Who Inflicts the Most Gun Violence in America? The U.S. Government and Its Police Forces

by | Aug 16, 2019 | Headline News | 52 comments

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    This article was originally published by John W. Whitehead at The Rutherford Institute.

    “It is often the case that police shootings, incidents where law enforcement officers pull the trigger on civilians, are left out of the conversation on gun violence. But a police officer shooting a civilian counts as gun violence. Every time an officer uses a gun against an innocent or an unarmed person contributes to the culture of gun violence in this country.”—Journalist Celisa Calacal

    Yes, gun violence is a problem in America, although violent crime generally remains at an all-time low.

    Yes, mass shootings are a problem in America, although while they are getting deadlier, they are not getting more frequent.

    Yes, mentally ill individuals embarking on mass shooting sprees are a problem in America.

    However, tighter gun control laws and so-called “intelligent” background checks fail to protect the public from the most egregious perpetrator of gun violence in America: the U.S. government.

    Consider that five years after police shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old man in Ferguson, Missouri, there has been no relief from the government’s gun violence.

    Here’s what we’ve learned about the government’s gun violence since Ferguson, according to The Washington Post: If you’re a black American, you’ve got a greater chance of being shot by police. If you’re an unarmed black man, you’re four times more likely to be killed by police than an unarmed white man. Most people killed by police are young men. Since 2015, police have shot and killed an average of 3 people per day. More than 2,500 police departments have shot and killed at least one person since 2015. And while the vast majority of people shot and killed by police are armed, their weapons ranged from guns to knives to toy guns.

    Clearly, the U.S. government is not making America any safer.

    Indeed, the government’s gun violence—inflicted on unarmed individuals by battlefield-trained SWAT teams, militarized police, and bureaucratic government agents trained to shoot first and ask questions later—poses a greater threat to the safety and security of the nation than any mass shooter.

    According to journalist Matt Agorist, “mass shootings … have claimed the lives of 339 people since 2015… [D]uring this same time frame, police in America have claimed the lives of 4,355 citizens.

    That’s 1200% more people killed by police than mass shooters since 2015.

    For example, in Texas, a police officer sent to do a welfare check on a 30-year-old woman seen lying on the grass near a shopping center, took aim at the woman’s dog as it ran towards him barking, fired multiple times, and killed the woman instead.

    In Chicago, a SWAT team—wearing “army fatigues with black cloth covering their faces and wearing goggles,” armed with automatic rifles, and throwing flash-bang grenades—crashed through the doors of a suburban home and proceeded to storm into bedrooms, holding the children of the household at gunpoint. One child, 13-year-old Amir, was “accidentally” shot in the knee by police while sitting on his bed.

    In St. Louis, Missouri, a SWAT team on a mission to deliver an administrative warrant carried out a no-knock raid that ended with police kicking in the homeowner’s front door, and shooting and killing her dog—all over an unpaid gas bill. Taxpayers will have to find $750,000 to settle the lawsuit arising over the cops’ overzealous tactics.

    In South Carolina, a 62-year-old homeowner was shot four times through his front door by police who were investigating a medical-assist alarm call that originated from a cell phone inside the home. Dick Tench, believing his house was being broken into, was standing in the foyer of his home armed with a handgun when police, peering through the front door, fired several shots through the door, hitting Tench in the pelvis and the aortic artery. Tench survived, but the bullet lodged in his pelvis will stay there for life.

    In Kansas, a SWAT team, attempting to carry out a routine search warrant (the suspect had already been arrested), showed up at a residence around dinnertime, dressed in tactical gear with weapons drawn, and hurled a flash-bang grenade into the house past the 68-year-old woman who was in the process of opening the door to them and in the general direction of a 2-year-old child.

    These are just a few recent examples among hundreds this year alone.

    Curiously enough, in the midst of the finger-pointing over the latest round of mass shootings, Americans have been so focused on debating who or what is responsible for gun violence—the guns, the gun owners, the Second Amendment, the politicians, or our violent culture—that they have overlooked the fact that the systemic violence being perpetrated by agents of the government has done more collective harm to the American people and their liberties than any single act of terror or mass shooting.

    Violence has become our government’s calling card, starting at the top and trickling down, from the more than 80,000 SWAT team raids carried out every year on unsuspecting Americans by heavily armed, black-garbed commandos and the increasingly rapid militarization of local police forces across the country to the drone killings used to target insurgents.

    The government even exports violence worldwide, with one of this country’s most profitable exports being weapons. Indeed, the United States, the world’s largest exporter of arms, has been selling violence to the world for too long now. Controlling more than 50 percent of the global weaponry market, the U.S. has sold or donated weapons to at least 96 countries in the past five years, including the Middle East. The U.S. also provides countries such as Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Iraq with grants and loans through the Foreign Military Financing program to purchase military weapons.

    At the same time that the U.S. is equipping nearly half the world with deadly weapons, profiting to the tune of $36.2 billion, its leaders have also been lecturing American citizens on the dangers of gun violence and working to enact measures that would make it more difficult for Americans to acquire certain weapons.

    Talk about an absurd double standard.

    If we’re truly going to get serious about gun violence, why not start by scaling back the American police state’s weapons of war?

    I’ll tell you why: because the government has no intention of scaling back on its weapons.

    In fact, all the while gun critics continue to clamor for bans on military-style assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and armor-piercing bullets, the U.S. military is passing them out to domestic police forces.

