By Lily Dane
A new study published by JAMA Surgery found that from 2006 to 2012, there were approximately 51,000 emergency department visits per year for patients injured by law enforcement in the United States, with this number stable over this time period.
From the press release:
During this time period, there were 355,677 ED visits for injuries by law enforcement, and frequencies did not increase over time. Of these visits, 0.3 percent (n = 1,202) resulted in death. More than 80 percent of patients were men, and the average age of patients was 32 years. Most lived in zip codes with median household income less than the national average, and 81 percent lived in urban areas. Injuries by law enforcement were more common in the South and West and less common in the Northeast and Midwest. Most injuries by law enforcement resulted from being struck, with gunshot and stab wounds accounting for fewer than seven percent. Most injuries were minor. Medically identified substance abuse was common in patients injured by police, as was mental illness.
The most common cause of injury was “being struck by or against” which accounted for approximately 77 percent of the ER visits.
Lead study author Dr. Elinore Kaufman, a surgical resident at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, told Live Science that mental illness was common, affecting 20 percent of people injured. She added that the study’s estimate of 51,000 emergency room visits per year does not include deaths that occur at crime scenes or people who are injured but do not seek medical attention.
Of the findings, the study authors wrote,
While public attention has surged in recent years, we found these frequencies [approximately 51,000 ED visits per year] to be stable over 7 years, indicating that this has been a longer-term phenomenon.
While it is impossible to classify how many of these injuries are avoidable, these data can serve as a baseline to evaluate the outcomes of national and regional efforts to reduce law enforcement-related injury.
The Washington Post maintains a database called Fatal Force that tracks police shootings. So far in 2017, according to the database, 295 people have been fatally shot by police in the US.
A website called Killed By Police lists people who have been killed by police by all means, including gunshot, taser, restraint/physical force, chemical, vehicle, and “other.” The site is updated regularly, and as of the time of this writing, 343 deaths by law enforcement are documented.
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Contributed by Lily Dane of The Daily Sheeple.
Lily Dane is a staff writer for The Daily Sheeple. Her goal is to help people to “Wake the Flock Up!”
Would be interesting to know how much money was paid out in lawsuits as a result of the injuries.
That’s another part of the problem. They use taxpayer dollars to pay out those lawsuits instead of being sued PERSONALLY in civil court when the money would come out of their own pocket.
It’s easy to recklessly spend OTHER PEOPLES MONEY.
Just as Joe Blow wrote, “I was in fear for my life” is the biggest and overused excuse, and the most lame. If these so called LEO are so afraid, it proves they are not fit for the job.
He is correct that the majority are returning vets, ( mercenaries, seeing that they volunteered for an undeclared war) and they see all of the public as the enemy. Well, they are creating just what they see. The entire nation are becoming their enemy by their own abuse of power and over reaction to non threatening situations. There are consequences for everything, and they seem to have forgotten they have to live here. It’s not like they are in some far off land and when the killing is over they can return to loved ones back in the U.S. We know where they live.
The police in general are cowards. From my family of “peace officers” not law enforcement, there is a pattern in their work…first you talk, then restraint and cuffs, if not possible then mace, then club, at the very last is pulling a gun.
These days with intentionally hiring low IQ and desert war vets you get volitile shoot first idiots.
This is most always done on unarmed or someone with just a stick or cane or broom in their hands and the cowards proclaim “I was in fear of my life and had to shoot him 9 times.”
They will get their comeupance when an armed public has had enough and they start getting return fire or ambushed or family attacked, just as they sow, so shall they reap unfortunately. ☹️