Share this preview with others who should see it.

January 2026

"Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force." — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

You're upset about Renee Good. Or Ashli Babbitt. Or George Floyd. Or someone, one death at a time. Hashtags. Outrage cycles. Partisan debates about who deserved it.

Now zoom out.

This post is for paid subscribers. Upgrade for full access.

On September 16, 2007, Blackwater contractors guarding State Department personnel opened fire in Nisour Square, Baghdad. They killed 17 Iraqi civilians. Women. Children. A mother holding her baby.[1]

They shot people in cars. They shot people fleeing. They kept shooting after any conceivable threat had passed.

The aftermath took seven years. One contractor, Nicholas Slatten, was convicted of murder. Three others got manslaughter. It was hailed as a rare victory: American contractors held accountable for killing foreigners.

In December 2020, President Trump pardoned all four.[2]

Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder, was never charged. He lives in Abu Dhabi. He advises governments. He does podcasts. His net worth is estimated at $2 billion.[3]

Seventeen dead Iraqis. Zero prison time served. The man who built the company is a billionaire podcast guest.

This is the scale of American impunity. Domestic killings are the spillover. The main event is what we do abroad, where there are no cameras, no witnesses, no hashtags, and no consequences.

The Domestic Echo

The defense of Jonathan Ross in 2026 echoes the defense of Blackwater in 2007.

In both cases, the perpetrators are framed as patriots doing a dangerous job in hostile territory. Their victims are framed as threats or insurgents. The state closes ranks to protect its own.

Vice President Vance's defense of Ross mirrors the arguments made for the Blackwater contractors: these men were traumatized, they perceived danger, they acted on instinct:

"You think maybe he's a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him?"[4]

Trauma is real. But trauma doesn't grant a license to kill. It's an explanation, not an excuse. In a functioning system, it would be evidence presented at trial, not justification for avoiding one.

What Other Countries Do

American exceptionalism extends to killing. We're not the only democracy where agents of the state use lethal force. The difference is scale and accountability.

The per capita numbers are damning:[5]

| Country | Annual Deaths | Rate per 10 Million |

|---------|---------------|---------------------|

| United States | 1,100-1,300 | 33.5 |

| Canada | ~40 | 9.7 |

| Australia | ~22 | 8.5 |

| France | 36 | ~5 |

| Germany | 10-15 | ~1.5 |

| United Kingdom | 2-3 | ~0.45 |

| Taiwan | 2 | 0.8 |

| Japan | 2 | 0.2 |

Japan killed 2 people in 2018. Taiwan killed 2. The United States killed 1,096.[6] If America killed at Japan's rate, we'd lose 6 people a year, not 1,100. Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, and Croatia reported zero.

The US rate is 3 times Canada, 7 times France, 22 times Germany, 75 times the UK, and 165 times Japan. Among developed nations, only the United States appears in the global top tier for police killings. Every other country in the top 10 is a developing nation.[7]

United Kingdom: Between 2020 and 2025, police in England and Wales fatally shot fewer than 15 people total.[8] Every death triggers an automatic investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, a civilian agency. Police don't investigate themselves.

Canada: Provinces have independent civilian oversight bodies like Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, which has the power to charge officers.[9] The charge rate is low (around 5%), but the structural independence exists.

France: When 17-year-old Nahel M. was shot during a traffic stop in 2023, the officer was immediately charged with voluntary homicide and detained.[10] He goes to trial for murder in 2026. Swift judicial response. Unimaginable in America for a federal agent.

Germany: The legal standard is Ultima Ratio (last resort). Training emphasizes de-escalation. State prosecutors investigate.[11] A 2023 study found that only 2.3% of police violence charges even go to trial, with 98% dropped. But Germany only has 10-15 killings per year to begin with.

The Numbers Nobody Wants to Hear

From 2005 to 2024, 204 American police officers were charged with murder or manslaughter for on-duty shootings. Only 64 were convicted. Only 7 were convicted of actual murder.[12]

That's a 31% conviction rate for officers who make it to trial. But making it to trial is the exception: fewer than 3% of police killings result in any charges at all.[13]

Do the math: 1,100 killed per year. 3% charged. 31% of those convicted. That's a conviction rate of roughly 0.9% of all killings.

For federal agents, the rate is worse. ICE agents were responsible for at least 59 shootings from 2015 to 2021, 23 of them fatal.[14] Prosecution rate: effectively zero. The Department of Homeland Security doesn't even publish details on these shootings, including where they occurred, how many injuries there were, or whether victims were armed.

We're not just worse than other democracies. We're in a different category.

The Uncivilized Country Thesis

America isn't uncivilized because of crime rates or poverty or any of the usual metrics. It's uncivilized because the government executes its citizens in the street and the only debate is whether the corpse had it coming.

In a civilized country:

* Michael Byrd faces trial for shooting Ashli Babbitt

* Jonathan Ross faces trial for shooting Renee Good

* A jury decides, not Twitter, not DHS, not partisan media

* Evidence is preserved and shared with independent investigators

* Accountability exists regardless of the victim's politics

We don't have that. We have tribes arguing over which deaths were justified while the body count rises.

The pattern repeats:

1. Federal agent kills citizen

2. Video exists

3. Half the country cheers, half demands justice

4. No prosecution

5. Family sues

6. Taxpayer-funded settlement

7. Agent retires or gets reassigned

8. Next killing

The cycle is stable because both sides get their turn to be outraged and their turn to celebrate. Nobody breaks ranks to demand consistent accountability because that would mean defending the other tribe's martyrs.

The iPhone Delusion

Here's something nobody wants to hear: filming the police doesn't protect you.

Renee Good was filming. She's dead. Her wife was filming. She's a widow.

The phone is not a shield. It's not a weapon. It's evidence for a trial that will never happen, for a settlement that will be paid with your tax dollars.

