Police officers across the nation are, and have been, behaving like they have a license to kill. What else can explain such a drastic rise in police killings in 2023 despite it being one of the lowest years on record for civilian homicides?
In 2023 the homicide rate dropped to nearly 13% resulting in 2,000 fewer homicides than in 2022. Despite outcry from law enforcement and government officials of rampant crime, society is seemingly safer, so why are police treating civilians like enemy combatants?
U.S. police killed at least 1,243 people in 2023, one of the deadliest years for law enforcement-committed killings in more than a decade according to Mapping Police Violence data. Roughly three people are killed by officers each day. Why?
This escalation in violence is a result of a systemic crisis that hurts our people the most. Black Americans were killed at a rate 2.6 times higher than white Americans. Police are not protecting and serving us.
There is no justification for this extreme police violence. The contradiction between fewer homicides and more police killings is clear. The system will maintain our pain and suffering over our safety, so how can we protect ourselves and each other instead?