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href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/16/who-inflicts-the-most-gun-violence-in-america-the-u-s-government-and-its-police-forces/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/16/who-inflicts-the-most-gun-violence-in-america-the-u-s-government-and-its-police-forces/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Who Inflicts the Most Gun Violence in
America? The U.S. Government and Its Police Forces</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/johnwhite1124/"
rel="nofollow">John W. Whitehead</a> - August 16, 2019</span></div>
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<blockquote>
<p>“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
href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/we-need-start-treating-police-shootings-form-gun-violence">a
police officer shooting a civilian counts as gun
violence</a>. Every time an officer uses a gun
against an innocent or an unarmed person contributes
to the culture of gun violence in this country.”</p>
<p>—Journalist Celisa Calacal</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, gun violence is a problem in America, although <a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-02-12/pssst-crime-may-be-near-an-all-time-low">violent
crime generally remains at an all-time low</a>.</p>
<p>Yes, <a
href="https://theweek.com/articles/856989/3-things-everyone-getting-wrong-about-el-pasodayton-shootings">mass
shootings</a> are a problem in America, although while
they are getting deadlier, they are <a
href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/04/mass-shootings-more-deadly-frequent-research-215678">not
getting more frequent</a>.</p>
<p>Yes, mentally ill individuals embarking on mass
shooting sprees are a problem in America.</p>
<p>However, <a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/08/trump-gun-legislation/595828/">tighter
gun control laws and so-called “intelligent”
background checks</a> fail to protect the public from
the most egregious perpetrator of gun violence in
America: the U.S. government.</p>
<p>Consider that five years after police shot and killed
an unarmed 18-year-old man in Ferguson, Missouri, there
has been <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/09/what-weve-learned-about-police-shootings-years-after-ferguson/">no
relief from the government’s gun violence</a>.</p>
<p>Here’s what we’ve learned about the government’s gun
violence since Ferguson, according to <em>The
Washington Post</em>: 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. <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/09/what-weve-learned-about-police-shootings-years-after-ferguson/">Since
2015, police have shot and killed an average of 3
people per day.</a> 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 <em>toy</em>guns.</p>
<p>Clearly, the U.S. government is not making America any
safer.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>According to journalist Matt Agorist, “mass shootings …
have claimed the lives of 339 people since 2015…
[D]uring this same time frame, <a
href="https://thefreethoughtproject.com/police-mass-shooters-guns/">police
in America have claimed the lives of 4,355 citizens.</a>”</p>
<p>That’s 1200% more people killed by police than mass
shooters since 2015.</p>
<p>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, <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/03/officer-was-doing-welfare-check-her-he-fatally-shot-her-after-firing-dog/">took
aim at the woman’s dog as it ran towards him barking,
fired multiple times, and killed the woman instead</a>.</p>
<p>In Chicago, a SWAT team—wearing “<a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/09/amir-worship-chicago-swat-raid-knee-lawsuit/">army
fatigues with black cloth covering their faces and
wearing goggles</a>,” 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.</p>
<p>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—<a
href="https://www.kmov.com/news/st-louis-county-reaches-settlement-after-woman-s-dog-was/article_27d2bbea-9d45-11e9-8a4f-53af5a03fcd6.html">all
over an unpaid gas bill</a>. Taxpayers will have to
find $750,000 to settle the lawsuit arising over the
cops’ overzealous tactics.</p>
<p>In South Carolina, a 62-year-old homeowner was <a
href="https://newsmaven.io/pinacnews/cops-gone-rogue/man-shot-four-times-by-cop-thru-front-door-says-call-the-cops-i-am-the-cops-zL2kt-60WUGt8al3-nZpCw/">shot
four times <em>through his front door</em> by police</a>
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, <a
href="https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/south-carolina/2019/08/07/sc-deputy-cleared-internal-affairs-after-shooting-homeowner/1944593001/">hitting
Tench in the pelvis and the aortic artery</a>. Tench
survived, but the bullet lodged in his pelvis will stay
there for life.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190725/14363942655/court-no-immunity-swat-team-that-hurled-flash-bang-grenade-general-direction-two-year-old-child.shtml">hurled
a flash-bang grenade into the house</a> 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.</p>
<p>These are just a few recent examples among hundreds
this year alone.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The government even exports violence worldwide, with
one of this country’s most profitable exports being
weapons. Indeed, the United States, the <a
href="http://time.com/4161613/us-arms-sales-exports-weapons/">world’s
largest exporter of arms</a>, 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 <a
href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/02/22/purveyors-global-violence-us-continues-lead-world-arms-trade">sold
or donated weapons to at least 96 countries</a> 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 <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/24/politics/us-arms-sales-worldwide/">Foreign
Military Financing program</a> to purchase military
weapons.</p>
