# Police Shootings

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-shootings/7260>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 15, 2000, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-shootings/7260 "2000-02-15T17:36:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2000, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-shootings/7260/1 "2000-02-15T17:36:00Z")

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I’m from NY. What’s wrong with that?  
Besides gun happy cops, that is. We here in the Big City have been talking a lot about police on trial. One of the points brought out frequently is that no policeman has ever been convicted of murder for actions taken while on duty. Is this right? Maybe only in New York?

Does anyone out there know of a police convicted of murdering someone while doing his duty?

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**Author:** ![Jimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@Jimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimpy)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2000, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-shootings/7260/2 "2000-02-15T17:57:00Z")

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I suspect what you have here is a matter of definitions. If you’re doing your duty, you don’t murder innocent people, so as you phrased it last, no.

As you phrased it earlier, “murdered someone while on duty”–that’s different. It’s very hard to convict a police officer of murder, they have an almost virtually automatic fallback position that makes it an argument of “negligent homicide” verses “justifiable use of force”.

## That doesn’t mean that no police officer has ever murdered someone else while on duty, it’s just very hard to prove.

**Jim Petty  
 _An oak tree is just a nut that stood it’s ground_**

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2000, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-shootings/7260/3 "2000-02-16T06:00:00Z")

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I’ve heard of police accused of manslaughter. The only other option I can picture is self-defense. Maybe it’s assumed the cop’s actions are not with malice. Then again, you never know if a “hit” might not actually be a personal vendetta, and the cops just protect their own by saying it was in the line of duty.

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**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2000, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-shootings/7260/4 "2000-02-15T19:01:00Z")

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I don’t know if you are asking specifically for NY but here in Manitoba there have been two high profile (one currently underway) of cops using undue force and someone died.