from 1950 to 1960—Boston 3; Buffalo 7; Milwaukee 10; Philadelphia 32; Washington, D.C., 26; Cincinnati 23; Kansas City MO. 23; Chicago 191; and Miami 21. He reported that the national statistics show that the U.S. police were six times more likely to kill than to be killed in the line of duty. He used this statistic to opine that the dangerousness of police work may be exaggerated. The study concluded that the JPH in the sample revealed that Negro’s deaths were disproportionate to whites at 7 to 1, female JPH’s deaths were negligible, JPH victims were relatively young, victims were generally unskilled workers, 70 percent of the shootings occurred between 9:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m., and two-thirds of the victims had criminal records. The author reported that six of the men killed had “strong indications of psychotic consequences” (Robin, 1963).
Conclusion
Complaints of police violence and LEO-perpetrated homicides are a part of American police history. The allegations are not confined to big cities or particular regions, any specific racial or ethnic group, or labeled dangerous class, or any type/pattern. For example, in August 1900 in Akron, Ohio, a shootout between police in a city building and civilians outside left two children killed by police gunfire (Richardson, 1974: 188). Johnson (2003) in her seminal study of NTPD police brutality complaints opined that the use of police violence progressed through several periods. In the nineteenth century, the major citizen complaint was “clubbing” where brutal police bludgeoned poor, working-class citizens, and immigrants with nightsticks and blackjacks. Severe injuries and deaths occurred during the “clubbings.”
During the Prohibition era, NYPD police collusion with criminals increased police violence and the use of the third degree to elicit confessions. The victims were predominately the immigrant poor, African Americans, and other marginalized individuals and groups. Injuries and deaths occurred during these extracted false confessions. In the 1870s, the 1930s, and the 1960s mass police violence was directed at the dangerous classes such as Communists, labor, African American activists, strikers, and demonstrators. Johnson said that the significant police brutality complaints resulted in police brutality in the form of street justice—punishment given to criminals, wrongdoers, and disrespecters.
The historical discussion of law enforcement violence and homicides against members and groups of the dangerous classes is a part of American history. However, the risk to the physical security and civil rights of those labeled as members of the dangerous classes still exists in this country. The use of the dangerous class label has utility for politically charged criminal justice professionals because of its flexibility. For example, a Texas District Attorney (DA) running for reelection arrested 177 bikers at a biker/police shoot out in Waco, Texas, as members or supporters of outlaw motorcycle gangs—criminal street gang according to Texas law (Barker, 2017). Police snipers killed four of the nine persons during the shootout. All charges against those arrested have been dropped and the DA was voted out of office. The Texas criminal street gang definition—dangerous class—was used as a hammer to force plea bargains and it backfired on him. The Texas DA was not the first to do so.
However, a myopic approach centered on dangerous classes masks the complex nature of homicides by LEOs. The patterns/types of law enforcement homicides makes LEO-perpetrated homicide a potential risk factor for all persons living in the United States regardless of age, race, gender, ethnicity, social status, or label. However, the majority of public and academic attention belies the true nature of police-perpetrated homicides. This is slowly changing.
The August 9, 2014, shooting death of Michael Brown, an eighteen-year-old African American male, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, made a national issue of LEO homicides. The lack of reliable official data on “killings by the police enraged the public and lead to riots and demonstrations erupted nationwide” (Swaine & McCarthy, December 15, 2016). This book provides a much needed examination of the types and patterns of police homicides. It is the first step toward needed reform.
We will demystify police homicides and expose its variety and range though the development of a heuristic typology of police homicides. Then we will examine and provide examples of each type or pattern.
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