Police shooting facts

John Hunt, Memphis

In response to Black Lives Matter, The Washington Post launched an unprecedented, case-by-case study of police shootings. After a year of research, the following was found: Police use force mainly to protect human life, the use of force against unarmed suspects is rare, and the use of force against black Americans is largely proportional to their share of the violent crime rate.

According the Post, as of Dec. 24, 2015, U.S. police had fatally shot 965 people in 2015; 564 of those killed were armed with a gun, 281 were armed with another weapon, and 90 were unarmed. In fully threequarters of shootings, “police were under attack or defending someone who was.”

The Post also reports: “Although black men make up only 6 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 40 percent of the unarmed men shot to death by police this year. In the majority of cases in which police shot and killed a person who had attacked someone with a weapon or brandished a gun, the person who was shot was white. But a hugely disproportionate number — 3 in 5 — of those killed after exhibiting less threatening behavior were black or Hispanic.” However, blacks commit over 50 percent of the homicides in this country.

The data clearly indicate that police, rather showing bias against black men, have showed considerable restraint in dealing with them. In fact, a new study shows police are 20 percent less likely to shoot black suspects.