Police brutality in this country is out of control, and it has been for a long time. In 2015, police have been killing one person every eight hours, and these victims are disproportionately African American and Latino men and women. In January of 2015 alone the police were responsible for at least ninety-one deaths, and in 2014 over 1000 people were killed by police in America. Just for comparison, there were fourteen people killed by law enforcement officers in Canada in 2014. In the United Kingdom, only one person was killed by police in 2014. In Germany, there were no law official related deaths in 2014. So why are American police so much more violent?

For anyone saying that being a police officer is a dangerous job, you should know that it’s not even within the top 10 most dangerous jobs. Among the jobs more dangerous than being a police officer: farmers, garbage collectors, and truck drivers.

These police officers are supposed to be here to protect us, but thanks to social media, more and more police officers are being filmed harassing, beating, and even killing people. The recent Eric Garner case, in which Garner (an African American man) was choked to death by a police officer (with an illegal chokehold I should add), was caught on film, and the officer responsible walked free. Garner was asthmatic, and in the video he clearly says that he cannot breathe, but the officer’s hold doesn’t loosen.
Rekia Boyd (an African American woman) was shot in the back of the head in 2012 after an off-duty officer confronted her friends for being too loud and started firing at them when they began to walk away.

Aiyana Stanley-Jones was 7-years old in 2010 when Detroit police went on a midnight raid through her house and shot her in the head.

Tarika Wilson was unarmed and holding her 1-year-old son when officers shot and killed her during a drug raid.

Tamir Rice was 12 years old when police officers shot him within two seconds of arriving on the scene because they thought that his airsoft gun was real and they felt that their lives were threatened.

Kathryn Johnston was 92 years old when Atlanta police officers entered her home with a no-knock warrant that was based on false information and killed her. The officers involved later admitted to planting marijuana and cocaine in her home.

In Maryland, Freddie Gray (also an African American) was killed after his spine was severed while he was in police custody. The Baltimore P.D. have been vague with their reports, but there is no question that the police officers were responsible for his death.

There have been uprisings against police in Baltimore over the days following his death. Baltimore P.D. has been caught on video throwing rocks and bricks at high school students and trying to incite violence.

These cops are not heroes. They are supposed to be trained to take people into custody without shooting them in the head or breaking their spine. It is literally their job to protect and serve, but they are only protecting themselves now. Police officers are murdering people of color for “being too loud” or “looking suspicious” and they are getting away with it. These murders are racially motivated and anyone who says otherwise has his/her head up his/her ass. If these cowards are so easily intimidated that they need to kill a 92-year-old woman, or a mother holding her child, or a 12-year-old child then they are in the wrong line of work.