Why Does The Homicide Report List Killings by Police?

(Bullet holes after a 2005 shootout between LAPD officers and a hostage-taker in which the hostage, a child, was killed.--Gary Friedman/LAT)

Any death of a human being by the hand of another is included in The Homicide Report.

This is the Los Angeles County coroner's definition of homicide. The definition wraps in both criminal homicides and justifiable homicides by police, as well as justifiable homicides by civilians acting in self- defense.

The coroner's investigation, which is separate from a police investigation, is what determines how the case is categorized. Coroner's investigators take intent, as well as other factors, into account. To the coroner, the word "homicide" is a medical examiner's term of art, not a legal concept, said coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey. "If the D.A. chooses to file charges, or not file charges, it's of no concern to the coroner," he said.

That's why vehicular homicide and manslaughter cases often don't qualify. The exception is cases in which a driver had a clear intent--in the eyes of the coroner's investigators--to use a car as a waepon to kill another human being. Thus, the victims of the Santa Monica Farmers' Market crash were not labeled homicide victims by the coroner, although the driver was prosecuted. But Joseph Mendoza, who was killed Feb. 14 when a fistfight escalated into an apparently deliberate car-versus-pedestrian assault, was listed by the coroner as a homicide victim.

The same accounting method is used by the Centers for Disease Control for its national mortality reports. The method differs from that used by the FBI, which collects data from law enforcement agencies. The inclusion of justifiable homicides, police killings, and other deaths not listed by law enforcement as homicides, means that the Centers for Disease Control routinely places homicide numbers at a higher point than the FBI does. In 2004, for example, the CDC reported more than 17,300 homicides; the FBI that same year reported 16,137.

The Homicide Report presents this larger data set. It is not a catalog of first-degree murder cases but rather a measure of lethal conflict between human beings in any form.

That includes cases in which a police officer is menaced with a deadly weapon, and fires back in his or her own defense. The Homicide Report presents such incidents simply as a fatal encounters between human beings. Thus, victims can be instigators and still make the Homicide Report. They need only to be dead to qualify. There is, as Harvey said, "no judgment on it."

Comments

[Chaka]

I totally agree ever murder is a murder regarless of who commits it. Whether it is legal or illegal a life was still lost.And I thank you for reporting all murders this makes me more aware of my surrounds everyday I read this report and it list a diffrent life diffrent location diffrent race and diffrent gender.Which should make you think what makes the police killings diffrent? Again it is still no diffrent be cause its a life!

[MOURNING]

My cousin Michael Rosas was killed May 27,2007 We have been trying to find out what has been going on with the investigation of his murder from the Whittier police Department we have not heard any thing back from them. Please if there is any way or any one that can give us any information on his murder please go to his homicide report Michael Rosas.

[LAPD OFFICER]

The difference with Police killings is they are called justifiable homicide. They are legal because they are done as a immediate defense of life and as a last rersort.

[Larry]

It is very odd how police shootings of blacks make the news but the 11,000 murders alone in 2006 by black criminals against other black people gets the last page, if at all.

[Police Perspective]

Chaka, this is for you....

There is a difference. Police officers are community service oriented, selfliess public servents who are trying to make a difference by putting human predators in jail. They risk their lives for you and many like you who often don't desrve the protection. They are trying to make the streets safer so that your mothers and sisters can walk to the market without getting jacked by some drug adled OG becasue they are wearing the wrong colors.

Now this won't be to politically correct, but there's a BIG differnece between the death of a police officer and the death of an inner city gangbanger. One person has dedicated his life towards making the community a safer place and the the other is a sorry waste of life and oxygen.

When the police kill someone they are usually killing some human piece of garbage who's presence will not be misssed by anybody other than his homies. All decent, law abiding citizens mourn the loss of a police officer because WE do what WE do for others---perfect strangers. In contrast, YOU do what YOU do for you and you alone. Big difference in ones worth to society. We all lose when a brave police officer gets killed in the line of duty whereas the public is just a little bit safer when there's one let OG menacing his neighborhood.

[JANET]

TO mR pOLICE pERSPECTIVE:

EVERY HUMAN HAS A SOUL AND A SPIRIT THAT IS MADE BY THE LORD NO ONE IS A WASTE OF GARBAGE. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU WERE A GANGBANGER OR A POLICE OFFICER WE'RE ALL GOD'S CHILDREN. WHO GIVES ANYONE THE RIGHT TO SAY WHO'S WORTHY AND WHO'S NOT? WE ALL HAVE A PURPOSE IN LIFE WHETHER IT'S FOR THE GOOD OR THE BAD. WE ARE ALL EQUAL,WE COME INTO THIS WORLD BY OURSELVES AND WE LEAVE BY OURSELVES. WE CHOSE OUR PATH IN LIFE AND HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE,SO KEEP YOUR WORTHLESS OPINIONS TO YOURSELF.

[Eloy Arvallo]

This is for mourning and all the people who have had a family member murdered by the police. I am in the same situation, my brother was murdered by lynwood swat and they are also giving us the run-around. Not just the police but the District Attorneys office as well. They do not want to release a police report to us.They are hiding the truth from us. They say we are all innocent until proven guilty, but my brother was never given the chance. Regardless of the circumstances a murder is still a murder if a life has been taken away. Therefore I am glad they include killings by police because in the end when all is done, they have commited murder. My brother was killed Aug. 10th, 2008 and I am not going to quit until I find justice, the legal way, in the court of law.