Issodhos @aol.com wrote:

>While only 499 murderers were executed during this period, 1,820 cops
>were "informally executed" in the line of duty.
>
>Police officers killed in the line of duty

[...]

Is that killed in the line of duty, or murdered? I mean, how many were
accidently killed? Perhaps by other trigger-happy cops, perhaps
drunk-driving, whatever. Your statistics are vague.

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell Tas

PS: what about this, another side to the barbaric US justice system -

Published on Wednesday, May 10, 2000 by the Associated Press
Amnesty International Accuses The US Of Torture, Brutal Tactics
Report Blames 'Punitive Approach' to Justice

GENEVA - Amnesty International criticized the United States today for
increasingly brutal police measures against crime suspects, saying
the use of pepper spray and stunning devices as punishment
constitutes torture.

The London-based human rights group presented a report to the U.N.
Committee Against Torture, which meets Wednesday to consider the U.S.
record for the first time since Washington ratified a convention
outlawing torture in 1994. Since then, the "increasingly punitive
approach toward offenders [in the United States] has continued to
lead to practices which facilitate torture or other forms of ill-
treatment," Amnesty said. U.S. officials in Geneva for the session
had no immediate comment.

In the 45-page report, the London-based human rights group cited long-
term isolation for prisoners and incarceration of asylum-seekers
in "cruel and degrading conditions." It said the rising prison
population contributed to widespread ill-treatment of inmates and
that police brutality is particularly directed at racial and ethnic
minorities.

Pepper spray, stun belts cited

Amnesty pointed to the use of pepper spray, tear gas and electric-
shock devices and noted in particular the use of pepper spray against
demonstrators protesting at meetings of the World Trade Organization
and other events in recent months.

It said there are reports of police officers dousing suspects with
spray as a form of "street justice" after they had already been
restrained. At the WTO protests in Seattle in November and December,
protesters accused police of swabbing pepper gel or foam into their
eyes while they were in custody, the report said.

Amnesty also cited the use of stun belts, which are placed around a
prisoner's waist and can apply shocks. It said 100 U.S. jurisdictions
have acquired stun belts, citing one example where a prisoner was
given an electric shock in open court by order of the judge.

"As with other international human rights treaties, the United
States' respect for the Convention against torture is only
halfhearted when applied to itself," it said.

'Abuses' acknowledged

In its report to the committee made public last year, the United
States said cases of torture are rare, but it conceded that "abuses
occur despite the best precautions and the strictest prohibitions."

It assured the panel that torture is a criminal offense in the United
States and that perpetrators are prosecuted and victims entitled to
compensation. The federal government also may take civil action
against police misconduct under a 1994 law.

"Every unit of government at every level within the United States is
committed, by law as well as by policy, to the protection of the
individual's life, liberty and physical integrity," the report said.

Copyright 2000 Associated Press