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A new report released by the Police Assessment Resource Center says that L.A. sheriff's deputies are more likely to shoot unarmed black or Latino men than they are to do the same to white or Asian men, reports CBS News.
The report points to inadequate training, and says that the shootings are usually the result of the officer thinking that the person they're shooting at has a gun or is reaching for one. Most victims, says the report, wind up having a wallet or cell phone in their hand when they're hit.
Overall, the numbers aren't high -- there were 10 such shootings in 2005 to 15 in 2010 -- but an increase is an increase, and this happens to be a 50% rise.
The best defense that the sheriff's department could muster had to do with percentages and numbers:
“That was a 50 percent increase, true, however, [the number] only went up by five,” said Whitmore. “Now, one is too many, but there’s a difference between the increase in numbers when its magnified in percentages.”
No doubt that's a great comfort to the people who got shot.
Also, it bears mentioning that these shootings are being referred to as "accidental." Let's keep in mind that they aren't accidental. They're deliberate. It's just that they're carried out, ultimately, for no reason.
