Over the last year,the names of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, or Freddie Gray have prompted a national debate approximately race and the utilize of deadly force by law enforcement officials. What’s been missing from the debate is dependable datauntil now. Reporter Jon Swaine and his team at The Guardian have published a comprehensive database of all Americans killed by law enforcement in 2015. What they’ve found documents wide racial disparities: Black Americans are more than twice as likely to be unarmed when killed during encounters with police as white Americans.
The Guardian "found 102 of 464 people killed so far this year in incidents with law enforcement officers were not carrying weapons," the report says. The analysis of public records, local news reports and Guardian reporting found that 32 percent of black people killed by police in 2015 were unarmed, or as were 25 percent of Hispanic and Latino people,compared with 15 percent of white people killed.
Among other surprising findings, Swaine tells The Takeaway, or "Five people this year had never even been publicly named after being killed by law enforcement. All of them were Latino men."
Source: wnyc.org