Excerpt: "In 2012, 409 people were shot and killed by American police in what were termed justifiable shootings. In that same year, British police officers fired their weapons just once. No one was killed."
Police officers take pictures of giant puppets as they move through the streets of Liverpool, northern England July 25, 2014. (photo: Nigel Roddis/Reuters)
In 2013 British Police Fired Guns: 3 Times
24 August 14
In 2012, 409 people were shot and killed by American police in what were termed justifiable shootings. In that same year, British police officers fired their weapons just once. No one was killed.
n 2013, British police officers fired their weapons all of three times. No one died. According to The Economist, "British citizens are around 100 times less likely to be shot by a police officer than Americans. Between 2010 and 2014, the police force of one small American city � Albuquerque in New Mexico � shot and killed 23 civilians; seven times more than the number of Brits killed by all of England and Wales�s 43 forces during the same period.
The Economist argues that the reason for this disparity is actually quite simple: guns are comparatively rare in the UK. Most cops don't carry them and criminals rarely have access to them. The last time a British officer was killed by a gun was in 2012. In the US last year, 30 police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty.
In December, PRI's The World reported on Icelanders grieving after their police force killed a man � for the first time in the country's history as a republic.
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It is just time to face the clear light of day. The Russiagate affair was a campaign dirty trick. It had no truth in it from the start. The amazing thing is that it was taken seriously by the FBI and DOJ who both knew Steele for a fraud from their own experience with him.
But I think Mueller served his purpose. The central job of the FBI for nearly a century now has been to blackmail elected government officials and even president into doing what the naiton's oligarchs want. Trump was elected as an outsider and a pseudo-populist . That scared the be-jesus out of the oligarchs and their hatchetmen in the intel agencies. So the Trump-Russia hoax was taken up in all earnestness in order to beat Trump into line.
Now Trump is 100% under the control of the normal rulers of the US -- banks, weapons makers, Israelis, right-wing think tanks, neo-cons, and the rest. In this sense, the Mueller Probe was fabulously successful and it no longer needed to continue.
In all reality, I think Mueller knew from the start that there was no basis to the original charge. He just needed it to browbeat Trump.
Maybe Mueller did leave open the obstruction of justice claim so that congress could have the impeachment harpoon. If so then I expect Ahab Schiff to take up the harpoon and begin hunting his White Whale.
John Gotti managed to get aquitted several times using the same kinds of tactics. Eventually, he was brought down like Whitey Bulger, using "conspiracy" charges - charges that are almost guaranteed to convict anybody.
Donald J. Trump is guilty of being in charge of a conspiracy to commit multiple frauds - the biggest frauds being that he is not incompetent, not ignorant, and not stupid - but the legal frauds have continued for decades, cheating people who worked for him, cheating the banks who lent him money, cheating the taxpayers who's cities and states gave him tax breaks. His defense wobbles between "it's not fair because everybody does it" and "I didn't do it". Very convincing stuff that only a genius could possibly have come up with.