    Under the auspices of a military “recycling” program, which allows local police agencies to acquire military-grade weaponry and equipment, more than $4.2 billion worth of equipment has been transferred from the Defense Department to domestic police agencies since 1990. Included among these “gifts” are tank-like, 20-ton Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, tactical gear, and assault rifles.

    There are now reportedly more bureaucratic (non-military) government agents armed with high-tech, deadly weapons than U.S. Marines.

    While Americans have to jump through an increasing number of hoops in order to own a gun, the government is arming its own civilian employees to the hilt with guns, ammunition and military-style equipment, authorizing them to make arrests, and training them in military tactics.

    Among the agencies being supplied with night-vision equipment, body armor, hollow-point bullets, shotguns, drones, assault rifles and LP gas cannons are the Smithsonian, U.S. Mint, Health and Human Services, IRS, FDA, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Education Department, Energy Department, Bureau of Engraving and Printing and an assortment of public universities.

    Seriously, why do IRS agents need AR-15 rifles?

    For that matter, why do police need armored personnel carriers with gun ports, compact submachine guns with 30-round magazines, precision battlefield sniper rifles, and military-grade assault-style rifles and carbines?

    Short answer: they don’t.

    In the hands of government agents, whether they are members of the military, law enforcement or some other government agency, these weapons have become routine parts of America’s day-to-day life, a byproduct of the rapid militarization of law enforcement over the past several decades.

    Over the course of 30 years, police officers in jack boots holding assault rifles have become fairly common in small-town communities across the country. As investigative journalists, Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz reveal, “Many police, including beat cops, now routinely carry assault rifles. Combined with body armor and other apparel, many officers look more and more like combat troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

    Does this sound like a country under martial law?

    You want to talk about gun violence? While it still technically remains legal for the average citizen to own a firearm in America, possessing one can now get you pulled oversearchedarrested, subjected to all manner of surveillancetreated as a suspect without ever having committed a crime, shot at and killed by police.

    You don’t even have to have a gun or a look-alike gun, such as a BB gun, in your possession to be singled out and killed by police.

    There are countless incidents that happen every day in which Americans are shot, stripped, searched, choked, beaten and tasered by police for little more than daring to frown, smile, question, or challenge an order.

    Growing numbers of unarmed people are being shot and killed for just standing a certain way, or moving a certain way, or holding something—anything—that police could misinterpret to be a gun, or igniting some trigger-centric fear in a police officer’s mind that has nothing to do with an actual threat to their safety.

    With alarming regularity, unarmed men, women, children and even pets are being gunned down by twitchy, hyper-sensitive, easily-spooked police officers who shoot first and ask questions later, and all the government does is shrug, and promise to do better, all the while the cops are granted qualified immunity.

    Killed for standing in a “shooting stance.” In California, police opened fire on and killed a mentally challenged—unarmed—black man within minutes of arriving on the scene, allegedly because he removed a vape smoking device from his pocket and took a “shooting stance.”

    Killed for holding a cell phone. Police in Arizona shot a man who was running away from U.S. Marshals after he refused to drop an object that turned out to be a cellphone. Similarly, police in Sacramento fired 20 shots at an unarmed, 22-year-old black man who was standing in his grandparents’ backyard after mistaking his cellphone for a gun.

    Killed for carrying a baseball bat. Responding to a domestic disturbance call, Chicago police shot and killed 19-year-old college student Quintonio LeGrier who had reportedly been experiencing mental health problems and was carrying a baseball bat around the apartment where he and his father lived.

    Killed for opening the front door. Bettie Jones, who lived on the floor below LeGrier, was also fatally shot—this time, accidentally—when she attempted to open the front door for police.

    Killed for running towards police with a metal spoon. In Alabama, police shot and killed a 50-year-old man who reportedly charged a police officer while holding “a large metal spoon in a threatening manner.”

    Killed for running while holding a tree branch. Georgia police shot and killed a 47-year-old man wearing only shorts and tennis shoes who, when first encountered, was sitting in the woods against a tree, only to start running towards police holding a stick in an “aggressive manner.

    Killed for crawling around naked. Atlanta police shot and killed an unarmed man who was reported to have been “acting deranged, knocking on doors, crawling around on the ground naked.” Police fired two shots at the man after he reportedly started running towards them.

    Killed for wearing dark pants and a basketball jersey. Donnell Thompson, a mentally disabled 27-year-old described as gentle and shy, was shot and killed after police—searching for a carjacking suspect reportedly wearing similar clothing—encountered him lying motionless in a neighborhood yard. Police “only” opened fire with an M4 rifle after Thompson first failed to respond to their flash-bang grenades and then started running after being hit by foam bullets.

    Killed for driving while deaf. In North Carolina, a state trooper shot and killed 29-year-old Daniel K. Harris—who was deaf—after Harris initially failed to pull over during a traffic stop.

    Killed for being homeless. Los Angeles police shot an unarmed homeless man after he failed to stop riding his bicycle and then proceeded to run from police.

    Killed for brandishing a shoehorn. John Wrana, a 95-year-old World War II veteran, lived in an assisted living center, used a walker to get around, and was shot and killed by police who mistook the shoehorn in his hand for a 2-foot-long machete and fired multiple beanbag rounds from a shotgun at close range.

    Killed for having your car break down on the road. Terence Crutcher, unarmed and black, was shot and killed by Oklahoma police after his car broke down on the side of the road. Crutcher was shot in the back while walking towards his car with his hands up.

    Killed for holding a garden hose. California police were ordered to pay $6.5 million after they opened fire on a man holding a garden hose, believing it to be a gun. Douglas Zerby was shot 12 times and pronounced dead on the scene.

