More Than 800 Killed By Cops This Year... Who Says US Doesn't Have Death Squads?

Occasionally at the end of blog entries, I will leave a link to the website Killed By Police. I've been doing this on a semi-regular basis since 2015, when I first found out about the site. Killed By Police itself first began in May 2013, doing what the government fails to do: keep accurate up-to-date numbers of US citizens who die in police custody or during police interactions, on a daily, monthly, and annual basis, in real time.  

While listening to radio program Press Watch this morning (Thursdays 9am KBOO 90.7fm), host 'Theresa' cited an article by British media service The Guardian on the number of American citizens murdered by cops this year. A visit to that article titled 'The Counted' will show a running tally of 751 people murdered by cops (at the time this entry was published). That is for 2016 alone, with four more months to go. The KBP site has that death toll at 806, as of September 8th 2016. On KBP's representative Facebook page, you will see the claim that at least 3,897 people have been killed by American cops since May 1st 2013 - the day the crowd-funded data base was founded. 

Counting: A tiny snapshot of police murder victims.

A slight disparity between The Guardian's numbers and the US-based KBP. The fact is, The Guardian - a British news outlet - keeps a far better data base on Americans killed by cops than the American govt. does! 

You see, this sort of thing ought to be shocking. The American empire is up everybody's ass with deep-state surveillance, wire taps, meta-data mining, electronic dragnets, facial recognition implanted in every camera, and every camera installed in every electronic and mobile device starring right back at YOU. But... the govt. can't tell you how many of its own citizens are gunned down by rampaging cops... OUTRAGEOUS! It is outrageous that a crowd-sourced data base and a foreign news outlet keeps track of these numbers, but the US govt. does not. Despite the fact that in the *horrendous Crime Bill of 1994, Congress mandated that the US Attorney General collect data from the use of excessive force by police departments nation-wide, and publish annual reports based on that data. This was never done, however, because state and local governments refused to volunteer such info. and the federal govt. never compelled them to do so. Uncle Sam did decide to wholesale much of its military surplus to despotic police regimes - from major cities to the smallest villages, every police regime got its own BearCat YAY! 

Armored military anti-personnel vehicle known as the "BearCat". It has been slightly re-modeled to police specifications and is commonly deployed for "urban pacification" purposes. 

Obviously, the massive increase of govt. subsidized military hardware to cops since the mid-1990's, combined with draconian provisions from that *1994 crime bill, have directly lead to sharp increases of murders by police gestapo. It goes without saying that People of Color have bore the full brunt of these militarized Death Squads... uh oh, I just called American police "death squads", oh nooo. Well, frankly, what the fuck else would YOU call them? Because if police in another country had murdered hundreds of citizens every year with virtually no accountability, you would call them DEATH SQUADS! If another sovereign nation had employed its police forces to kill hundreds of its own citizens every year, with minorities and the underclass being targeted specifically, and the govt. refused to keep track of those numbers, you would call that nation a DICTATORSHIP! Its police forces would be death squads, and you wouldn't assume for a moment that most of the victims were "mostly criminals who deserved it". 

Let's be real - America is not a democracy. It is a quasi-dictatorship where people's so-called "rights" are not nearly as solid nor guaranteed as they've been indoctrinated to believe their whole lives. The police forces here are ROAMING DEATH SQUADS with govt.-backed authority to murder most citizens - whether on the street or in their homes - and not face any repercussions. You can be killed by police with or without having ever been charged with a crime. And in almost all cases, that pig will get away with it! 

THAT is a dictatorship and American police are death dealers that do the bidding of both their governmental and corporate masters. They do not serve the public trust - that is a LIE you've been indoctrinated to believe. And after they kill you, the only ones who will even bother to document your death are a crowd-funded data base/Facebook page and a foreign news outlet. This is the state of affairs in America... FUCKING PATHETIC! 

*The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act is a crime bill originally written by current vice president Joseph Biden and signed into effect by then president Bill J. Clinton. Clinton's wife Hillary R. Clinton, has already been anointed Empress-In-Chief. In '94 when she was still First Lady, Hillary championed her pederast husband's crime bill - largely by declaring war on Black people. The Crime Act of 1994 has proven to be an unmitigated disaster for People of Color, women, children, and the poor. The results have been: massive incarceration rates, a private prison explosion, three-strikes laws, mandatory-minimums, greatly expanded death penalty, militarized police, etc. etc. etc.    

"They are often the kinds of kids that are called 'SUPER-PREDATORS'. No conscience, no empathy, we can talk about how they ended up that way. But first WE HAVE TO BRING THEM TO HEEL." - Shillary Rodham Clinton, during a 1996 speech touting her husband's horrific '94 crime bill. 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/1/8/1467336/-Hillary-Clinton-Gangs-of-kids-are-super-predators-with-no-conscience-no-empathy