It's the Coppahs! Quick! Die!

In the years between 2003 and 2005, as many as 2002 people died while being arrested. Approximately half these deaths are resulted from the arresting officers themselves. Only 80% of those 1001 people had a reason to be killed, threatening or carrying out an assault against the officer. The other thousand deaths were caused by drugs or intoxication, suicide, accidental injuries and natural causes. Even though these numbers come from a total 40 million arrests, 2002 is still a staggering number of deaths that most likely could have been prevented.
More statistics include that the most deaths occurred in California (310). Most of the victims were white, non-Hispanic males, around the age of thirty five. Seventy five percent of victims were thought to have carried out violent crimes.
The story of Amadou Diallo is a famous police shooting case from almost a decade ago. When looking for a rape suspect one night, New York City policemen came to Diallo's house to question him. When he opened the door, he reached inside his pocket and was then shot at 41 times. It was later discovered that all he was reaching for was his wallet.
Incidents such as this should never be allowed to occur. Even though it is understandable that in some cases police officers may be required to open fire upon a suspect, death doesn't necessarily need to be the only solution. Police officers should have as part of their training, some sort of anatomy class. If they knew where to shoot without the intention of killing, more lives could be saved without having to kill someone, just wounding them. Furthermore there should be harsher punishments for officers that open fire and kill suspects unnecessarily. What can be done, should be done. Even if these people were perpetrators, they shouldn't be the victims too.