    Killed for calling 911. Justine Damond, a 40-year-old yoga instructor, was shot and killed by Minneapolis police, allegedly because they were startled by a loud noise in the vicinity just as she approached their patrol car. Damond, clad in pajamas, had called 911 to report a possible assault in her neighborhood.

    Killed for looking for a parking spot. Richard Ferretti, a 52-year-old chef, was shot and killed by Philadelphia police who had been alerted to investigate a purple Dodge Caravan that was driving “suspiciously” through the neighborhood.

    Shot seven times for peeing outdoors. Eighteen-year-old Keivon Young was shot seven times by police from behind while urinating outdoors. Young was just zipping up his pants when he heard a commotion behind him and then found himself struck by a hail of bullets from two undercover cops. Allegedly officers mistook Young—5’4,” 135 lbs., and guilty of nothing more than taking a leak outdoors—for a 6’ tall, 200 lb. murder suspect whom they later apprehended. Young was charged with felony resisting arrest and two counts of assaulting a peace officer.

    This is what passes for policing in America today, folks, and it’s only getting worse.

    In every one of these scenarios, police could have resorted to less lethal tactics.

    They could have acted with reason and calculation instead of reacting with a killer instinct.

    They could have attempted to de-escalate and defuse whatever perceived “threat” caused them to fear for their lives enough to react with lethal force.

    That police instead chose to fatally resolve these encounters by using their guns on fellow citizens speaks volumes about what is wrong with policing in America today, where police officers are being dressed in the trappings of war, drilled in the deadly art of combat, and trained to look upon “every individual they interact with as an armed threat and every situation as a deadly force encounter in the making.”

    Remember, to a hammer, all the world looks like a nail.

    Yet as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, “we the people” are not just getting hammered.

    We’re getting killed, execution-style.

    Violence begets violence: until we start addressing the U.S. government’s part in creating, cultivating and abetting a culture of violence, we will continue to be a nation plagued by violence in our homes, in our schools, on our streets and in our affairs of state, both foreign and domestic.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the very definition of democide.  Governments and the agents that carry out their orders are the heavyweight champions of murder.

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      52 Comments

      1. For Heavens sakes, get the facts straight. “Five years after the police shot & killed an unarmed man…” The 18 year old giant thug in Ferguson attacked a police officer in his vehicle. The subsequent struggle for the Officer’s firearm resulted in the death of the aggressive criminal. Quit believing reports on MSLSD.

        Sure some officers are not capable of the rigors of the job, but the vast majority are incredible citizens doing an impossible job. Society hires police officers to deal with the nut cases and criminals hiding among us, shouldn’t they have ample force to defend themselves & arrest those that threaten lives?

        • True, but Garner was selling loose cigarettes.

          I can’t explain why there should be trade deals for foreigners to operate a corner store, while WASP’s go without, or where all the people from 100yrs prior went, for Brown’s ilk to have a place.

          search engine -> images -> ferguson st louis 1950’s
          (Then back 10yrs, at a time, to undo the Michael Brown-ing of America.)

          Brown strong-armed one of the foreign convenience store owners, to steal some more of that tobacco.

          One nice leaf is the size of a man’s torso, and one seed pod could plant an acre at a cost of less than $2, where it not for the building project or (fill-in-the-blank) ghetto business, occupying that dirt.

          • Fergusons —
            america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/multimedia/photo-gallery/2015/8/photos-protest-over-killing-of-michael-brown-turns-violent/_jcr_content/slideShowImages/slide8/image.adapt.960.high.ferguson_081015_09a.jpg
            ^^^ Oops, wrong pic.

            images.findagrave.com/photos250/photos/2009/329/9620195_125927439394.jpg

            Maybe, I can learn from the mistakes of others, so as not to repeat them. Someday, we’ll figure out what went wrong, here. Someday. And, when you’re good and finished, I hope a town can be named after me.

      2. I love monday morning QB’s

        • “I love monday morning QB’s”

          The Internet created MILLIONS of “armchair quarterbacks” and “keyboard commando.

        • I love Monday mornings at the beach

      3. Even the language has been turned to the service of the Militarization of the Police.

        We, the public, are Citizens (mostly) and so are the Police.

        We are NOT Civilians. That is a distinction between members of the Military forces and the public at large.

        <bb

      4. You want some substantial numbers of deaths? The shills talk about the number killed, and we have to ban guns to save lives; “if only one life is saved, etc.” (aren’t we virtuous?”. How about medical malpractice, drug (legal) errors, etc. That’s over 100,000, and does not include terminally ill.

      5. I feel that we are all traumatized, paranoid and untrusting because of what we see, and hear like fake news or unwritten truths from people who want to stir up the pot, and only want to have chaos because there lives are S–T to begin with.

        To make us want to do WAR GAMES on each other.

        We ALL need to step back, and really look at things, and get intouch with our AUTHENTIC SELVES…………

      6. Oklahoma Police got bored shooting peoples pets and the unarmed citizens. So now they have taken to shooting children. Go read the story. The Police opened fire knowing children in vehicle. Several children Police shot.

        Police are criminal Psychopaths. Even most criminal Bank robbers would NOT shoot children intentionally.

        In Dallas the Police Laughed and joked as they suffocated and killed a man in handcuffs, on the gound.
        – Murdered a unarmed woman while trying to shoot a small dog.
        – And went into a unarmed man’s apartment, murdered him. Then claimed, “oops wrong apt.”

        And the mass media is saying, “support police.”
        Seems like many of them need mental health check, or need to be in Prison. Is that support?

