When a suspected terrorist shoots two police officers and ends up wounded, it is difficult to comprehend the circumstances surrounding the tragic deaths of Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott in in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Charlotte, North Carolina. Black lives should matter.
Here’s why…
- Race remains the most volatile flash point in any accounting of police shootings.
- Although Black men make up only 6 percent of the US population, they account for 40 percent of the unarmed men shot to death by police this year.
- Young Black men were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by police officers in 2015.
- African American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprised more than 15% of all deaths logged this year by an ongoing investigation into the use of deadly force by police.
- The rate of police-involved deaths was five times higher than for white men of the same age.
- In every 65 deaths of a young African American man in the US is a killing by police.
- About 14 million Whites and 2.6 million African American report using an illicit drug yet…
- African Americans represent 12% of monthly drug users, but comprise 32% of persons arrested for drug possession.
- 5 times as many Whites are using drugs as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of Whites
- African Americans represent 12% of the total population of drug users, but 38% of those arrested drug offenses, and 59% of those in state prison for a drug offense.
- Prison sentencing policies, implicit racial bias, and socioeconomic inequity contribute to racial disparities at every level of the criminal justice system.
- African Americans spend as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as Whites do for a violent offense (61.7months).
- In 2002, Blacks constituted more than 80% of the people sentenced under the federal crack cocaine laws and served substantially more time in prison for drug offenses than did Whites, despite the fact that more than 2/3 of crack cocaine users in the U.S. are White or Hispanics.
- Today, people of color make up 37% of the U.S. population but 67% of the prison population.
- Overall, African Americans are more likely than White Americans to be arrested.
- Once arrested, African American are more likely to be convicted than White Americans.
- Once convicted, African Americans are more likely to face stiff sentences than White Americans.
- Black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated as White men and Hispanic men are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated as non-Hispanic white men.
- In Ferguson there were racist emails issued by officials employed by the Ferguson Municipality including police officers, court supervisors and commanders even racist emails defaming the President of the United States!
- In Ferguson Black motorists were twice as likely as whites to be searched but less likely to be found in possession of contraband such as drugs or guns
- In Ferguson Blacks in Ferguson were 68% less likely than others to have their cases dismissed by the Municipal Judge.
- In Ferguson Blacks were used in the criminal justice system to buoy the city’s economy and balance the budget
- In Ferguson the practices uncovered by federal investigators have violated residents’ Constitutional Rights of due process and equal protection under the law.
- In Ferguson Blacks were subject to unfair stops and arrests for minor offenses like “manner of walking” on a roadway!?!?
- When a White man opened fire killing nine Black parishioners in a historic Black church in South Carolina during a prayer meeting, the White suspect was arrested.
- When a Black military veteran who served in Afghanistan killed five police officers in Texas, he was blown up!
Black lives should matter!
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SOURCES
Cops Had No Justification for Killing Terence Crutcherwww.huffingtonpost.com/.../cops-had-no-justificatio...
Charlotte protests erupt over police shooting of Keith Lamont Scottwww.vox.com/.../keith-lamont-scott-north-carolina-police-shooting
Criminal Justice Fact Sheet | NAACP
Criminal Justice
Fact Sheet | Outreach
www.outreach.nycga.net/messaging/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/
Police killed more than 1,000 people in 2015 |Washington Postwww.washingtonpost.com/.../a-year-of-reckoning-police-fatally...
Racial gap in U.S. arrest rates: 'Staggering disparity'www.usatoday.com/story/...black-arrest-rates/19043207/
Young black men killed by US police at highest rate in year of 1,134…
Police killed more than 1,000 people in 2015 |Washington Postwww.washingtonpost.com/.../a-year-of-reckoning-police-fatally...
Charleston shooting - Nine killed in South Carolina church shooting…
Five Dallas
police officers were killed by a lone attacker, autho…https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../like-a-little-war-s
www.washingtonpost.com/.../the-seven-racist-e-mails-...
www.thenation.com › Blogs › John
Nichols
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