Betty Shelby should be punished for killing Terence Crutcher – but so should all the male police officers who got away scot free

While very few officers are charged after killing in the line of duty, even fewer are convicted. And of those, even fewer go to prison

Oklahoma officer Betty Shelby has been arrested and charged with manslaughter after she shot dead unarmed black man Terence Crutcher. While all evidence so far points to another unjustifiable killing, it begs the question why the treatment towards her, and the wording of the charges against her, appear to be different to that of her male colleagues – most of whom walk free when they commit similar crimes.

Her arrest and charges are significant for three reasons. First, it is very rare for an officer to face charge after killing a civilian in the line of duty. In most cases, officers are placed on paid administrative leave while a police investigation, a matter of routine, is carried out. The process typically concludes with a statement confirming the officer acted according to protocol.

Second, the process leading to Shelby’s arrest has been rather quick. At the time of writing, protesters are still pressuring police to release video footage of the death of Keith Lamont Scott, which happened just days after Crutcher was killed. For conclusions to be drawn so rapidly is highly unusual.

Third, Shelby is a woman.

If she is convicted of manslaughter of an unarmed black person, it will be one of the very few times a police officer has faced sentencing for the crime. As of 21 September, 844 people have been killed by police in the US this year. There is no official database of “justifiable killings”, but the numbers likely indicate that hundreds of – mostly male – officers are off the hook in 2016 alone.

Donald Trump, an ardent supporter of “law and order”, exhibited an extraordinary turnaround when he criticised Shelby while speaking inside an African-American church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, this week. “Did she get scared? Was she choking? What happened? But people that choke, maybe they can't be doing what they're doing,” he said. Even the language used to charge Shelby in court documents appears to be an example of gender stereotyping. She has been charged with carrying out manslaughter in a “heat of passion”, and “becoming emotionally involved to the point that she over reacted”.

Was the male colleague in the helicopter above Crutcher and Shelby speaking in a “heat of passion” when he called Crutcher, who was holding his hands above his head, a “bad dude”?

When hundreds of people are dying every month in the hands of police, it can be easy for names of victims and accused officers to go unnoticed. On Friday, officers were accused of using excessive force when they were called to the home of 21-year-old black man Tawon Boyd in Maryland. Five police officers came to the house of one man who was 5ft 5in tall. “They kept on grabbing on him and holding him down, and he started screaming, ‘Grandma, Grandma, they’re going to kill me,’” Linda Burch told the Associated Press. None have been named.

While very few officers are charged, even fewer are convicted. Of those, even fewer go to prison.

White officer Randall Kerrick was accused of “cold-blooded murder” in 2013 when he shot college student Jonathan Ferrell 10 times as he was running away. The jury could not reach a verdict and the judge did not order a retrial. Instead, Kerrick reached a settlement whereby he resigned from his job and received a payout of almost $180,000.

One of the exceptions was the case of former officer Peter Liang, who shot dead Akai Gurley in the stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project in November 2014. He was convicted of manslaughter. His supporters said Liang was being scapegoated as an Asian American. Even then, Liang avoided prison and was instead ordered to complete 800 hours of community service.

One of the few white male officers currently awaiting sentencing is Michael Slager, the cop who shot 50-year-old black man Walter Scott eight times in the back in April 2015. The 34-year-old is on bail and stands trial on 31 October.

Commentators are right to condemn Shelby, but they seem to be forgetting about the hundreds –perhaps thousands – of mostly male officers patrolling the streets and towns of the US who have blood on their hands.