The Facts on Police Killings

The death of George Floyd has reignited calls across America, even among some prominent Republicans and conservatives, to “do something” about police brutality.

Is the alarm justified?  As I observed last week, some people in authority will abuse their positions and that certainly includes police officers.  It is a fact that power corrupts.

So, of course, some cops are brutal in their treatment of members of the communities they police.  And sometimes law enforcement officers kill without justification.

But are certain groups singled out as targets by police in general?  That certainly is the contention of such radical groups as Black Lives Matter and their boosters in the media and elsewhere.  Is it true?

No.

Consider some statistics.  The U.S. population is about 330 million of whom 37 million are termed black.  According to the FBI, for the past several years, about 220 African Americans have been shot and killed by police each year.

I did some calculations of my own.  After adjusting the total black population downward by subtracting the very young (under 18), old (over 65) and female, the chances of a black male in the middle age group becoming a victim of a deadly police shooting is .00002 or 2/100,000.  Slim indeed.  (Justified shooting would put this risk for the innocent even lower.)

By contrast, a police officer’s chances of being shot dead in any given year nationally are .00007, more than three times higher.

So yes, police brutality – and wrongful killings – do exist.  But they hardly constitute an epidemic or a national crisis in reality.

Having concluded this, The Sensible Conservative must concede that in this, as in many other areas of public concern, perception has become reality.  The shapers of that false “reality” have much to answer for.