Recent findings from the Justice Department reveal a horrifying trend among the nation’s law enforcement. The data shows that blacks are being killed by police in high numbers across local police departments. The data released covers a seven year period ending in 2012 that among other things that black males under the age of 20 are killed at more than 50 percent during police shootings. Overall the report shows that during this seven year period that young black men were being killed at least 96 times per year out of 400 police self reported killings. That means that at minimum white police officers killed 2 young black males each week, a disheartening fact.
The database breaks down the incidents by local police departments, who send reports to the FBI every year regarding police shootings. These reports show who gets killed, how they were killed, and who did the killing. But the FBI data is very incomplete, showing only homicides that police are ruled as justified so there are many incidents not being reported. Compounding the issue is the fact that only 750 agencies contribute to the database out of the 17,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. So the figures of the killings are grossly under reported and in many cases incomplete with the entire state of Florida missing from the database.
The FBI data of nearly 2,800 fatal police shootings shows the following:
Under 20 (231 killed) 56% black, 41% white, 3% other
20-29 (980 killed) 42% Black, 54% white, 3% other
30-39 (689 killed) 32% Black, 65% white, 3% other
40-49 (454 killed) 25% black, 71% white, 4% other
50-59 (229 Killed) 22% Black, 76% white, 2% other
Over 60 (85 killed) 16% Black, 81% White, 2% other
