. After police responded to a domestic disturbance call, 11% were fatally shot after someone called 9 1 1. And about 20% of last year's fatal police shootings were captured on body cameras.

So, oh, oh, only 15% were unarmed. They tell us, but they only filmed 20%. So we have to take their word that the other 85% of people were armed. No, absolutely not. I don't buy that one bit. Not for a second. And neither should you not saying they were all unarmed, obviously that's not the case, but what we're seeing here, what these numbers tell us, is that a police in the United States, this, this is beyond just a training issue. Okay. We know they're dangerously undertrained compared to police officers in other countries that can go a full year without killing anybody. We know they're dangerously undertrained, but it's also the mentality.

We have some violent people on these police forces across this country that would rather shoot first and ask questions never. And when they get busted doing something wrong. Yeah, it's nice to see 'em go on trial every now and then. But most of them, because there's no body camera footage, because there was no one around with a cell phone to capture it. Most of them might get desk duty for a couple days. Then they're right back there on the beat murders that we don't even know about. Not on camera, no accountability whatsoever. The problem is getting worse. Not better.

We need to invest in mental health initiatives here in the United States that would cut down on a lot of these killings. Absolutely would cut down on a lot of these killings, but we also need to stop equipping police officers in this country with surplus weapons of war. You know, that that at government program that sends them it sometimes drones, it sends them these automatic weapons. It sends them helicopters. It sends them all of these things for them to go out on the streets and play Rambo when they get called, because a couple's having an argument in their home. This has to stop. This cannot be reformed. It has to be torn down and rebuilt in a way that protects people instead of killing them by the thousands.