Stats on polic shootings

[Anonymous]

I'm confused here. I have to say this before people jump on me that I'm against policy brutality and I'm against violence against police. I'm just plain against violence. What's confusing me is this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/

Look at the statistics. I feel like we are being manipulated.

http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/police-shootings-aren-t-a-white-or-black-problem-070716

[Anonymous]

Part of the problem is that police weren't even reporting officer involved shootings to the national crime database. Of course everyone knows why.

So now the press is digging to pull these statistics together. This is really the first time we have seen this level of data over a two year period. Take a look at the numbers for unarmed. Bad.

[Anonymous]

Yes in wapo, for 2015 there are so many more white people shot.

I've heard more nuanced statistics that support the idea that 'pulling over to killed' ratio is disproportionate to black individuals. I'm no statistics buff but maybe I'll go find it. I often hear it quoted on liberal but legit news sources.

Another layer to this is which police killings were justified or criminal. And who are the victims in those criminal cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes in wapo, for 2015 there are so many more white people shot.

I've heard more nuanced statistics that support the idea that 'pulling over to killed' ratio is disproportionate to black individuals. I'm no statistics buff but maybe I'll go find it. I often hear it quoted on liberal but legit news sources.

Another layer to this is which police killings were justified or criminal. And who are the victims in those criminal cases.

Nearly all of the shootings are of armed individuals. You have to click on the filters to see different subsets.

[Anonymous]

So, is it that police killing white people is not sensational, so it isn't picked up by media or is it that those incidents were deemed justified? I'm trying to get a handle on this b/c it's all so scary and sad.

[Anonymous]

I'm really trying to follow this line of thinking to its conclusion.

Because more whites are killed by police than blacks, we're supposed to ... what? Tolerate it?

[Anonymous]

There are also more whites, so it is not surprising that more whites would be involved in police shootings.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:So, is it that police killing white people is not sensational, so it isn't picked up by media or is it that those incidents were deemed justified? I'm trying to get a handle on this b/c it's all so scary and sad.

I can't answer your question completely, but there are two anecdotal incidents of which I am aware and which I find interesting as part of this type of discussion. The first is the killing by police of Zachary Hammond, a white teenager. This case received very little attention until BLM started to bring attention to it:

http://aplus.com/a/zachary-hammond-black-lives-matter

The second is John Geer, a white man who was obviously unjustly killed by police. Geer's case was being suppressed by the authorities until Republican Senator Charles Grassley got involved. I think this is notable because Grassley represents Iowa, not Fairfax and I doubt few, if any, black men killed by police would have Senators, especially Republican Senators, intervening on their behalf.

[Anonymous]

782 of the 990 cases were armed with a deadly weapon. Take those out and then look.

[Anonymous]

You do not need any skill at statistics to see that if twice as many white people as black people are killed by officers but there are five times as many white people as black people, that black people are killed at a disproportionate rate. That's simple math.

[Anonymous]

Everyone should be concerned. EVERYONE. The Black Lives Matter people are bringing this issue to the attention of the public and not letting anyone forget it. Good for them. But EVERYONE should be concerned. The police basically get to shoot who they want to and get away with it. If they don't like you, they get to shoot you. That's not how America is supposed to work. Who cares if the people getting shot are black, white or hispanic? They're Americans being shot by American police. Unreal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should be concerned. EVERYONE. The Black Lives Matter people are bringing this issue to the attention of the public and not letting anyone forget it. Good for them. But EVERYONE should be concerned. The police basically get to shoot who they want to and get away with it. If they don't like you, they get to shoot you. That's not how America is supposed to work. Who cares if the people getting shot are black, white or hispanic? They're Americans being shot by American police. Unreal.

Do you REALLY believe this?

Do you believe that police are shooting people because they "want to" or because "they don't like you"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You do not need any skill at statistics to see that if twice as many white people as black people are killed by officers but there are five times as many white people as black people, that black people are killed at a disproportionate rate. That's simple math.

But it IS proportional to the crime rate for each race. When you adjust for that, it's an equal number of white people as black people being killed. I looked this up the other day but don't know what to say about it. Not exactly the type of thing you put on facebook when you and a large chunk of your friends are liberal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone should be concerned. EVERYONE. The Black Lives Matter people are bringing this issue to the attention of the public and not letting anyone forget it. Good for them. But EVERYONE should be concerned. The police basically get to shoot who they want to and get away with it. If they don't like you, they get to shoot you. That's not how America is supposed to work. Who cares if the people getting shot are black, white or hispanic? They're Americans being shot by American police. Unreal.

Do you REALLY believe this?

Do you believe that police are shooting people because they "want to" or because "they don't like you"?

Yes, I do. I say that as a pudgy white middle aged woman. I get it that the police are not likely to shoot me, but from the videos of police shootings I've seen, it'ss clear the police think they get to decide who they kill. They are not bound by the rule of l aw. It is truly frightening that this is happening int he United States. This is my country. I do not like what i am seeing. I do not condone police brutality in my country, against my fellow Americans, even if I'm pretty sure it won't happen to me. I still find the police scary now -- because they can make up any lie they want about me or anyone else if they're having a bad day, to justify murdering me or one of my sons or neighbors. Truly scary that good, decent police officers are shunned if they speak out against brutality, too. Very sad!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do not need any skill at statistics to see that if twice as many white people as black people are killed by officers but there are five times as many white people as black people, that black people are killed at a disproportionate rate. That's simple math.

But it IS proportional to the crime rate for each race. When you adjust for that, it's an equal number of white people as black people being killed. I looked this up the other day but don't know what to say about it. Not exactly the type of thing you put on facebook when you and a large chunk of your friends are liberal.

It's closer to accurate to say the odds of being killed by the police in a given police interaction are relatively equal by race, which probably surprises a lot of people. But I also think it's why some of the more sensible folks in BLM and other justice reform movements are focusing on reducing the number of status offenses, bench warrants for non-violent crime, etc., since the best way to keep more black men alive is to reduce the need for police to interact with them in a volatile setting.

I also think the total statistics probably mask a problem that is particularly abhorrent to the black community, which is the overwhelming feeling that someone like Castile would not be dead if he were white, because not only did he handle himself correctly, he went above and beyond, alerting the officer to the gun, which he had no legal obligation to do. I think this type of fact pattern is rare enough to get lost in the larger statistics, but awful enough to still infuriate the affected community.