People think recording creates accountability. It doesn't. It creates content. The accountability requires a system willing to prosecute, and that system doesn't exist for federal agents.

You can film your own death in 4K. It won't change the outcome. It will just give cable news better footage.

The Death Wish Dynamic

Sometimes people insert themselves into confrontations they can't win. They mouth off to armed men. They escalate when they should retreat. Something in them wants the bullet.

Sometimes officers rack up use-of-force incidents. They put themselves in situations where lethal force becomes "necessary." They wait for permission. The badge is the opportunity. The confrontation is the excuse.

Sometimes they meet. And someone dies.

I'm not psychoanalyzing Renee Good or Jonathan Ross. I don't know what was in their heads. But the dynamic is real, and it's worth naming.

If you're drawn to confrontations with armed agents of the state, ask yourself why. Your righteousness won't stop bullets. Your rights protect you in court, if you live to get there. They don't protect you in the moment.

If you're in law enforcement and you're counting the days until you get to use your weapon, you're a danger. Get out. Get help. You're going to kill someone who didn't deserve it and call it justified.

The rest of us? Stay away from both types. They'll find each other eventually.

The Consistent Position

"There is no leftist and rightist suffering. We are just sending doctors to take care of the people." — Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières

The left was right about police brutality.

The data is overwhelming. The per capita rates. The conviction statistics. The international comparisons. For decades, activists pointed at these numbers while conservatives dismissed them as anti-cop hysteria.

Then Ashli Babbitt happened, and suddenly conservatives discovered that federal agents might abuse their power. But even then, the conversation was about trigger discipline and threat assessment protocols, not "the state shouldn't execute citizens without trial."

The left, meanwhile, abandoned its principles the moment the victim wore a Trump flag. The same people who marched for George Floyd mocked Babbitt's death. Consistency would have required defending someone they despised.

Neither side wants accountability. They want their team to win.

The position almost nobody holds:

* The state shouldn't execute citizens without trial

* Video evidence should lead to prosecution, not debate

* Federal agents aren't above the law

* Trauma doesn't justify killing

* The politics of the victim is irrelevant to whether the killing was lawful

This isn't left or right. It's the baseline of rule of law.

We like to think we meet that baseline. The evidence says otherwise.

Barbarism With Extra Steps

Ashli Babbitt and Renee Good died the same way. Federal agent. Single confrontation. Video evidence. No prosecution.

The only difference is which half of the country mourned and which half cheered.

If you're waiting for the "right" administration to fix this, you'll wait forever.

The legal shield was forged in 1890. The Judgment Fund pays the settlements. The data on federal killings stays opaque. The prosecution rate stays at zero. Erik Prince stays a billionaire.

This is what we are. Not despite the Constitution, but enabled by interpretations of it that predate the automobile.

The question isn't whether America will change. It's whether you'll keep pretending it's something it isn't.

We execute citizens in the street. We argue about whether they deserved it. We move on.

That's an uncivilized country.

Notes

Notes

[1] "Nisour Square massacre." Wikipedia. Comprehensive account of the September 16, 2007 shooting by Blackwater contractors that killed 17 Iraqi civilians.

[2] "Trump pardons Blackwater contractors convicted over 2007 Iraq massacre." The Guardian, December 2020. Documents the full pardons issued to all four convicted contractors.

[3] "Erik Prince." Wikipedia. Details Prince's post-Blackwater career, including his advisory roles and current residence in Abu Dhabi.

[4] "ICE agent who fatally shot woman in Minneapolis was dragged by car in earlier incident." Star Tribune, January 2026. Reports Vance's public defense invoking Ross's prior trauma.

[5] "Not just 'a few bad apples': U.S. police kill civilians at much higher rates than other countries." Prison Policy Initiative, June 2020. Comprehensive per capita comparison showing US rate of 33.5 per 10 million residents versus 9.8 in Canada and 8.5 in Australia.

[6] "List of countries with annual rates and counts for killings by law enforcement officers." Wikipedia. Comprehensive database showing Japan with 2 police killings (rate 0.2 per 10 million), Taiwan with 2 (rate 0.8), and the United States with 1,096 (rate 33.1) in comparable years.

[7] "Police Killings by Country 2026." World Population Review. Documents that the United States has the highest police killing rate among developed nations; every other country in the global top 10 is a developing nation.

[8] "Fatal police shootings." Inquest UK. Tracks police-involved deaths in England and Wales since 1990, documenting 88 total fatal shootings in 35 years, with fewer than 15 between 2020-2025.

[9] "SIU Releases 2024/25 Annual Report." Ontario Special Investigations Unit. Documents independent civilian oversight of police use of force in Canada with power to charge officers.

[10] "French officer faces murder trial for killing of teenager Nahel Merzouk." Euronews, June 2025. Reports that Officer Florian M. was immediately charged after the 2023 shooting and will face murder trial in 2026.

[11] "Study sheds light on massive police violence in Germany." World Socialist Web Site, May 2023. Reports Goethe University study finding only 2.3% of police violence charges go to trial, with 98% dropped.

[12] "On-Duty Shootings: Police Officers Charged with Murder or Manslaughter." Bowling Green State University Police Integrity Research Group. Comprehensive database showing 204 officers charged from 2005-2024, with only 64 convictions and only 7 for murder.

[13] "2025 Police Violence Report." Mapping Police Violence. Documents that fewer than 3% of police killings result in officers being charged with a crime, with convictions even rarer.

[14] "How Many People Have Been Shot in ICE Raids?" The Trace, December 2025. Investigation documenting at least 59 ICE shootings from 2015-2021, including 23 fatal, with immigration agents "recklessly firing their weapons and rarely prosecuted."

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tatsuikeda.substack.com/subscribe