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Ten - Police Homicides: The Terror of “American Exceptionalism”
- Edited by Glenn W. Muschert, Kristen M. Budd, Miami University, Michelle Christian, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Robert Perrucci, Purdue University, Indiana
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- Book:
- Agenda for Social Justice
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 12 March 2021
- Print publication:
- 05 August 2020, pp 97-104
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Summary
The Problem
Police-on-civilian homicides have become a critical social issue in the US in recent years due to newly emerging information on the parameters of the problem and the often egregiousness of the killings. Key to the heightened attention is the increasingly widespread recording and sharing of these gruesome killings via cell-phone cameras, social media, and police cameras. Particularly disturbing is the virtual impunity from sanctions accorded nearly all such shooters, along with the startling frequency of the shootings in the US, as compared with other advanced societies.
Over 1,000 persons have been killed by police annually in the US in recent years, with nearly all shot to death, and the remainder tasered, beaten, or otherwise slain. In the first 24 days of 2015, 59 persons were killed by police in the US, whereas only 55 persons were correspondingly slain in the UK in the last 24 years. Similar imbalances exist compared with other advanced nations (e.g., Germany, Japan, Canada, France, and Denmark) in both absolute and relative numbers. While a proportion of the US shootings may have been justified (e.g., suspects pointed weapons or shot at police), most involved lesser provocations and the vast majority could have been avoided if the developing de-escalation techniques had been employed.
Although more Whites than Blacks are slain by police, the role of racism in the killings of many Blacks is evident from their substantially disproportionate numbers, and from the comparatively trivial nature of their provocations. Overall, Blacks are between two and three times as likely to be killed than Whites. Latinos/Native Americans are also disproportionately slain, though at lower rates than Blacks. But, the problem goes well beyond racism. Non-Hispanic Whites in the US are still 26 times as likely to be killed by police than citizens in Germany of any race or racial background. The greater probability of Whites getting shot in the US is consistent with data on police shootings in other advanced nations – civilians are far more likely to be shot in the US.
one - The Worldwide War on Drugs: Advancing Reforms, Circumventing Resistance
- Edited by Glenn W. Muschert, Khalifa University, Kristen M. Budd, University of Miami, Michelle Christian, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Brian V. Klocke, Jon Shefner, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Robert Perrucci, Purdue University, Indiana
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- Book:
- Global Agenda for Social Justice
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 14 April 2023
- Print publication:
- 15 August 2018, pp 3-10
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Summary
The Problem
The Worldwide War on Drugs has long been shown to be an absolute disaster. Increasingly, countries around the world are clamoring for an end to the deadly, costly, and unwinnable policy calamity. Numerous international blue ribbon committees have come out strongly on the need to dismantle the policies, and major protests assailing the drug war have been held in scores of cities throughout the world. The array of harms wreaked by the criticized policies is mind-numbing. These include human rights violations, seizures and/or destruction of properties, and thousands of deaths per annum. Other drug war ills include the spread of diseases (especially HIV), unparalleled enrichment of violent organized criminal enterprises, discriminatory enforcement, wholesale displacement of villages, mass incarceration, corruption on a vast scale, and the wasting of billions of dollars in anti-drug expenditures.
Among the drug war’s dysfunctions are some 160,000 dead in Mexico’s drug war between the cartels and the government, within a mere decade (2006–2014). An additional 25,000 have disappeared and a whopping 280,000 have been displaced, typically never to return. Some 13,000 are estimated to have been killed in the Philippines since 2016 (mainly extralegal execution, government supported vigilantism, etc.), though officially, fewer than 4,000 thereby perished. In Malaysia, most drug executions only involve marijuana or hashish, both among the least harmful of all drugs. In Iran, where many are executed, 75% of all executions of recent years have involved drug offenses. State executions for drug crimes overall, sometimes for mere possession, have exceeded 1,000 deaths in some years, excluding China. China’s execution numbers are state secrets, but are suspected to exceed all other nations’ figures. Almost all of these are considered gross violations of human rights by the UN, despite the organization’s pro-war rhetoric.
The drug war has also bred widespread corruption internationally. For instance, the former Wachovia bank was sanctioned for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money, while British banking behemoth HSBC admitted to laundering billions. More recently (2017) Citibank was fined nearly $100 million for such crimes, while earlier, American Express was similarly sanctioned. Notably, no one was jailed. In one of the most egregious instances of corruption, male DEA agents were discovered utilizing sex workers provided by the cartels.