Arkansas: Justified Homicides Not Counted in Little Rock

Ammoland ^ | 11 January, 2018 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Those who want a disarmed population make much of the few hundred homicides officially designated as such by the FBI.

In the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), about 300 homicides are reported as justified by private (non-police) actors in the United States each year.

There has been considerable research to show the FBI number only catches about 20 percent of actual justified homicides.

A report out of Little Rock Arkansas illustrates part of the problem. The Little Rock Police Department has not been reporting justifiable homicides separately.

They have included them with murders and non-negligent homicides.  They recently made the decision to report them separately.

From apnews.com:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Police in Little Rock have redefined what types of killings are included in the city’s homicide total in a move that will lower the annual tally that’s recorded.

Lt. Michael Ford tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that justifiable homicides will no longer be included in the broader tally.

The police told the Democrat-Gazette the reason to change the reporting was to follow the FBI UCR reporting guidelines.  The Little Rock Police will now report some justified homicides that were not reported separately before. They will still be missing quite a few justified homicides.

If more than one person is involved in a felony, and someone is killed during because of the felonious actions, an accomplice can be charged with the killing. It is known in the law as the felony murder rule.

If an accomplice is charged with murder under the felony murder rule, the homicide is counted as a murder, even if the person who killed the criminal committing the felony was justified

[marktwain]

The FBI Uniform Crime Reports only catches about 20% of the justified homicides in the United States.

[Pearls Before Swine]

“Justified”

[vooch]

Beria would have loved the term stars sanctioned ‘justifiable homicide’

Our country is one of the very few in which gov’t employees routinely kill their citizens

[thulldud]

“Justified”

Southern translation: "They needed killin'".

[cranked]

Yeah, I was wondering about that when I saw it.....

[Holdem Or Foldem]

Thulldud is right. I lived in Southwest Missouri for some years and saw a story in the local paper about a murder case in which the defendant claimed at trial that the deceased “needed killing”. The defendant was found not guilty.