Brown killing.
An analysis of federally collected data show that young black males in recent years were at a far greater risk of being shot dead by police than their white counterparts — 21 times greater. According to the report: “The 1,217 deadly police shootings from 2010 to 2012 captured in the federal data show that blacks, age 15 to 19, were killed at a rate of 31.17 per million, while just 1.47 per million white males in that age range died at the hands of police.” Black boys killed by the police can be frighteningly young. There were 41 teens 14 years or younger reported killed by officers from 1980 to 2012. 27 of them were black; 8 were white; 4 were Hispanic and 1 was Asian.
Who kills all of those black men and boys? “Mostly white officers. But in hundreds of instances, black officers, too. Black officers account for a little more than 10 percent of all fatal police shootings. Of those they kill, though, 78 percent were black.” Two thirds of the teens whom police said were killed while “fleeing” or “resisting arrest” were black.
These data explain why the black and white communities generally have starkly different views of the police. They also show why African American parents warn their sons to remain perfectly still — and make no sudden moves — when they encounter the police. As the expression goes in the black world: “Don’t give them an excuse to kill you.”
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/10/whos-killing-all-those-black-men-and-boys/?_r=0
Personally, I think it would be great if the focus of the demonstrations and discussion shifted from the specific case of Michael Brown to a more general discussion about the frequency of police shootings of African-American suspects.
In fact, I think it would be good if some studies were done on this. There may be psychological propensities on the part of certain police officers (not just white ones) to attack African-American and Hispanic suspects. This should be studied and if it proves to be true, something should be done about it. Education or testing of applicants to police forces or something. There appears to be some scapegoating going on maybe. Maybe officers feel more threatened by suspects who are African-American or maybe officers just let out their aggression on them.
I remember some years ago, my African-American boss and I both turned left (on different days) at a specific corner in our city. My boss got a ticket. I got off. I don't know whether it was her race or my nice smile or that her car was nicer than mine. I suspect the reason was her race. But really we need studies and research to find out more about this. Maybe my driving record was better than hers. But I think the officer just found it easier to ticket an African-American than to ticket this "sweet little" white lady. Maybe I just because I am white play the game more convincingly. She was more in your face than I. I tend to be very quiet. She was rather loud and opinionated. So it may have been personality. I'd like to see studies on it. I tend to think it was a racial prejudice that made the difference.
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