Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Killed and Killer Cops
02 Sep 2015
🖨️ Print Article

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Cops are crying that their lives are in danger from folks inflamed by “dangerous national rhetoric.” But, “the statistics tell us there has been no rash of attacks on cops.” Indeed, the numbers show that felonious deaths of police in the line of duty “are at historically low levels.” The truth is, the cops are upset that their impunity from punishment is finally in question.

Killed and Killer Cops

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

“The civilized world is aghast at the bloodthirstiness of U.S. police.”

Harris County, Texas, Sheriff Ron Hickman claims that one of his deputies, Darren Goforth, was shot to death “because he wore a uniform.” Goforth was gunned down while filling up his tank at a Houston gas station. Shannon Miles, the 30 year-old Black man charged in the killing, has a history of mental illness. Of course, a Black person doesn’t have to be crazy to want to harm a cop. But, cop-killing in the United States is actually quite rare, when compared to the huge number of civilian lives snuffed out by folks that wear “the uniform.”  If there is some kind of war with the cops, as Sheriff Hickman deceptively infers, then it’s a very one-sided conflict.

We will never know the full historical extent of police mayhem and murder, since U.S. authorities have never compelled local police departments to keep records of who they kill, and why. Withholding information is part of police impunity from punishment – or even criticism – in this country. But, the cops are keen to keep track of their own casualties “in the line of duty” – which, it turns out, are at historically low levels. An FBI study of police fatalities shows that an average of 64 police officers per year were feloniously killed between 1980 and 2014. Only 27 cops were killed in 2013, the lowest death toll for the whole 35-year period. The next year, 2014, cop killings went up, with 51 officers dead. But, that’s still way below the average of 64 a year. This year, the number of felonious police deaths from all causes is on track to be about the same as in 2014. So, the statistics tell us that there has been no rash of attacks on cops. Those who try to portray cops as victims of what Sheriff Hickman calls “dangerous national rhetoric” are simply attempting to silence the real victims of police terror.

“U.S. cops are already by far the most lethally aggressive and demonstrably racist in the developed world.”

Thanks to a process begun by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement’s 2012 “Operation Ghetto Storm” study of extrajudicial police killings of Black people, the civilized world is aghast at the bloodthirstiness of U.S. police. As the Guardian newspaper reported earlier this summer, U.S. police kill more people in days than other countries kill in years. For the first time, the names and pictures of the fallen are posted for planetary observation, so that the rest of the species can know how the U.S. government really feels about human rights. The figures are not yet in on the civilian body count for August, but July was the deadliest month this year for people who found themselves on the other side of police guns, tasers, chokeholds, and batons.

Civilians are also killing each other in large numbers, with homicides up in many cities. The cops want you to believe that’s because officers are being less aggressive in fear of being charged with brutality. That’s insane. First of all, U.S. cops are already by far the most lethally aggressive and demonstrably racist in the developed world, which is why one out of every eight prison inmates on the planet is an African American, and why the U.S. stands alone in police violence against civilians. Secondly, in the Black community, the cops’ job is not to protect the residents. It is to contain, control and terrorize the population. Sheriff Hickman wants to get on with the business of police terror, because that’s all he’s good at.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

 



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20150902_gf_KillerCopsKilled.mp3

More Stories


  •  Sex was Central to Dutch West Indies Anti-Colonial Politics
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Sex was Central to Dutch West Indies Anti-Colonial Politics
    22 Dec 2020
    Sexual issues were loudly debated among anti-colonial activists in the Dutch Caribbean colonies of Curaçao and Aruba, said Chelsea Shields, a history professor at the City Universi
  •  “Colonial Logics” Remained for Black Women in “Liberated” Zimbabwe
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    “Colonial Logics” Remained for Black Women in “Liberated” Zimbabwe
    22 Dec 2020
    Black women “posed a problem” for the Black government that replaced white rule in Zimbabwe, because their bodies were thought to “disturb urban space,” said Rudo Mudiwa, a PhD in
  •  Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power Meets African Liberation
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power Meets African Liberation
    22 Dec 2020
    In the political hotbed that was Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1967, US Black Power advocate Stokely Carmichael, who had not yet changed his name to Kwame Ture, made both friends and enemies among th
  • You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    You Can’t Shame the Shameless Black Misleadership Class
    17 Dec 2020
    The Black misleaders have been busy selling out Black people for half a century, but are still only barely tolerated by the rich man’s Democratic Party and its racist figurehead, Joe Biden.
  • Freedom Rider: Master Biden Speaks
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Master Biden Speaks
    16 Dec 2020
    The civil rights groups’ rather basic requests for voting rights protections and the need for federal intervention to address police brutality were minimized and dismissed by the president-ele
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us