        No. Never ever call Police, they will kill the person you call about who needs help. I would say call Fire dept. They seem to have good men/women that help not murder.

      7. “Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”
        — attributed to Adams

        We have been replaced by every other.

        In the tradition against standing armies, in order to prevent more redcoats, it seems that civilians would have played the role of first responder.

        I saw, at the 4th of July, orange “bollard posts” (similar to cones) and tow-away notices were removed from a temporary firelane, so people could park closest to the launchpad. I was acquainted with the culprit — a reformed speed whore (now uses shampoo), who did not see me watching, in the dark. She said, if everyone disobeys, noone can be prosecuted. (One year, a fire burned on the same block as my house, requiring the use of the firelane. Also, you are still being tested for AIDS. Are there never consequences?)

        Some kind of fire chief (I mean, civil servant) was cursing heartily at (rap) civilians, flying a small drone. (Who used to live there? How did these people get it?)

        They don’t want to put out their own housefires, set bones, or stop bleeding, drink water or provide trash service, Swiss Family Robinson style, nor to be conscripted into an arbitrary period of community service, like in other Communist countries, where 2 yrs is most typical.

        We resilient dinosaurs feel that you have integrated our replacements and feed them at gunpoint and believe that you deserve eachother. The dictatorship of the proletariat vs. the fascism of crony capital, each assuming ownership over the other.

        Usually sold in an establishment, geared toward statist police and military, which defeats the intended purpose, independents ask where guns, ammo, parts, and pieces went. Holder’s ilk asks where it all comes from. I hope that you are evenly matched and keep eachother too preoccupied to interfere with private enterprise.

        As per dictionary.com a miquetoast is —
        “a very timid, unassertive, spineless person, especially one who is easily dominated or intimidated: a milquetoast who’s afraid to ask for a raise.” (Raided at gunpoint, if DIY, but laudable in the form of foodstamp.)

        Don’t you have some fake exercise, to attend?

      8. One other thing a lot of us swore a oath to defend this Country, and the Constitution against Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

        My repeated question isssss

        WHO IS THE ENEMY ????

      9. Rather than responding to citizens complaints this hyper militarized police state would rather eliminate the opposition murder style. A video exists from the recent shootings in Philadelphia with two police officers quickly pouring fake blood on their bodies. These attacks against innocent people are just getting started in reality.

      10. Normally, I love the articles written by John Whitehead but this is one article I have to disagree with. The most gun violence in the US is perpetrated by black males aka gangbangers, especially in Chicago where private gun ownership is outlawed. Shootings were increasing in Memphis for the past 2 years before I left. And most of their victims are other black people. Those DOJ statistics really speak volumes.

        • TDR, that’s the solution to the ‘black problem’. You live away from them. That’s why God made big yellow moving trucks. Like Jefferson would say, America’s cities have become Europe.

          Lincoln had the best solution. He wanted all Negros to be deported out of the country, preferably to Africa but didn’t want to spend the money. Now we need to leave them alone and let them have their reservations.

          Liberty’s enemy is not blacks, it is the central government. We need to abandon it.

          • How many people think that giving up their home to allow the unwanteds to have their land is a good idea?

            Maybe its the only answer. But that is not fighting the problem. That’s running from the problem.

            AND, they win.

          • Manifest Destiny once extended into the Caribbean, Golden Circle of agricultural production, where Lincoln had arranged 16-tons / factory store type-of working arrangements for the freemen, who he marooned, saying they were selfish, to expect to be treated as whites, and would be more comfortable in the jungle climate than in cold.

            I learned about business and legal type-of reasoning, because I saw a story about a white immigrant, who finds himself in a mansion. (Sounded like a good idea, at the time!)

            Grants were issued to too-big-to-fails, with production quotas. It was regarded in much the same was as our job corps, crisis housing, and private prisons, except yankees wanted the inmates to be treated like property of the state. Even those with proof of employment could be conscripted into manual labor projects, just prior to the civil rights era.

            Plantation owners reported that they could sleep with their windows open, and, fwiw, we have a sugar-coated, sanitized, discreet version of all their same social institutions, from back then.

            A non-profit would buy the housing bloc or farmstead, using donations from the fed grant dept or from liberal interest groups, with the understanding that the inmates are improving themselves through makework — even under inmate leadership. (Except for the charitable, white, financial benefactor.)

            • Thank you, so much, Dixiecrats. I mean, Democrats. (Democrats.)

              You have thought of everything.

        • Ditto Dep Renegade. 17% of the US Population = which are “Blacks” are convicted for 75% of total crimes in the US. DOJ /FBI stats verified. How about dat boo!!!

          Don’t Ban Guns, Ban Blacks instead. America could reduce its crime rate by 75%. What ya waiting for. Clean house Merica!!

      11. Ever wonder why Democrat States Attorneys and District Attorneys always release violent black criminals back into society with little or no punishment? It’s a perverted form of reparations. They actually have a name for it. Restorative Justice. Look that up.

        • Radical Republicans were to blame for Reconstruction, probably, the first iteration of affirmative action, in this country.

          • Clowny, Exactly right. But what does that have to do with turning violent criminals loose today? I’ll answer for you. Absolutely nothing.

            • “But what does that have to do with turning violent criminals loose today? ”

              I see restorative justice and affirmative action as state enforced reversals of the natural order.

      12. In all fairness the greater percentage of people shot by police needed to be shot. What is unfortunate is when it’s not deserved, even in cases that, “Ray Charles can see”, the blue brothers stand behind their brethren 100%.

