Here you go James. Enjoy!
-Jeremy
“Chicago officer who has shot the most people is a black woman.” Deadlier than the male?
“Each time, she fired at a black male. The targets ranged in age from 17 to 45. One died, one survived with a gunshot to the leg and three others were not hit.”
Actually she doesn’t sound like any Annie Oakley or Lyudmila Mykhailivna Pavlichenko (Soviet Sniper - 309 kills in WWII), she only hit two out of the five perps she shot at. At 40% hit ratio that’s just under the average since the entire force missed their targets completely about 46% percent of the time during the six year period studied. Oh well handguns are hard to shoot accurately and most people suck at it. Especially under stress. Even cops.
Chicago officer who has shot the most people is a black woman.
Excerpt from the Chicago Tribune
Every five days, on average, a Chicago police officer fired a gun at someone.
In 435 shootings over a recent six-year span, officers killed 92 people and wounded 170 others.
While a few of those incidents captured widespread attention, they occurred with such brutal regularity — and with scant information provided by police — that most have escaped public scrutiny.
Now, after months of struggles with Chicago police to get information through the Freedom of Information Act, the Chicago Tribune has compiled an unprecedented database of details of every time police fired a weapon from 2010 through 2015.
Analysis of that data revealed startling patterns about the officers who fired and the people they shot at.
Among the findings:
•At least 2,623 bullets were fired by police in 435 shootings. In 235 of those incidents, officers struck at least one person; in another 200 shootings, officers missed entirely.
•About four out of every five people shot by police were African-American males.
•About half of the officers involved in shootings were African-American or Hispanic.
•The officers who fired weren't rookies but, on average, had almost a decade of experience.
•Of the 520 officers who fired their weapons, more than 60 of them did so in more than one incident.
•The number of shootings by police — hits and misses — declined over the six years, from more than 100 in 2011 to 44 in 2015.
'He put me in that position'
No officer has fired at citizens more during the time period examined by the Tribune than Tracey Williams, an African-American tactical officer with nearly a decade on the job.
Over five years, Williams fired her gun five different times in various neighborhoods throughout the city — from North Lawndale to Fuller Park, the Tribune analysis shows. Each time, she fired at a black male. The targets ranged in age from 17 to 45. One died, one survived with a gunshot to the leg and three others were not hit.
The only investigation to capture public attention involved the Dec. 4, 2010, killing of Ontario Billups in the South Side's Gresham neighborhood.
Billups, 30, was sitting in an idling minivan with two friends in the 8100 block of South Ashland Avenue when Williams and her partner pulled up in an unmarked Chevrolet Tahoe, according to IPRA records.
In a statement she later gave to investigators, Williams said the car looked suspicious so she shined a spotlight into the van and ordered the occupants to show their hands. She was running up to the passenger side of the vehicle with her gun drawn when she said she saw Billups with a "dark object" in his hand.
"He turns," Williams said. "As he's turning towards me quickly his hand is coming out quickly with this dark object. I immediately fire a shot."
Billups was shot once in the chest and died. The dark object turned out to be a bag of marijuana. Even though Billups was unarmed, Williams defended her use of force in her interview with IPRA investigators.
"His actions led to my actions," she said. "He put me in that position."
Williams could not be reached by phone and did not respond to an email seeking comment, and the Police Department declined to make Williams available for an interview.
IPRA, much criticized for investigations that favor police and take too long to complete, cleared Williams in the shooting but concluded there was "no evidence" to confirm whether Williams actually observed a dark object in Billups' hand or that her description of his motions was accurate.
Meanwhile, Williams remained on the street. In one six-month period, from July 2012 to January 2013, the officer fired her gun in three separate incidents but missed. The next year, she wounded an armed 17-year-old boy in the leg. A review of that incident is pending, though most of the records have been sealed by IPRA and the Police Department because the boy was a minor.
In November, the city agreed to pay $500,000 to settle an excessive force lawsuit brought by Billups' family. That brought the total cost to $643,000 for taxpayers to settle four lawsuits related to Williams since 2010, court records show.
The Tribune's analysis found that most of the officers involved in multiple shootings over the six years were involved in two each. Other than Williams, 12 were involved in three or more — including Proano, Sierra and Razo — according to the data.
From the Washington post Jeremy sent this link to a very good article by a reporter named Mark Herman and Sam did as well.
Baltimore cops pressured to police differently, but also begged to clear the corners
Hi James,
One from the compost heap.
Justice Dept. vs. justice
-SS Sam
Thriving in Bad Places
They need to sleep with their weapons, practice, practice, practice, I would if I worked there, damn I forget I'm a white guy, is there traning out in the domain, used when the rabbit shoots back?
Indeed. "Ubung macht der Meister" (practice makes the master), as they say in the old country. It takes about three years of diligent practice/training to become an expert with the handgun. Imagine if most police recruits had never driven a car before they joined the force. That is illustrative of what we are dealing with in regards to police weapons training, so it's a marvel that our police even shoot as well as they do. Most cops are not "gun people", so they typically don't want to spend a lot of the own time practicing with their handgun. But that is what you must be willing to do if you want to become truly proficient at handgun marksmanship, or anything else for that matter. Experienced police trainers like Massad Ayoob have frequently observed that it would no doubt surprise civilians to learn how many policeman would prefer NOT to carry a gun. A Ranger sergeant once remarked to me that he found it astonishing how many people there are in the Army that don’t like guns and knives. I had to agree with him, I had likewise encountered many people with an aversion to weapons over the course of my career in the U.S. Army. Of course, going without a gun like “Andy of Mayberry” only works if you truly are in “Mayberry”. Even the Brits have found it necessary to arm a significant portion of their national police force of late.
"...2,623 bullets were fired by police in 435 shootings. In 235 of those incidents, officers struck at least one person; in another 200 shootings, officers missed entirely...."
Unbelievable.
"..."His actions led to my actions," she said. "He put me in that position."..."
You ride up to someone in an unmarked car and shine a light in their eyes then shoot them? Holy fuck. In an area like this guy was in it could have been anyone. That's just stupid.
"...city agreed to pay $500,000 to settle an excessive force lawsuit brought by Billups' family. That brought the total cost to $643,000 for taxpayers to settle four lawsuits related to Williams since 2010..."
Lot of money.