Do We REALLY Need More Cops?

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Andy Thayer

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Dec 16, 2014, 7:49:17 PM12/16/14
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Do We Really Need More Cops?
With the police killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO and Eric Garner in New York, police violence is much in the news. And police accountability activists note that Brown and Garner represent a much wider phenomenon:
 
*  Police or security guards in the U.S. kill an African American once every 28 hours
 
*  In Chicago, more than 300 civilians were shot by Chicago Police between 2007 and 2013
 
*  In 2012, 87.72% of those shot by Chicago police were black
 
Yet some in violence-plagued neighborhoods say they want more cops. Most politicians say they want more cops.
 
Yet the statistics show that having high levels of policing do not translate into lower crime rates. According to the FBI, in 2012 Chicago had the 3rd highest ratio in the country of law enforcement officers to civilians for any city of over 50,000 people. Yet New York in 2013, with a population more than seven times that of Chicago, had almost 100 fewer murders.

Watch the new episode of the Gay Liberation Network on CAN TV as GLNers Andy Thayer and Bob Schwartz discuss police violence, civilian violence, and what are real ways we can reduce both forms of violence.  Joyce Brown, mother of south suburban Harvey, IL police shooting victim Charles Brown, IV, was originally scheduled to appear on this program but had to bow out due to a family emergency. We hope to have her back on the program soon.
 
Originally broadcast December 12, 2014

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