      13. When I was a kid, I considered becoming a cop. Even took a high school class in Police science, a sort of an ROTC for cops.
        From what I saw and learned I decided not to become a cop.
        They do things I strongly disagreed with and I didn’t like the way they protect their bad apples. I have personally seen police brutality on white people.
        My BIL is retired Marine Gunny Sarge. Iraq Vet. He became a city cop for a short time. He quit and became a security cop for a Federal building. He quit because he did not like the city cops he had to work with.
        Cops are a necessary evil. Nobody in their right mind wants to get in the middle of a Domestic violence event. Drunk drivers need to be stopped. But most everything else cops do is pure and simple revenue generation, tyranny, and just cleaning up societies messes.
        They shoot your dog if it barks at them, they shoot you if they even think there is the least bit of a threat. Job #1 is their personal safety, not yours. I’m glad our modern cops were not
        on the beaches of Normandy. We would have lost.
        We give them Glocks which allows even the most simpleton to be a fairly accurate shooter, if they can spray enough rounds down range.
        We dumbed down the requirements in order to allow women and minorities to get jobs they could not have had earned 60 years ago.
        The old ” Ask, Tell, Force” has been replaced by “Ask, Shoot”.
        I don’t like cops. I don’t talk to them. I do everything I can to under pay them( as a taxpayer). I won’t call one for help. I don’t need or want their “help”. Shoot, Shovel, and Shutup.
        Aloha.

        • r said, “They do things I strongly disagreed with and I didn’t like the way they protect their bad apples. I have personally seen police brutality on white people.”

          If you pass this same info out, in the form of a flyer, in front of the court house, praetors will do a number on you, too — in front of God and everyone. Willfully-ignorant civilians will typically just throw it away, without looking at what is taught in the taxpayer-supported, formal course and in the public record.

          If you accept jury duty, they hand you a mic, and ask your biases, in front of 100 or more people, who are not allowed to leave the room or plug their ears.

      14. Welcome to the post 9/11 Warfare State, Torture State, Police State, Prison State, Security State, and Surveillance State.

        You say that you’re not black, or homeless, or poor? Be patient, the jack-booted thugs will get to you.

      15. The Police is the law enforcement arm of the government. If you think the government is corrupt, it takes blinders to make the argument it’s police force isn’t. All people are evil. This evil usually manifest its self with an increase in power.
        As local governments increase throughout the country, most will start to see this. By then, it’ll be too late. In NYC, police officers are revenue generators. They’ll give you a ticket just because. It’s your word versus theirs. Good luck convincing the judge.

      16. Wow. This crap sounds like it was written by Black Lives Matter.

        Michael Brown beat up and robbed a store owner according to witnesses. When confronted by the police, he fought for the officers gun and was shot according to witnesses. Unless you have better information than the witnesses (all black, btw) then we can rest assured justice was done. I have no quarter for thieves.

      17. nypd cops are killing themselves. cops are urban soldiers loyal to city officials. they are trained to kill. now add ptsd and its scary what the cops are capable of. what i want to know who polices the police. no one thats right they are an army. they come out in their black tactical gear looking like a military squad. they have mraps and armored humvees. they are not barney fife with a revolver. dont understand why people arent protesting the militarization of the police. if they ban the so called assault weapons you can expect the full police state to take over. they arent giving up their assault weapons.

      18. Politicians FUND the Police. Politicians FAULT.
        The Police violence against Americans is ALLOWED and ENCOURAGED by Politicians. There is NO accountability / NO consequences for psychopath, trigger happy Police that MURDER innocent unarmed Americans.

        There will likely be a pivot point near future event where the Police murder one too many unarmed person, or murder a well known high status individual. On that day all hell will break loose. When it does, get to your BOL or just keep your ass at home on self imposed lockdown. Stay home.

        Do you remember the LA riot, when the truck driver Reginal Denny was dragged out of his truck and riots, burning, looting, occured? My team defended a Marine buddies parents market against the burning, looting, pissed off hordes. We secured the building and a few lucky adjacent neighbors property. Everyone else nearby in the area were burned out/destroyed by rioters. POLICE did NOTHING. They actually drove by the rioters at high rate of speed. That is Police “protection” you can expect in shtf.

        Police are only good at shooting unarmed people, family pets, children, hostages, and only when there are 10 police and one unarmed victim that they have targeted for death. “Targeted for death for a burned out tail light.”

        I was tortured, abused, witnessed the jailors murdering several prisoners. What was the high crime? Minor traffic violation. I’m not kidding. Once in custody Jailers murder people. Harvest thier assets. Harvest the prisoners vital organs for sale on the black market.

        My prior comments banned-
        First they take your free speech
        Then they ban groups meeting up that don’t go along with a false narrative.
        Then they take your guns on a false flag pretext.
        Then they round up the unarmed Americans and GENOCIDE.

        Former FBI just stated on msnbc that Trump supporters are “terrorist”. Story is at PrisonPlanet.

        Texas governor has stated Fusion centers targeting “white nationalist”. The same governor will not secure Texas border. Drug cartels are firing across border at US Border Patrol. ICE facility has been shot at by nutjobs. The drug cartels and foriegn Anti Americans are allowed in Texas. Did governor go after the nutjobs or drug cartels? NO.

        But going after Texans that demand Border Security. Native Texans are evil and need to be “watched”. This is your government in 1984/2019. Nuts.

