“Police killings in the US reach record high in 2023, surpassing previous decade, reveals MappingPoliceViolence.us”

Accident – Death – Obituary News : Nearly a decade after the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the police shooting of Michael Brown, new data from MappingPoliceViolence.us (MPV) reveals a disturbing trend in police killings in the United States. According to MPV, police killed at least 1,213 people in 2023, surpassing the previous year’s total of 1,202 deaths.

MPV compiled this data using information from police use of force collection programs, the Gun Violence Archive, the Fatal Encounters database, and public news reports. The figures indicate that 2023 saw the highest number of police killings in the last decade. It is important to note that these numbers are likely to increase before the year’s end, as, on average, police in the US kill just over three people per day.

MPV’s data also reveals that there were only 18 days this year where police did not kill someone, while there were at least 71 days where police killed five or more people within a 24-hour period. On certain days, such as July 3 and August 25, police killed nine individuals. Since MPV began tracking police violence in 2013, there has not been a single year without at least 1,039 police killings. The victims of police violence are predominantly from the working class and poor communities.

The total number of police killings recorded by MPV since 2013 stands at 12,318, which is over 5,000 more deaths than all US military personnel killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and other “war on terror” battlefields from October 2001 to October 2019, according to the Watson Institute at Brown University.

These staggering statistics reflect the ruling class’s deep fear and their resort to wanton police violence to maintain their power. Unable to justify their parasitic existence and sociopathic policies, such as the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the support of oppressive regimes overseas, the ruling class increasingly relies on police violence.

Police agencies and the federal government deliberately avoid keeping accurate, publicly-available information on police killings, leaving it up to independent researchers and media outlets to piece together the grim toll. MPV’s figures align with those from The Washington Post, which focuses solely on police shootings, excluding deaths caused by other means.

Contrary to the mainstream narrative that portrays police violence as a racial issue, MPV’s data reveals that the states with the highest killings per capita in 2023 were New Mexico, Alaska, Idaho, Colorado, and West Virginia, with none of these states having a black population exceeding 6%. While racism likely plays a role in many cases, police violence affects workers and youth of all backgrounds.

Throughout the year, the World Socialist Web Site reported on numerous cases of police killings, highlighting the brutality and systemic nature of these incidents. Some notable cases include the savage beating of Tyre Nichols by five black officers from the Memphis Police Department, the killing of anti-police violence activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán during a protest in Atlanta, and the shooting of mechanic Eddie Irizarry by a Philadelphia police officer during a traffic stop.

These cases represent only a fraction of the widespread state violence inflicted on workers and their families. Friedrich Engels once described the police as the “special bodies of armed men” created and elevated by the capitalist system to defend the ruling class’s unearned privileges and maintain inequality.

As the working class continues to mobilize against growing inequality and corporate profiteering, police violence persists under both Democratic and Republican administrations. This demonstrates the limitations of identity politics and the need for fundamental change. Police violence cannot be reformed away; it is deeply rooted in the capitalist system. Only through the socialist transformation of society, achieved by the mass mobilization of the working class, can we put an end to the reign of police terror.

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