<p>At the same time that the U.S. is equipping nearly half
the world with deadly weapons, <a
href="https://news.vice.com/article/the-us-is-selling-weapons-to-nearly-half-the-countries-in-the-world">profiting
to the tune of $36.2 billion</a>, its leaders have
also been <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/05/politics/obama-executive-action-gun-control/">lecturing
American citizens on the dangers of gun violence</a>
and working to enact measures that would make it more
difficult for Americans to acquire certain weapons.</p>
<p>Talk about an absurd double standard.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>I’ll tell you why: because the government has no
intention of scaling back on its weapons.</p>
<p>In fact, all the while <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/us/politics/obama-to-ask-congress-to-toughen-gun-laws.html">gun
critics continue to clamor for bans on military-style
assault weapons</a>, high-capacity magazines and
armor-piercing bullets, the U.S. military <em>is
passing them out to domestic police forces</em>.</p>
<p>Under the auspices of a military “recycling” program,
which allows local police agencies to acquire
military-grade weaponry and equipment, more than <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/07/militarization-local-police-america">$4.2
billion worth of equipment has been transferred</a>
from the Defense Department to domestic police agencies
since 1990. Included among these “gifts” are tank-like,
<a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/07/militarization-local-police-america">20-ton
Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles</a>,
tactical gear, and assault rifles.</p>
<p>There are now reportedly <a
href="http://freebeacon.com/issues/now-bureaucrats-guns-u-s-marines/">more
bureaucratic (non-military) government agents armed
with high-tech, deadly weapons than U.S. Marines</a>.</p>
<p>While Americans have to jump through an increasing
number of hoops in order to own a gun, the <a
href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-does-the-irs-need-guns-1466117176">government
is arming its own civilian employees to the hilt</a>
with guns, ammunition and military-style equipment,
authorizing them to make arrests, and training them in
military tactics.</p>
<p>Among the <a
href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-does-the-irs-need-guns-1466117176">agencies
being supplied with night-vision equipment, body
armor, hollow-point bullets, shotguns, drones, assault
rifles and LP gas cannons</a> 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.</p>
<p>Seriously, <a
href="http://freebeacon.com/issues/now-bureaucrats-guns-u-s-marines/">why
do IRS agents need AR-15 rifles</a>?</p>
<p>For that matter, why do police need <a
href="https://www.richmond.com/news/local/police-or-soldiers-agencies-locally-and-across-virginia-have-weapons/article_0d063dce-2b48-11e4-a2ee-0017a43b2370.html">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</a>?</p>
<p>Short answer: they don’t.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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, <a
href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/local-cops-ready-for-war-with-homeland-security-funded-military-weapons">many
officers look more and more like combat troops serving
in Iraq and Afghanistan</a>.”</p>
<p>Does this sound like a country under martial law?</p>
<p>You want to talk about gun violence? While it still
technically remains legal for the average citizen to <em>own
</em>a firearm in America, possessing one can now get
you <a
href="http://tbo.com/list/columns-tjackson/jackson-gun-owner-unarmed-unwelcome-in-maryland-20140112/">pulled
over</a>, <a
href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/02/19/Washington-State-Bill-To-Search-Gun-Owner-Homes-Introduced-Since-2005">searched</a>,
<a
href="http://jonathanturley.org/2012/02/17/aclu-files-on-behalf-of-gun-owner-abusively-arrested-by-philadelphia-police/">arrested</a>,
subjected to all manner of <a
href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/16/nra-federal-surveillance-policies-could-undermine-/">surveillance</a>,
<a
href="http://spectator.org/blog/54297/new-smartphone-app-invades-gun-owners-privacy">treated
as a suspect</a> without ever having committed a
crime, <a
href="https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/on_the_front_lines/us_supreme_court_rejects_appeal_in_second_amendment_case">shot
at</a> and killed by police.</p>
<p>You don’t even have to have a gun or a look-alike gun,
<a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/15/us/ohio-columbus-police-kill-teen/">such
as a BB gun</a>, in your possession to be singled out
and killed by police.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>With <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/">alarming
regularity</a>, 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.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for standing in a “shooting stance.”</strong>
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 <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/28/police-shoot-black-man-in-san-diego-suburb-sparking-protests-circumstances-remain-unclear/">took
a “shooting stance.”</a></p>
<p><strong>Killed for holding a cell phone.</strong>
Police in Arizona shot a man who was running away from
U.S. Marshals after he refused to drop an object that <a
href="http://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/dec/31/metro-police-investigating-officer-involved-shooti/">turned
out to be a cellphone</a>. Similarly, police in
Sacramento <a
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/03/22/sacramento-police-shooting/448405002/">fired
20 shots at an unarmed, 22-year-old black man who was
standing in his grandparents’ backyard</a> after
mistaking his cellphone for a gun.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for carrying a baseball bat.</strong>
