Iran Press/ America: A Times investigation has found that over the past five years, police officers in the United States have killed more than 400 drivers or passengers who were not wielding a gun or a knife, or under pursuit for a violent crime — a rate of more than one a week.
According to the New York Times, in the roughly 400 deaths, just five officers were convicted. Nearly two dozen cases are still pending. While prosecutors deemed most of the killings justifiable, local governments paid at least $125 million to resolve legal claims in about 40 cases.
In the deaths reviewed by The Times, Black drivers were overrepresented relative to the population.
Going beyond the ‘final frame’
The paper in its report added that criminologists call it officer-created jeopardy when the police put themselves in harm’s way by stepping in front of a moving car or reaching inside a car window.
Many courts do not consider those circumstances, focusing only on the 'final frame' when an officer pulled the trigger at a moment of imminent harm. That standard has given the police broad protection from legal accountability.
Some argue that judges and juries should scrutinize the actions of officers before they opened fire. The Times’s visual investigations team did just that, rewinding video from more than 100 deadly traffic stops and breaking down three cases in minute detail. The footage suggests that dozens of deaths could have been avoided had police officers not put themselves in danger.
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