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A report at Alternet gives some context to the amount spent by the U.S. on its drug policy.
- 1,100 - The number of Americans that die each year due to violent crime caused by the drug war
- $51 billion - The amount that the U.S. government spends each year on the war on drugs
- 61 percent - The percentage of individuals targeted by drug-related SWAT raids who are people of color
- 82 percent - The number of Americans who believe that the government is losing the War on Drugs
- 18 months - The age of Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh, a recent American casualty of the drug war
The article goes into further details on the number, including:
On May 28, a team of police officers raided the Phonesavanh's home, with the mistaken belief that the residents were involved with drugs. As they entered, they tossed a flashbang grenade that landed directly in the crib of baby Bou Bou, which exploded within point-blank range - critically injuring him.
In a harrowing article, his mother, Alecia, described seeing "a singed crib" and "a pool of blood", and later being informed by medics: "There's still a hole in his chest that exposes his ribs". Alecia said that the sole silver lining to this story is that it may "make us angry enough that we stop accepting brutal SWAT raids as a normal way to fight the war on drugs".
Fortunately, Bou Bou has been making a gradual recovery, but his family is relying on donations to support their living and medical costs.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @05:30PM
More total men are murdered, but they're murdered for many different reasons: robbery, drug dealing, sports rivalries... Thexalon is pointing out that when you break murders down by motives, the most common motive is "make me a sandwich, bitch!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 12 2014, @09:37AM
Women are significantly more likely [nih.gov] to engage in non-reciprocal violence than men (approximately 70%). Women are significantly more likely (approximately 84%) to use a weapon and as a result, around 74% of those men are likely to be seriously injured requiring medical attention, in domestic violence.
Men are significantly more likely to be the victim of domestic violence than women. Men are significantly more likely to be arrested for domestic violence than women, particularly in cases where the woman was the aggressor.
On top of all of this, women are twice as likely to be raped by same-sex partners. This means that, once strength is removed as a factor, women are bigger rapists than men. Source: The Gender of Sexuality, Rutter and Schwartz.