        No awake sheep allowed.
        comments like this banned

      19. I strongly recommend those who are pro 2nd Amendment, or for that matter pro-Constitution, and are conservative, to leave states like NJ, NY, MASS, CONN, RI, MD, CAL, ORE, ILL, MINN, HI, and WASH DC. These areas politically and philosophically, are largely becoming collectivistic, anti-personal freedoms, anti-Constitution, anti-traditional American culture, pro – heavy-handed gov’t, and socialist.
        One other thing they all have in common is that generally those areas where gun control is tightest and strictest has the highest crime rates, and those areas where gun control is the most lax has the lowest crime rates. The libs cannot square this fact.
        Since those who are pro-personal freedoms are in the minority in these mentioned areas, they cannot cast enough votes to influence elections to change things. For example, in ILL, the liberal population of Chicago and the surrounding northern liberal cities outnumber the conservative areas farther south. They also absorb vast sums of tax money from other parts of the state. My recommendation therefore is to VOTE WITH YOUR FEET. Leave, go to adjoining states where there is more freedom and opportunity. All you are doing now is paying taxes to support their regimes, they viscerally despise you and your kind anyway, and work against you. The lib shitbags running those states and their cities only want your money and your silence. Where I’m from they are considered trash.
        Furthermore, those of us who do not live in these states should never go there. Not to visit, not spend money there, not even only to pass through if it can be avoided.

      20. Typical bullshit from this Socialist-Commy, anti-civilization, basement dweller.

        More people die from the American diet. More people died via Obortions. More people died from war. More people died crossing the fucking street.

        There is a solution, execute all criminals that commit any crime where any kind of weapon is used. Scum kills someone during a crime, scum “gets it.” A great society wouldn’t have any criminals walking among it, nor any dead beat parasitic unemployable shitholer socialist commies. No second chances for scum.

        I bet the author would be the same asshole that always appears on TV, pissing and moaning after their car gets stolen and demands more police protection in his neighborhood. Yet this same asshole demands anarchy, you know, take everything away from the top 50% —– those that produce —– in order that the bottom 50%, the socialist-commy unemployable shitholers can get 1% more, and the entire population is fucked like Venezuela.

        • Who would be the person formally in charge of forcible wealth redistribution, say, in the form of a seizure or eviction.

          And, who is formally in charge of protecting the liberal interests from the wrath of WASP, masculinist conservatives.

      21. The very first example given is of Mike Brown, who attacked the cop, tried to take his gun away while he was sitting in his car, yet somehow, the author’s brainwashing doesn’t allow him to recognize the truth of that situation.

        I would have shot Brown, too.

        Sorry, when your first example is glaringly politically motivated and based upon a bald faced lie, I stop reading.

      22. My wife recently broke her leg near her left hip. So in the post surgical life I push her around a lot in a wheelchair and she has a tendency to get her hands on the wheels when she shouldn’t.

        The stock phrase that I yell (:-) at her is

        “Hands Up, Don’t shoot !”

        Mike Brown (wherever you are) , I hope you see the dark humor in that.

        Your lying buddy started all this after you got shot. Cops ARE trigger happy these days, but this case seemed righteous from the jump.

        Mr. Whitehead – so sad you are repeating propaganda – your statement (about the Brown shooting) is factual, but is a lie by omission.

        <bb

      23. Author is ignoring the events that led up to the end result in order to fit his narrative.

        Everything has a beginning,middle,and end.

        Author only see’s what he wants and ignores everything else.

      24. Bull Shit!!!!!!
        When a thug attacks you call a thug next time to get your problem taken care of. Don’t bother calling me. or any of my Brothers and Sisters in Blue!!! No you won’t do it because all you can do is biotch, and complain.

        When an other nation attacks you. You, you dumb shit stand and fight. Leave my family out of it. No you won’t do this because you don’t have the balls!!!!

        If I pissed off some folks here TFB. I tired of the maroons that have NEVER had a tenth of a second to make a life changing event happen.

        WE LIVE IN THE GREASTEST NATION ON EARTH, BECASUE OF OUR MILITARY AND POLICE!!!!!!

        Is there some bad apples? Oh Hell yes. One hell of a lot less than you find in any other profession. Shit Doctors kill more people that Cops do every year, and I’m willing to bet more than our GREAT Military.

        Stop the shit we need LESS gun bans and more personal responsibility. When a turd shoots up a place and he is captured two week and he hangs in the city square. This just might stop people from Biotching.

        Now about SWAT wearing military type clothing. Did you ever think that the type of clothing they wear has been test and found to be the best to use. We wear stuff to cover our face to protect it, not to hide it.

        RANT OVER!!!!!
        Sgt.

        • If I deal with the perp, spontaneously, quickly, and efficiently, the store owner will generally tear any display off the wall, force anything not nailed down into my arms, and get me out of the area, before police arrive, as though I am equally a criminal.

          Coordinated good Samaritans, as well as formal businesses, are libeled by primary aggressor laws and by civil rights that can’t exist in nature. “When another nation attacks you”, they get a social promotion. Normies believe that you strongly favor liberal interests, so would sooner pay taxes to a protection racket.

          As best I can tell, a racket could appear, on accident, out of nowhere, because I had intended no such thing. Oops, I did it again.

          Sit, crosslegged, on a lawn, and pull weeds, if you want a stakeout. Gentrify something, on the wrong side of the tracks, dressed as a daylaborer. Fly a kite. Walk a gentle breed of dog. It’s right under your nose. Use a new hire or gypsy, not on his regular beat, because I recognize them, right away.

          • “Did you ever think that the type of clothing they wear has been test and found to be the best to use.”

            I think, it was made by the lowest bidder or by a no-bidder, not for specifications.

