German police fire 85 bullets in 2011

Posted by: Copago

German police fire 85 bullets in 2011 - Thu May 17 2012 02:00 AM

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/201...al-in-2011?lite


Quote:
German police officers fired a total of 85 bullets in 2011, 49 of which were warning shots, the German publication Der Spiegel reported. Officers fired 36 times at people, killing six and injuring 15.


Quote:
Meanwhile, in the United States, The Atlantic reported that in April, 84 shots were fired at one murder suspect in Harlem, and another 90 at an unarmed man in Los Angeles.
Posted by: sue943

Re: German police fire 85 bullets in 2011 - Thu May 17 2012 04:03 AM

I wonder how many bullets the police in the UK used in the same period of time, not a lot I am guessing.
Posted by: dippo

Re: German police fire 85 bullets in 2011 - Thu May 17 2012 04:26 AM

These figures are for the number of incidents in England and Wales where police discharged firearms (not the actual number of bullets fired). The period reported is April to March.

2001/2002 11

2002/2003 10

2003/2004 4

2004/2005 5

2005/2006 9

2006/2007 3

2007/2008 7

2008/2009 5

2009/2010 6

Oddly enough, there's a footnote to say that these figures don't include training sessions!
Posted by: sue943

Re: German police fire 85 bullets in 2011 - Thu May 17 2012 06:06 AM

Originally Posted By: dippo

Oddly enough, there's a footnote to say that these figures don't include training sessions!


You have to love us Brits. smile
Posted by: flopsymopsy

Re: German police fire 85 bullets in 2011 - Thu May 17 2012 07:50 AM

Oh for the good old days of 2006/7! smile
Posted by: dsimpy

Re: German police fire 85 bullets in 2011 - Thu May 17 2012 08:46 AM

Tragically, one of the 9 incidents in 2005/2006 included the 7 shots in the head (and one in the shoulder) inflicted on poor Jean Charles de Menezes.
Posted by: sue943

Re: German police fire 85 bullets in 2011 - Fri May 18 2012 05:17 AM

That was tragic. One wonders how many innocent people were killed in other countries by police if the Brits managed with over ten percent.
Posted by: dsimpy

Re: German police fire 85 bullets in 2011 - Fri May 18 2012 08:52 AM

Indeed. Although those 9 shooting incidents in 2005/2006 resulted in another 5 separate deaths that year (in addition to Jean Charles de Menezes). Disturbingly, at least two of them involved individuals with severe mental health problems, who were not 'criminals' in the normal sense of that term. So while it's true (welcomely so) that police in England and Wales are inevitably less involved in shootings because they're not routinely armed, I'm not sure there's much difference in outcome between them and police elsewhere when armed police are deployed.