Cops shoot 13 times more civilians, than civilians shoot cops

Discussion
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The following is what I posted to SFGate comments on their Oct. 14 article "Officers tackle man they say pulled a gun" (online at
http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2011/10/14/officers-tackle-man-they-say-pulled-a-gun/?plckItemsPerPage=50&plckSort=TimeStampDescending&plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:134c8720-67b5-47be-9286-ad1d1ea0af8d ):

Certainly we can be glad that the SFPD officers did not risk the lives of bystanders by firing into a crowd. And unquestionably the officer who tackled Turner acted bravely. One only wishes that more of his colleagues would follow his example.

When way more members of the public are killed by police than the other way around, this is strong evidence that most cops are putting their own safety ahead of public safety -- hardly heroic behavior:

"Stats of civilian deaths are hard to come by because police departments intentionally make it difficult to obtain them. There was a study done covering 2003-2005 though that documented 2,002 'arrest related deaths' in that three year window.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/11/national/main3359288.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._3359288

"By comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics does assemble 'officer down' stats and very meticulously at that. Though it naturally fluctuates, a typical year has only 30-50 cops who die from other non-criminal means – mostly traffic accidents and friendly fire from other cops."

-From The Agitator

A conservative estimate of 650 people killed at the hands of police each year, and a liberal estimate of 50 police killed by civilians each year, still gives us a ratio of 13 civilians killed by cops for every cop killed by a civilian.

And that is a serious problem I don't ever hear the media talking about.

  I would be interested in seeing confirmation or refutation of this statistic, or just more recent or comprehensive data, but this is what I found.

Love & Liberty,
                                         ((( starchild )))

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I'd like to see more media coverage of this too -- but we won't, jsut as we won't see more media coverage of all the evidence that cannabis can cure and prevent cancer.
The police ALSO shoot a LOT of dogs unnecessarily. I could tell personal stories about that here, but won't. If there was more GOOD media coverage of the shooting deaths of dogs by the police, there's be a bigger public outcry for investigations and reform -- because a lot of people love dogs and can be pretty sure that the police didn't really think a dog was armed . . . and while dogs have teeth, most people know that you can kick an attacking poodle away instead of SHOOTING it!
We need an initiative to overturn some of these stupid court decisions, e.g., that the names of officers involved in shooting may not be released to the public. There are other related issues that could be included in an initiative, e.g., that all cities and counties MUST have a Police Review Commission, and that it must meet certain criteria to try to avoid it being co-opted by the police (which is what happened here in Riverside), and that it must have the right to conduct independent reviews without interference from the police.
This kind of initiative would be a great project for the California Libertarian Party (easy for me to suggest, I know).