Although it was infrequent that victims of police violence complained to the LAPD, the Commission's report found that there were 183 officers with four or more brutality complaints against them. The Commission singled out 44 officers with six or more complaints. Such unstable and violent elements, many from military backgrounds, typically set the tone. Every major city in the United States has such units, which account for many of the shootings and assaults. Most of these attacks occur with no publicity.
Explanations are concocted, and cops are exonerated.
In state after state, police carry out street death sentences that far exceed the number of court ordered executions. One of them, Chad Edwards, a black youth, was shot in the head by Chicago police on February 1998. Edwards and his girlfriend were visiting a neighbor's house with permission when the police entered unannounced. Edwards, unarmed, was shot when he went to the doorway to investigate the noise. The police ruled the shooting justifiable.