Mothers, brothers, sons and daughters in cities across the country are suffering from the loss of a loved one to police use of fatal force. In 2017 The Washington Post reports police officers in the United States shot and killed 987 people. Sixty eight of them, men and women, some of them teenagers like Tony Robinson, were unarmed when they were shot and killed by police officers. The county with highest number of police shootings per capita in the country, is right here in Kern County in California. Last year, police in Los Angeles shot more than three times the number of people shot by police in New York City, even though NY has one-fourth as many officers.

What is the law on the police use of lethal force? Is there a way, under the law, to prevent these deaths from happening in the future?

This week, Life of the Law's team meets up in the studios of KQED in San Francisco to talk about our most recent episode, DEATH BY POLICE: A MOTHER'S (AUDIO) DIARY and officer use of fatal force.

In-Studio Team:

• Osagie Obasogie, Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and a Member of Life of the Law’s Advisory Board

• Tony Gannon, Life of the Law’s Senior Producer

• Troy Williams, Founder of the San Quentin Prison Report and RISE Coordinator at Chabot College.

• And joining us from the studios of KQED in Sacramento, Lizzie Buchen, Legislative Advocate for the ACLU of California’s Center for Advocacy and Policy.

Production Notes:

IN-STUDIO: POLICE, RACE AND FATAL FORCE was produced by Tony Gannon and Andrea Hendrickson. Nancy Mullane is Executive Producer. Rachael Cain is our Social-Media Editor. Katie McMurran was our engineer at KQED in San Francisco. Katie Orr engineered from KQED studios in Sacramento.

Special thanks to Lizzie Buchen, Legislative Advocate with the ACLU California’s Center for Advocacy and Policy and Troy Williams, Founder of the San Quentin Prison Report and RISE Coordinator at Chabot College for joining us In-Studio.

Life of the Law is a non-profit project of the Tides Center and we’re part of the Panoply Network of Podcasts from Slate. You can also find Life of the Law on PRX, Public Radio Exchange. Visit our website, Life of the Law.org and make a very much appreciated donation to help cover the costs of producing this feature episode. © Copyright 2018 Life of the Law. All rights reserved.

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