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 <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/us/chicago-police-fatally-shoot-2-raising-new-questions-for-a-force-under-scrutiny.html">carrying
a baseball bat</a> around the apartment where he and
his father lived.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for opening the front door.</strong>
Bettie Jones, who lived on the floor below LeGrier, was
also fatally shot—this time, accidentally—when she
attempted to <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/us/chicago-police-fatally-shoot-2-raising-new-questions-for-a-force-under-scrutiny.html">open
the front door</a> for police.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for running towards police with a metal
spoon.</strong> In Alabama, police shot and killed a
50-year-old man who reportedly charged a police officer
while holding “<a
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/alabama-man-rushed-officer-spoon-fatally-shot-article-1.2336281">a
large metal spoon in a threatening manner</a>.”</p>
<p><strong>Killed for running while holding a tree branch.</strong>
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 <a
href="http://patch.com/georgia/cartersville/new-details-released-bartow-officer-involved-shooting-0">holding
a stick in an “aggressive manner.</a>”</p>
<p><strong>Killed for crawling around naked.</strong>
Atlanta police shot and killed an unarmed man who was
reported to have been “acting deranged, knocking on
doors, <a
href="http://www.cbs46.com/story/28301956/naked-man-shot-by-police-officer-at-dekalb-county-apartments">crawling
around on the ground naked</a>.” Police fired two
shots at the man after he reportedly started running
towards them.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for wearing dark pants and a basketball
jersey.</strong> 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 <a
href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sheriff-shooting-20160809-snap-story.html">lying
motionless in a neighborhood yard</a>. 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.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for driving while deaf.</strong> In
North Carolina, a state trooper shot and killed
29-year-old Daniel K. Harris—<a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/us/nc-trooper-being-investigated-for-shooting-of-deaf-man.html">who
was deaf</a>—after Harris initially failed to pull
over during a traffic stop.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for being homeless.</strong> Los Angeles
police shot an unarmed homeless man after he <a
href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-castic-deputy-shooting-20160803-snap-story.html">failed
to stop riding his bicycle</a> and then proceeded to
run from police.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for brandishing a shoehorn.</strong>
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 <a
href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-john-wrana-textbook-police-force-case-kass-0111-20150111-column.html">mistook
the shoehorn in his hand for a 2-foot-long machete</a>
and fired multiple beanbag rounds from a shotgun at
close range.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for having your car break down on the
road.</strong> 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 <a
href="http://abc7.com/news/tulsa-police-shoot-kill-unarmed-black-man-doj-investigating/1517880/">shot
in the back while walking towards his car with his
hands up</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for holding a garden hose.</strong>
California police were ordered to pay $6.5 million after
they <a
href="http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/04/local/la-me-ln-water-nozzle-shooting-20130404">opened
fire on a man holding a garden hose</a>, believing it
to be a gun. Douglas Zerby was shot 12 times and
pronounced dead on the scene.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for calling 911. </strong>Justine
Damond, a 40-year-old yoga instructor, was <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/17/bride-to-be-called-911-for-help-and-was-fatally-shot-by-a-minneapolis-police-officer/">shot
and killed by Minneapolis police</a>, 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.</p>
<p><strong>Killed for looking for a parking spot.</strong>
Richard Ferretti, a 52-year-old chef, was <a
href="http://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/11/03/richard-ferretti-police-shooting/">shot
and killed by Philadelphia police</a> who had been
alerted to investigate a purple Dodge Caravan that was
driving “suspiciously” through the neighborhood.</p>
<p><strong>Shot seven times for peeing outdoors.</strong>
Eighteen-year-old Keivon Young was <a
href="http://www.laprogressive.com/police-shoot-unarmed-black-man/">shot
seven times by police from behind while urinating
outdoors</a>. 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.</p>
<p>This is what passes for policing in America today,
folks, and it’s only getting worse.</p>
<p>In every one of these scenarios, police <em>could</em>
have resorted to less lethal tactics.</p>
<p>They <em>could</em> have acted with reason and
calculation instead of reacting with a killer instinct.</p>
<p>They <em>could</em> have attempted to de-escalate and
defuse whatever perceived “threat” caused them to fear
for their lives enough to react with lethal force.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://harvardlawreview.org/2015/04/law-enforcements-warrior-problem/">every
situation as a deadly force encounter in the making</a>.”</p>
<p>Remember, to a hammer, all the world looks like a nail.</p>
<p>Yet as I point out in my book <a
href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590793099/counterpunchmaga"><em>Battlefield
America: The War on the American People</em></a>,
“we the people” are not just getting hammered.</p>
<p>We’re getting killed, execution-style.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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