            For the practical minded —
            mountaineering, reenactment, and motorcycle clothing. Beware of fake ranch stores, where rhinestone cowboys wear faggy, tight pants made in Chyna.

            • The police are needed in society. They have a tough job (I wouldn’t want it). I can imagine it gets to you after a while. Since humanity is an irresponsible, criminal, greedy POS we will always need them. Eliminate life in prison and replace it with death sentence! All they do is sentence the taxpayers to life of paying for these pukes!

              • I have about killed myself, outdoors, can only say I am here, typing this, by a flip of the coin.

                I have complete respect for running water, couches, and all the other trappings of civilization.

                Don’t do the things I have done. I think, a usually-sedentary person will live longer, without very much daylight.

                I am warning the Monday morning QB’s, against anarchy, unless you want to do everything on your own. I mean, at the level of lightswitch and toilet paper.

                All that being said, though, who is protecting the shitlibs, since the 50’s, and do you want to know how my school experience went. These people were given city jobs. I can look the same ones, in the eye. It’s not just a spurious theory of mine. For every reverse-prejudice, social appointment, someone is proactively covering his ass from a competitive person.

                • Across the street, nice person raising koi is subdivided, replaced by tweakers with busy arms and black gang presence, always screaming instead of talking, breaking things, and getting kicked out, every day. A schizoeffective person finds money to drink all day or runs in traffic.

                  Next door neighbor who restored classic trucks is replaced by admittedly illegal family with neighborhood pitbull, that charges joggers. Fence is readily closeable, when they are served papers, once a week.

                  Next door to that, nut trees and English flower gardens are removed, to reflect ethnic cleansing. Get replaced with neglected palms and no more lawn. Drunk Mehicans harass kids at the busstop. Viva la Trump I am told; it is racist, to protect my dog from injury.

                  Next door to that, mid century ranch, campy as could be, was replaced with Mexican wrecking yard and loud rap.

                  Lady with 5 husbands is paid to care for screaming retard child.

                  Watering is made illegal, so multigenerational, German family cedes orchards to Islamists.

                  Shall I do the whole block?

                  Based on the examples given — something literal, that I can experience in person — in whose favor will every argument be settled. If I step away from this desk, and point my finger in any direction. What is the first thing, I see. How will it be decided.

                  I would like state actors to give a responsible justification for this, or have fun cleaning up the mess you have made. Honor role, good Samaritan, small business owner, and menace of the weightroom, I have not wrecked myself. What is the sane, rational excuse for it all. Who is under protection.

                  • Anon, I feel your pain.
                    My neighbors have illegal Mexican Cartel drug dealers across the street. Was a formerly nice neighborhood.
                    Then the Mexicans came. The obama Mass Media darling “Dreamers”.
                    The Mexicans have parties that go on ALL NIGHT LONG.
                    Start at 19:00 Fri night, go ALL night long. Sat they stop about 09:00 to 16:00, then start again around 16:00 Sat evening, they go again ALL NIGHT LONG. They go through Sat night till 09:00 Sun. Start up again Sun about 15:00 go til 02:00 AM Mon morning.

                    Loud terrible Mexican music. Screaming, yelling, laughing, fighting, and of course that sick smell of marijuana. The entire Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon til 0200 am. CONSTANT Noise. No respect for anyone.

                    In times past I would have called cops. But the way things are now with all the cops paid off by Mex Drug Cartels. My children would likely be injured or killed by the Mexican gunfire. Or the cops would come and kill me for reporting their Cartel bosses that pay them off.
                    New Years and that damn Mexican holiday Cinco de mayo, they actually shoot off guns. They love flying the Mexican rag flag while ruining a formerly good American neighborhood.

                    Once Trump elected they slowed things down. They are now mostly very quite. Funny how that works?

                    Here is what the Mexicans do: (Watch for these activities)
                    * Drugs are imported by them stashing them in transmission housings.
                    * The Mexicans pretend to repair, but are actually removing the imported dope from the transmission housings.
                    * Then they distibute the dope via the parties with dozens and dozens of Mexicans coming and going. Guess it is harder for cops to track them all? Or are all cops paid off?
                    * Tow trucks then come to haul off the former mule vehicle to junk yard?.

                    Why doesn’t DEA stop this?
                    Why doesn’t ICE or Border Patrol Bust these illegals?
                    Why don’t local Police stop this drug activity?
                    Because they are ALL paid off by the Mexican Cartel.

                    That is my story. Like you stated, there are also Muslims that moved in a few blocks over. They have a house they use as meeting place/mosque? Not sure how that religion works. But they all meet up there and women are covered in black scarves. Once they moved into that house. A few more moved into neighborhood. If you wave to them like a normal neighbor would do. They ignore or scowl sour faced at you. No one there has ever smiled or waved back. Just a blank look or menacing scowl.

                    Politicians REFUSE to secure the US Border. Politicians allow Severe National Security Threat by allowing those that have no respect for America to come in through an open border.

        • Sgt

        • -Censorship- 1984=2019
          Comments like mine not allowed here now. So I deleted.
          This site is Pro Jack Boot licker.

          Avoid Stupid people. Yes that means avoid trigger happy looking for a deadly confrontation violent Police, who have no accountability. Avoid when possible.

        • why comment?
          comments now blocked here.
          1984 / 2019 one and the same.

          1. If unarmed civilians continue being murdered by Police.
          2. If frail elderly people continue being body slammed, sometimes murdered by Police.
          3. If Police don’t stop shooting children, like they recently did in Oklahoma. Look it up.
          4. If family pets continue being murdered by Police.
          THEN: America’s melting pot may very well uncotrollable Boil Over. What a preventable unnecessary mess.

