With the dog days of summer still weeks away, officer-involved shootings in South Carolina are proceeding at a potentially record-shattering clip.
Within the last forty-eight hours, two officer-involved shootings took place in the Palmetto State. The first took place in York County on Sunday and involved a trooper with the S.C. Highway Patrol (SCHP). The second took place in Darlington County on Monday involving deputies of the Darlington County sheriff’s office and the Hartsville, S.C. police department.
Investigations into both of these incidents are ongoing, according to the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) – the agency in charge of both inquiries.
According to a news release (.pdf) from SLED, the Darlington shooting on Monday evening was the 25th officer-involved shooting in South Carolina this year. Assuming this pace is maintained, the yearly record for officer-involved shootings – set in 2017 – would be shattered.
That year, there were 49 officer-involved shootings. If the current pace is maintained, there would be 60 such incidents this year.
The latest round of police-related shootings hit the news not long after the websiteSafeHome.org published a widely cited report entitled “America’s Most Dangerous States.”
South Carolina ranked No. 6 on that list …
(Click to view)
(Via: SafeHome.org)
The SafeHome.org report was based on uniform crime data compiled annually by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The data cited in the report was compiled by the FBI in 2017.
Our view? This data – as well as the recent ramp-up in officer-involved shootings – is yet another symptom of South Carolina’s enduring lack of economic opportunity. As the old expression goes, “desperate times call for desperate measures.”
So far, it is shaping up to be a desperate year indeed … with a long, hot summer still lying ahead of us.
-FITSNews
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