If it is wanton murder by government for reasons of
political, genocide or mass murder the author attempts to
count it.
Read the authors definition of democide below.
"Does that statistic also include the number of ordinary criminals gunned down by police officers?"
No. It does not meet the definition.
The term democide means for governments what murder means
for an individual under municipal law. It is the
premeditated killing of a person in cold blood, or causing
the death of a person through reckless and wanton
disregard for their life. Thus, a government incarcerating
people in a prison under such deadly conditions that they
die in a few years is murder by the state--democide--as
would parents letting a child die from malnutrition and
exposure be murder. So would government forced labor that
kills a person within months or a couple of years be
murder. So would government created famines that then are
ignored or knowingly aggravated by government action be
murder of those who starve to death. And obviously,
extrajudicial executions, death by torture, government
massacres, and all genocidal killing be murder. However,
judicial executions for crimes that internationally would
be considered capital offenses, such as for murder or
treason (as long as it is clear that these are not
fabricated for the purpose of executing the accused, as in
communist show trials), are not democide. Nor is democide
the killing of enemy soldiers in combat or of armed
rebels, nor of noncombatants as a result of military
action against military targets.
With this understanding of democide, Table 1 lists all
communist governments that have committed any form of
democide and gives their estimated total domestic and
foreign democide and its annual rate (the percent of a
government's domestic population murdered per year). It
also shows the total for communist guerrillas (including
quasi-governments, as of the Mao soviets in China prior to
the communist victory in 1949) and the world total for all
governments and guerillas (including such quasi-
governments as of the White Armies during the Russian
civil war in 1917-1922). Figure 1 graphs the communist
megamurderers and compares this to the communist and world
totals.
Genocide: among other things, the killing of people by a
government because of their indelible group membership
(race, ethnicity, religion, language).
Politicide: the murder of any person or people by a
government because of their politics or for political
purposes.
Mass Murder: the indiscriminate killing of any person or
people by a government.
Democide: The murder of any person or people by a
government, including genocide, politicide, and mass
murder.
Table 1.
From:
DEATH BY GOVERNMENT
Definition of Democide