Anti-police rhetoric is spreading across the country faster than the coronavirus, because disinformation about racist police shootings fuels its transmission. The shootings of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Rayshard Brooks have become symbols of racist police killings, regardless of the facts. The false narrative surrounding police shootings has caused law enforcement officers to be demonized, assaulted, and murdered.
It’s rare for police to kill anyone. A black man is more likely to be killed by lightning than by a police officer. In 2019, police shot and killed 1,003 people in the US, according to the Washington Post’s Fatal Force Database. Of those killed, 250 were black and 405 white, the other 348, were of other races. Before we continue, let's focus first on the killing of police officers. Here are real hard numbers from the FBI for 2019. 48 police officers were killed on the line of duty in 2019, as a result of felonious acts. Of which: 45 were white males, 3 were white females, 7 were black and 1 was Asian
The Offenders used firearms to murder 44 of the 48 officers. Four officers were killed with vehicles used as weapons. Of the 48 murdered officers, 27 of the officers were killed in the South. In contrast, Most people killed by the police have a weapon and pose a threat to the police or innocent third parties. The number of unarmed people killed by the police is much smaller. In 2019, 14 unarmed blacks were shot and killed by on-duty police officers compared to 25 whites.
Shooting an unarmed suspect can be justified if a suspect makes a furtive movement, attacks an officer, or tries to take the officer’s firearm. Of the 14 incidents of unarmed black men shot and killed by police in 2019, several involved high-speed car chases, fights with officers, or had weapons recovered at the scene. The numbers of unarmed blacks shot and killed by police are so low, most Americans recognize their names. Comparatively, every year police kill a larger number of unarmed whites, but almost no one knows their names.
Want some more hard data? Blacks comprised 54.9% of all homicide offenders, compared to 42.4% for whites. Blacks are 13.4% of the US population, yet they accounted for more than half of all homicides. Don't like the numbers? Too bad. Here's more. The higher crime rates within the black population increases contact with police and therefore the chance of police shootings within that community. its not rocket science.
While blacks commit the majority of homicides in the country, they are also the group with the highest percentage of homicide victims. In 2018, there were 6,460 known-race homicide victims, of which 3,315 were white and 2,925 were black. Whites were 51% of known-race homicide victims and whites are 76.5% of the total US population, while blacks were 45% of known- race homicide victims, but only 13.4% of the US. That means the homicide rate for blacks was 3.35 times their percentage of the US population, making them over five times as likely to be homicide victims.
And who is mostly responsible for murdering these high percentages of blacks? It’s not police—it’s other blacks. Most crime is intraracial, where both victims and offenders share the same race, but when violent crime is interracial, blacks commit a far higher percentage than whites. As for the numbers on murders after action was taken on defunding the police, murders rose 56% in major US cities according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. Cited in the report,
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