The police killing of Americans appears to be increasing.
In 2020, there were 1,021 fatal police shootings, and in 2019 there were 999 fatal shootings. By May 3rd of this year, 292 civilians were shot and killed by police; 62 were black. Police killed blacks at a higher rate than any other ethnicity.
Aside from the critical issue of racism, causing proportionately more black victims of police homicides, is the issue that Rap Brown warned us about. Rap said violence was as American as apple pie.
Symptomatic of that American condition is the fact that police violence is a systemic problem in this country. Police in the United States kill civilians at a much higher rate than police in other wealthy countries.
The U.S. rate of 33.5 police killings per 10 million people is over three times higher than the next highest rate, 9.8 per 10 million people in Canada. U.S. police kill more in days than other countries do in years.
England and Wales, with a population of 56.9 million, had 55 fatal police shootings in 24 years. And the U.S. had 59 fatal police shootings in the first 24 days of 2015.
In Germany, 15 citizens of any race, armed or unarmed, were fatally shot in the two years, 2010-2011. In the U.S., police killed 19 unarmed black men in the first five months of 2015.
With a population of 23 million, Australia had a total of 94 fatal police shootings between 1992 and 2011. In the United States, there were 97 fatal police shootings in March 2015.
Police in Canada average 25 fatal shootings a year. In California, a state with 10 percent of the population of Canada, police shot and killed over three times as many people in five months.
Violence is a public health issue as it is a significant cause of death of Americans. And police-inflicted violence is a particular type of this “disease.”
Fatal police shootings of unarmed black people in the United States are more than three times as high as whites. And the total number of black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) killed by police shootings has been relatively steady between 2015 and 2020. This is a public health emergency.
We have a public health issue (violence) and a public health crisis (police killing of black, Indigenous, and People of Color). We must address the societal condition—violence–and we must address the public health crisis.
A study reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health examined the rate of fatal police shootings for BIPOC from 2015 to 2020. BIPOC had significantly higher death rates compared with whites.
Among all victims, Native Americans were killed 3.1 times that of whites, blacks 2.6 times whites, and Hispanics 1.3 times whites. Among unarmed victims, blacks were 3.2 times whites, Hispanics 1.5 times whites, and Native Americans 4.0 times whites.
These scholars conclude that “Violent encounters with police represent a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the USA, especially among black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).” Thus, a public health crisis.
