CALIFORNIA — When reading news stories about a “justifiable homicide,” it almost always involves law enforcement officers. In the rabid, anti-police sentiment that has spread like wildfire around the country, police often take unyielding criticism from the uninformed populace when they use lethal force.
However, statistics published Thursday by the State of California reveals that citizens used deadly force in 40% of the state’s justifiable homicide cases last year. Much to the chagrin of cop-haters, this is a sobering reality of criminal violence—good people (private citizens and police) are sometimes forced to take a life in order to preserve life.
“In 2020, there were 143 justifiable homicides reported. Of these, 85 were committed by a peace officer and 58 were committed by a private citizen,” according to the California Department of Justice report.
A “justifiable homicide” is defined by Cornell Law School as, “The taking of a human life under circumstances of justification, as a matter of right, such as self-defense, or other causes set out in statute.”
Although the civilian population outnumbers police officers about 330 to 1 in California, the fact that 58 of them defended human life to the peril of an attacker last year is noteworthy.
Make of it what you will, but this appears to show remarkable restraint on the part of police personnel since cops find themselves in lethal force encounters far more frequently than the typical private citizen.
There are just under 40 million residents in California compared to about 121,000 full-time cops in the state, so one might discount the figures. Nevertheless, the state’s 2020 arrest rate is 2,812 per 100,000, which means they arrested about 1,124,800 people last year, including 1,597 for murder. Thousands of these custodial encounters occurred with non-compliant suspects as well as all-out-brawlers who refused to submit to police custody and demonstrated a desire to inflict great bodily injury on police.
About 10,000 California police officers get assaulted annually. As a result, they find themselves in lethal force encounters far more frequently than a citizen would ever imagine.
Depending upon jurisdiction, some officers working high crime neighborhoods could find themselves in potential deadly force encounters weekly—some even more frequently. The fact that California police officers were only involved in 85 justifiable homicides during the spike in violent crime in 2020 is a testament to their professionalism, training, AND restraint.
A police officer working for a city in Los Angeles County, and has been involved in four shootings (each one has been cleared as a justified use of force) told Law Officer, “It seems like someone wants to kill me every day. … It’s emotionally draining. Anyone who thinks a cop wants to go through this (OIS) in today’s culture is out of their mind.”
Other noteworthy statistics from the report in regards to California’s 2020 justifiable homicides follow…
Of the 85 reported as deceased by justifiable homicide – peace officer:
- 94.1 percent were male and 5.9 percent were female.
- 49.4 percent were Hispanic, 22.4 percent were white, 20.0 percent were black, and 8.2 percent were of other race/ethnic groups.
- 37.6 percent were aged 30-39, 36.5 percent were aged 18-29, and 25.9 percent were aged 40 or over.
- All involved the use of a firearm.
Of the 58 reported as deceased by justifiable homicide – citizen:
- 94.8 percent were male and 5.2 percent were female.
- 39.7 percent were Hispanic, 32.8 percent were white, 20.7 percent were black, and 6.9 percent were of other race/ethnic groups.
- 34.5 percent were aged 18-29, 31.0 percent were aged 30-39, 31.0 percent were aged 40 or over, and 3.4 percent were under the age of 18.
- Firearms were used in 65.5 percent of the incidents.
In 2020, California had a total 2,202 homicides, an increase of 31% percent over the previous year. Two of those murders involved “peace officers, both white males were feloniously killed in the line of duty. Both were killed with firearms,” according to the report.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that every suspect who lost his or her life at the hands of a California peace officer in 2020 possessed a firearm. There were no “unarmed young black men murdered” by California cops last year. Perhaps even more noteworthy is that 34.5% of the justified homicides by a private citizen did not involve a firearm, yet the taking of another human life was justified under the circumstances.
