The Counted is a project by the Guardian that tracks police killings in the U.S. It includes murders committed by police, as well as deaths that occurred while in police custody. Since police departments don’t want us to know how many people they kill, and therefore don’t collect or share that data, The Counted relies on media reports and tips that are sent in and verified. Because of this, their number of police killings is almost certainly a low estimate.
Which makes their grand total of 1,138 police killings in 2015 even more depressing.
Race
According to The Counted, of these 1,138 people who were killed by American police, 578 were white, 302 were black, 194 were Hispanic/Latino, 24 were Asian/Pacific Islander, 13 were Native American, and 27 were classified as Other/Unknown. These numbers might not mean much to the average American, but the proportionate calculations are pretty damning. Per million, 7.8 black people were killed, compared to 2.92 white people, 3.5 Latinos, and 3.4 Native Americans. The Guardian also reported that about one in every 65 deaths of young African American men was a murder committed by police.
Weapons
Twenty percent of victims of fatal police violence had no weapon of any kind when they were killed, and less than half had a gun.
According to the Guardian, only 554 of the 1,138 victims had a firearm, 155 had knives, and 206 had other weapons, leaving 223 of 1,138 completely unarmed when police killed them.
Gender
Over 95% of those killed by police were men. Only 53 of the 1,138 victims were female, and one was non-conforming.
Cause of Death
Police officers’ favorite way to kill people in 2015 was by gunshot. Over 89% of deaths were shootings, at 1,014 out of 1,138 victims. Forty-nine people were tased to death, 33 were hit by a police vehicle, and 41 died while in police custody.
Mental Health
According to the Guardian, 246 of the victims, more than 20%, were people about whom mental health issues had been reported. Even more shockingly, 92 of the police killings were cases in which police had been called in order to help a suicidal or self-harming person. At least eight of the deaths were officially reported as suicide in order to protect the officer who killed these victims.
Military
Twenty-nine of the 1,138 victims were military veterans. Of these, at least eight had PTSD following their years of service to the country.
Comments are closed.