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The data used in the analysis was retrieved from https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/, a non profit team where they use data to quantify police violence in
communities.
Here are some questions that I answered.
How many civilians died in the hands of the police?
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There were on average 1094 police killings each year from 2013-2019.
What area had the most victims?
Suburban areas had the most victims of police violence. There were more than 2
times deaths occurring in suburban areas than rural areas.
In which state did police kill the most civilians?
California had the most police killings and then it was Texas, which is expected because they have the largest population. Surprisingly, New York did not have too many police killings.
How old were the Victims?
Victims of police killings were mostly around 30 years of age. Ages however ranged from 0 to 100.
Did more Males or Females die?
Mostly males died from police. 95% males vs. 5% females.
Which race died the most to police?
White people died the most from police. 44.1% of those that were killed were white. Then it was black people at 25.4% and then Hispanics at 17.4%.
Did the victims have Mental Illnesses?
Around 19.14% of those that died had a disability, however this is misleading because 14.81% were unknown. Mental illness is not a physical disability, however, cops should be trained to identify those that may have an illness.
Were the victims armed?
Majority of the victims were armed, so it makes sense why the police may have killed them. But what were they armed with?
What were the victims armed with?
According to the word cloud generated from the list of alleged weapons that were used. Many victims were armed with guns and knives. However, many also did not have weapons that posed threats, such as toy's, rocks, sticks, and a box.
Were cops criminally charged?
According to the pie chart, only 1.3% of the cops were charged with a crime. When the victims were unarmed, 6.6% of cops were charged. When the victims were armed only .5% of cops were charged.
What did I conclude?
It does not seem that cops are unfairly targeting black people. According to the statistics more white people die to the police than black people. However, this can be misleading because there are more white people than black people in the USA.
It was also surprising that only 5% of those that died were female. Is it more fair to assume that cops are targeting males, or that they just don't feel threatened by females?
Coming from a background in disability advocacy, it was disheartening to see the statistics that almost 20% of those that died from police had a mental illness.
Police are immune to the justice system. If anyone murders anyone, they should be charged. However, only 1.3% of cops that kill are charged with a crime.
Cops are not above the law. Cops should not be killing Citizens.
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