          If you have the guts, go to YouTube right now. Look up each of the situations listed above. All veiwable FACTS. Police can no longer hide their criminal acts. “Smile road pirate, uniformed unaccoutable goon thug, you are on camera.”

          FACT: FBI stats, More Police suicide/kill Themselves, than are killed on the streets. Police are Most dangerous to themselves.
          FACT: Convienence store workers are more likely to be killed than Police.
          Being a Police officer is usually not that dangerous. So stop playing up that hero worship bravo sierra.

          My local Seven Eleven clerk has provided FAR more Good, Safety, Security, to my life, than ANY Police ever has or will. Clerks live with Low pay, poor benefits, no retirement, unreasonable bosses, unreasonable general public, and most are unarmed while facing the dangerous dregs of society after dark. Clerks offer up a smile, cup of coffee, gas for the truck, Slurpee on a hot summer day, milk for the children’s breakfast cereal, emergency diapers for the baby. “Thank Heaven for Seven Eleven Clerks.”

          God bless Hero store clerks. “Thank them for their service”.

        • Hey sarge, most of us are thankful for police and military, but that’s not why the US is the greatest nation on earth. Though far from perfect, it is the greatest because we still enjoy God-given freedoms and liberties.
          The most legitimate reason for police is to protect citizens and their property, and for the military it is to protect the population from foreign invasion and maintain territorial integrity.
          Unfortunately, we are becoming more like a police state because gov’t / officialdom is continuously striving to limit and abrogate our rights, and much of the police throughout the country is obliging.

      25. Biden says he prefers “truth over facts”. This may have been a slip of the tongue but in reality he was showing his real mentality. Though similar, one can distort reality (for example, a propagandist), but you cannot distort facts.
        These are the facts: The left and various entities in the US want to undermine our traditions, culture, demography, present political system, and what remains of our free market economy into a planned economy and a top-down controlled society, that is, to convert the US into a socialist/Marxist country. They morally and philosophically despise individual freedoms and independent action. Their leftist ideology is religion, it is an all encompassing belief to them. And they are willing to mass murder vast numbers of citizens who don’t agree with them.
        In EVERY single case where a nation was brought into Marxism/communism it was with violence, and with vast numbers of the population killed off. This is why gun control is such a high priority. Do not be fooled, crime is not the central reason for gun control, it is only a tool of the left. For example, a method of the left towards achieving an unpopular goal is to couch their intentions and methods, like saying gun control is necessary to combat crime. The real goal is to render the population powerless against authoritarian and crushing heavy-handed gov’t. To make it impossible to for the population to counter their actions.
        As time goes on, the left (a tool of TPTB) will become impatient. Progress is too slow; those who can be successfully propagandized has basically been achieved, they are not enough to allow TPTB to force un-Constitutional change. They will eventually have to resort to a massive gun confiscation. In fact, it is not so far-fetched to believe foreign troops may be brought in to assist. Not only would this unpardonable treason, but also badly fail.
        Keep your personal firearms, do not part with them for any reason. Buy more guns and ammo for your friends and family/relatives. Obtain so many that no one will dare to confiscate them.

      26. Most people getting shot by police are young black males.

        Most crimes perpetrated in America are perpetrated by young black males.

        There must be a reason why young black males are shot by police but for the life of me I can’t figure it out. It must be racism.

        The truth is that police are much more likely to shoot a white than a black. The reason being that blacks have recourse to civil rights violations protections, hate laws, and other advantages in the courts that are denied to white people.

        At one time black people were discriminated against by law enforcement. That time has long since passed.

        It is the fake news that has led to the false perception that blacks are being unjustly targeted by police. And this article is contributing to that erroneous perception.

        When old white women commit crimes they spend more time in prison than white, brown, or black men. But no one gives a darn. That’s the truth.

        This may be a borderline police state, but it’s not just blacks getting their rights violated by over zealous cops.

        And it’s no picnic for cops either. There are so many crazy drugged up pissed off jerks of every color running around; destroying themselves and ruining everything for everyone else.

        .

        • HP
          Thank you. You are 100% correct!!!!
          Sgt.

      27. On June 17 of this year I was shooting a .22 long rifle henry Rifle with a tube fed magazine. The last round was a hang fire and with hammer down I reached for the muzzle to remove the tube when the round finally discharged striking my left index finger. An accidental self inflicted gunshot wound. of course the hospital was required to report the wound to the police. The PA State Trooper who responded to the hospital was visibly upset and told me the would was a defensive wound and wanted to know who shot me. I showed him black powder burn over the entire bottom of my finger to no avail. he insisted that he needed to see the crime scene. I sent my daughter home to unlock my house and when she arrived there were 3 cars and 6 Troopers going through my barns and out buildings. One was checking the VIN numbers on all of my farm vehicles. one Trooper discovered my ammunition storage area and freaked out about the quantity. An older Trooper calmed the young man down stating “We don’t arrest people for having ammunition. They took hundreds of photos inside my residence including photos of all my medication bottles. They copied every serial number from my weapons outside my safe and took my .22 without providing a receipt. I have been a law and order man my entire life. But after this experience I am beginning to take notice of the poor character of a lot of police officers. NOT ALL! It has been over 70 days and I have made repeated attempts to retrieve my .22 from the Pennsylvania State Police to no avail. I can not even get a return phone call. If you are a gun owner in PA you are treated as a criminal regardless of the circumstance. Never give the Police consent to enter your home. They are not your friend nor are they your protector. The Police are a gun owners enemy!

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