Black and Latino People Killed by Cops Are Far More Likely to Be Unarmed Than Whites

While one glance at the news about recent police killings would probably lead you to assume that more unarmed minorities are killed than are weaponless whites, the actual numbers might astound you.

But then again, considering that some police use photographs of black people for their target practice, perhaps it’s not as shocking as it is sickening that they’re hitting their targets.

From The Guardian:

Black Americans are more than twice as likely to be unarmed when killed during encounters with police as white people, according to a Guardian investigation which found 102 of 464 people killed so far this year in incidents with law enforcement officers were not carrying weapons.

An analysis of public records, local news reports and Guardian reporting found that 32% of black people killed by police in 2015 were unarmed, as were 25% of Hispanic and Latino people, compared with 15% of white people killed.

The findings emerged from a database filled by a five-month study of police fatalities in the US, which calculated that local and state police and federal law enforcement agencies are killing people at twice the rate calculated by the US government’s official public record of police homicides. The database names five people whose names have not been publicly released.

Read more.

—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata