US police kill about 1,000 per year

[RussBLib]

The Washington Post began tracking shootings by police in 2015. It appears there is very little data prior to 2015, which should be criminal.

Since 2015:
2883 white people killed, out of 197 million
1496 blacks killed, out of 36 million

Obviously blacks are killed at a much higher rate than whites.

When is this shit going to stop?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/

[Klaralven]

1. Blacks were arrested at a far higher rate than whites

In 2019, for murder, 5070 whites and 5660 blacks were arrested.

https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/ucr.asp?table_in=2
Estimated number of arrests by offense and race, 2019

[WarGamer]

5. A major part of that goes to...

Wealth Inequity.

Poor communities are violent communities. Fact.

If the rich paid their fair share, we could elevate people out of poverty and give them something to live FOR, not continuing in their circle of violence.

[WarGamer]

2. How many of those shootings are bad?

I have no problem shooting the turd in the pickup truck who killed the cop with an AR15... walked over to the fallen cop and put one in his head...

No problem with the cops waxing his ass a few minutes later.

[RussBLib]

4. Don't see any data on that

Determining "justified" vs "non-justified shootings has to be a sticky wicket.

[WarGamer]

6. Real sticky.

But I bet it's a really high number.

[Elessar Zappa]

8. The fact that

Blacks are killed at much higher rates than whites shows a problem. It's not like black people are inherently more criminal than whites.

[RussBLib]

10. Indeed

For instance, cannabis use among black and white populations is roughly equal, yet blacks get arrested for weed at a far higher rate.

I'm pretty sure the same goes for other crimes.

[MichMan]

14. FBI drug arrests statistics listed below

Drug abuse violations

Total White Black Native American Asian Pacific Islander

997,642, 708,139, 263,019, 12,878, 11,202, 2,404

[MichMan]

13. FBI statistics say otherwise

FBI statistics posted below for arrests above the age of 18 for Violent crimes

Total White Black Native American Asian Pacific Islander
320,508 192,359 113,212 7,617 5,438 1,882

Violent crimes are offenses of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Property crimes are offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.


[link:https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/tables/table-43#:~:text=In%202019%2C%2069.4%20percent%20of%20all%20individuals%20arrested,was%20reported%2C%2019.1%20percent%20were%20Hispanic%20or%20Latino.|

[USALiberal]

3. Also, most cops in a 30 year career never fire their weapon. Nt

[RussBLib]

7. So I have heard

So a small number of cops are doing the killing, I guess.

[Klaralven]

11. There are about 800,000 police officers in the us.

So that is one suspect killed per 800 officers each year.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. Many of the killings aren't counted as killings too.

If there wasn't a shooting they try to attribute it to something else, like what they're doing in the Chauvin trial.

Elijah McClain killing wasn't counted as such. People who get tazed to death usually aren't counted as cop killings either.

I wonder what the real numbers are.

[RussBLib]

12. No shit

That WaPo story I linked says many police departments do not even report their numbers.

That should fucking be stopped.

[dutch777]

15. This is what low education level and poor training gets us. Would love to know the stats in Germany

I don't know about other states, but in WA state you only need a high school or GED diploma, a clean (relatively) arrest record and 8 weeks at the police academy and you get a gun and badge. Any other training is OJT and in the case of smaller city and rural departments that is virtually non-existent. That is no where near the level of knowledge and skill one needs to be in many of the complex human situations many officers find themselves in. In some ways I am amazed the body count is not higher.

[rgbecker]

16. Here's an outfit that has put together some numbers for you.

They are all over this national problem.

[link:https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/?fbclid=IwAR0y2BvwaP2Ojn65YYOjex-aqC7-YtqkH47GVlFDcY6Nen3bZU72JERFwmo|

[cigsandcoffee]

17. "Black people were 28% of those killed by police in 2020 despite being only 13% of the population."

I’d have thought the numbers would be worse than this, and more indicative of systemic racism.

[cinematicdiversions]

18. It is the bias of what the news is covering.

Five children killed in two weekends outside a school. It barely makes the local news. One child shoots a gun inside the same school and it is a national story.

We have had a dozen or so young African Americans murdered over the last month or two many young mothers. Because none were killed by police, the news barely mentions them (Bad for tourism I guess)

[MichMan]

20. Not just news media, but posts here on DU as well

[MichMan]

19. According to FBI national violent crime statistics for 2019

35 % of violent crime arrests were black and 60% white