Who kills police?

Data analysis of police murders in Canada

Last week, two police officers in Innisfil, Ontario were shot and killed while responding to a call from a home. News agencies reported that the shooter, who had been shot dead at the scene, had briefly been in the Canadian Armed Forces. I was curious — how common was it that someone who carried out police killings were trained by the Canadian military?

I went back through all police deaths related to gun shot (rather than motor vehicle accident, drowning or earthquake) to see what I could find about the perpetrators.

Since 2011, 11 men killed 15 police officers were killed in Canada by gunshot (two of which were killed by someone who was determined to be Not Criminally Responsible, meaning the number should be considered 13 murders from 10 men to account for the fact that the perpetrator was formally not considered guilty).

In the same period of time, 241 people were killed by police.

Seven of the perpetrators were white men, two Indigenous men and one Black man. Two of the men, who killed three officers, had military training. Although two other men, who killed 4 officers were obsesed with law enforcement (Justin Bourque and Gabriel Wortman).

What is far more interesting than their connection to the millitary though (it was a hypothesis that I had when I started this and realized that it turned up nothing interesting) is that at least five of the 11 men (or, 6 of the 8 white men if we add back in the individual who was found to be NCR) consumed extremist, hateful ideology/were committed members of hate groups.

It’s extremely curious that the movements that pose the biggest threat to police aren’t the ones that they police the most, it’s the one where you are more likely to find police sympathies. Considering not a single police officer in the past 11 years (and more…) has lost their life as a result of left-wing activism or movements, why are they the ones who are so heavily criminalized?