Thread by @LeeCamp

Facts about American Policing that will Blow Your Mind:

1) US Police kill roughly 1,000 Americans per year - 3 lives extinguished every DAY
2) The UK average is 3 per YEAR & in 2018 Denmark’s police killed no one. Zero. They literally let everyone live

3) One out of every 4 people killed by U.S. police is severely mentally ill
4) After a fatal incident, cops are convicted of a crime only .28% of the time (less than 1%)
5) They're convicted of murder only .024% of the time. Basically they can kill with impunity

6) Policing is not like what we see on TV. Most cops avg less than 1 felony arrest per year - meaning most of their time is spent with nothing "crimes" like loitering, causing a disturbance, noise violations, or public drunkenness - Just "putting people in the system."

7) There's been a surge of bans on things like sleeping in public, begging, & giving out free food. These effectively make homelessness illegal. The homeless account for over half of people who cycle through prison repeatedly. Police are meant to cement the class structure

8) The true crimes - the large crimes - are generally ignored by police. Corporate execs endlessly dump toxins in our water or keep baby powder on the shelves when they know it contains asbestos or push opioids on troubled Americans even as the bodies pile up.

9) The US has the largest prison population in the world - i.e. We are the largest prison state.
10) Police commit more crime than criminals. They now seize more from citizens via civil asset forfeiture than the amount of property stolen by street criminals in burglaries

11) Police are not well trained. In most states hair stylists are required to have far more training than police officers. For example, in Michigan police get 594 hours of training, but to work with electrical signs, you’ll need 4,000 hours

12) The US police system originated from slave patrols - before that time there was not an army-like patrol on the streets "protecting" the class hierarchy.

13) For the rest of the list & the sources, read the full column here -

consortiumnews.com/2020/06/01/lee…