2011 - Police in Germany only fired 85 times at or in the vicinity of criminal suspects

[whereisjustice]

Police in Germany only fired 85 times at or in the vicinity of criminal suspects during the course of 2011, according to a government-commissioned report.

Statistics compiled by the German Police University show that German police officers fired a total of 49 warning shots and 36 shots aimed at individuals while pursuing suspects last year. From those incidents, 15 people were injured, and six were killed.

Those numbers are actually down from the previous year, when police expended 96 bullets in the line of duty, resulting in the death of seven suspects.

Germany, the EU's most populous member state, is home to over 80 million inhabitants.

It is worth noting that an additional 8812 bullets were employed in the handling of "dangerous, sick, or injured animals" (down 5% from 2010's 9336), but most of those situations involved "freeing animals from their suffering" following a traffic accident.

http://boingboing.net/2012/05/09/german-police-fired-85-bullets.html

"It is gratifying that the tendency of all forms of use of firearms by police officers against people is diminishing," Caffier said. It is important that the Minister of the Interior and Interior Senators showed the public that the police officers exercising the constitutional right of state's monopoly of legitimate. (google translate, but you get the drift)

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/polizei-schoss-2011-seltener-im-dienst-a-832037.html


You can compare this to 1100 police shooting deaths in US during 2014.
http://www.killedbypolice.net/kbp2014.html

[tazkcmo]

1. German's are weak!

Just look at their history! Every time there's a world war- oh, never mind.

[Action_Patrol]

2. It's unfortunate that the U.S. is a pro-gun country

But you can't really compare them. It's wishing for a fictional utopia.
Germany has some of the strictest gun laws.
"After 1945, even German police officers were initially not allowed to carry firearms. Private ownership of firearms was not allowed until after 1956. The legal status returned essentially to that of the Law on Firearms and Ammunition of 1928. The regulation of the matter was thoroughly revised in 1972, when the new restrictive Federal Weapons Act (Bundeswaffengesetz) became effective, partly as a reaction to the terror of the Red Army Faction.[6] It was developed in the Federal Weapons Act of 2002 and by amendments in 2008 and 2009. These laws were the result of a chain of school shootings in Erfurt, Emsdetten and Winnenden."

They had the guts to make laws correcting things. We have a culture (not just police) that basically worships guns.
It's apples and fish sticks.

[whereisjustice]

3. It's obviously not fictional because it exists. The problem with blindly accepting

the things that you cannot change is that it is hard enough just to keep from going backwards. Brushing disparity, injustice and police violence as a "fact of life" it is destructive. It just works for those who would keep us oppressed by violence.

Obviously, other countries made positive change. So, therefore, it IS possible.

Nearly all police shootings do not involve a "firefight". The victim is typically unarmed and has shot dead. Police shoot their victims dead because a dead person cannot dispute the police account that is fabricated to cover up police actions.

Your reply is interesting - however, the gun culture under discussion is the one owned by police. Until we demand police be held accountable for their crimes, nothing will change.

[Action_Patrol]

4. Nothing will change as long as the gun lobby holds sway

It's a religion. It's been held up as valid in our Constitution as an inalienable right.
When the populace is armed, you expect the police not to be?

I would very much like to not have our country go through what Germany did to create these laws.

I agree that something has to change, but what? You can't unarm police when we have states that treat guns as if they are screwdrivers and ball point pens.

[treestar]

5. could be cultural

Germans greatly respect authority. If a cop stops them, they probably rarely resist arrest.

[whereisjustice]

6. The difference is that the police are trained to NOT SHOOT someone if they are not a threat. Period.

And they are more likely to be disciplined for violence. The statistics are similar all over Europe. Germany is not exceptional.

[treestar]

7. I think Germans are likely rarely a threat

Talk about authoritarians. The police find no threat? In Germany? yeah, it is likely that the person is no threat.

[whereisjustice]

8. You are saying that black people are shot by police at 1000+ per year because they are a threat

to police. Wow.