38 unarmed black Americans and 32 white unarmed Americans were killed by police in 2015 out of a total of around 12.2 million arrests in the United States.
We know the names Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Philando Castile and Alston Sterling but what about Dylan Noble? When reading essay's such as Mike McFeeley's that asked "If Philando Castile was white, would he be dead?" and answered unequivocally "No." Listening to a spokesperson of Black Lives Matter going on about "White Privilege" on C-Span and again it leads me to ask: What of Dylan Noble? On June 25, 2016 a young man was pulled over by the police and although unarmed was shot four times by the police and killed. Dylan Noble was a white country boy who was not a career criminal. Listening to Governor Dayton of Minnesota say that if Alston Sterling were white he wouldn't have been killed at traffic stop leads me to ask what about the 32 unarmed white non-hispanics shot and killed by the police in 2015?
The United States has a population of 318.9 million Americans (2014) according to the U.S. Census Bureau. According to the 2010 Census of the United States the racial breakdown is as follows:
Pacific Islander 481,576 0.1
Hispanic 50,477,594 12.5
Meanwhile according to The Washington Post 990 people were killed by police officers in 2015 with nearly half of all killed being white non-hispanics followed by a little over a quarter that were African American and 17% who were hispanic. Disturbing subset of data was the statistical breakdown of 93 unarmed individuals killed by the police in 2015 with four out of ten being African American followed by three out of ten being white non-hispanics and nearly two out of ten hispanics. There is a problem that needs to be addressed but it has been magnified and distorted by the media and political actors to create the sensation of a clear and present danger for African Americans when being stopped by the police facing a great risk of being killed. The BBC last year headlined an article with the provocative question: "Why do US police keep killing unarmed black men?" It is an outrage that in 2015 thirty eight unarmed African Americans were killed by the police but what about the thirty two unarmed European Americans killed by the police or eighteen hispanics?
Total shot and killed by police in 2015: 990*
Race
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| Dylan Noble was unarmed and Philando Castile was armed when killed by police in 2016 |
The United States has a population of 318.9 million Americans (2014) according to the U.S. Census Bureau. According to the 2010 Census of the United States the racial breakdown is as follows:
| Census 2010 population | Percent of population | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | 196,817,552 | 63.7 | ||
| Black or African American | 37,685,848 | 12.2 | ||
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 2,247,098 | 0.7 | ||
| Asian | 14,465,124 | 4.7 |
Hispanic 50,477,594 12.5
Meanwhile according to The Washington Post 990 people were killed by police officers in 2015 with nearly half of all killed being white non-hispanics followed by a little over a quarter that were African American and 17% who were hispanic. Disturbing subset of data was the statistical breakdown of 93 unarmed individuals killed by the police in 2015 with four out of ten being African American followed by three out of ten being white non-hispanics and nearly two out of ten hispanics. There is a problem that needs to be addressed but it has been magnified and distorted by the media and political actors to create the sensation of a clear and present danger for African Americans when being stopped by the police facing a great risk of being killed. The BBC last year headlined an article with the provocative question: "Why do US police keep killing unarmed black men?" It is an outrage that in 2015 thirty eight unarmed African Americans were killed by the police but what about the thirty two unarmed European Americans killed by the police or eighteen hispanics?
Total shot and killed by police in 2015: 990*
Race
Unknown 0 0
Unarmed white male Andrew Thomas crashed and rolled his car while driving under the influence when he emerged from the wreck he was shot once in the neck by a police officer and died from the gunshot on December 19, 2015. Did he deserve to be gunned down? Below are some of the cases of other unarmed whites shot and killed by the police in 2015 and reported in The Washington Post:
- Jeremy Mardis, an unarmed 6-year-old white male, was shot on Nov. 3, 2015, in Marksville, La. Marksville marshals were pursuing the boy's father, Chris Few. Few fled and marshals opened fire on his car, killing Jeremy, who was a passenger in the front seat.
- Matthew Dobbins, an unarmed 29-year-old white man, was shot on Oct. 2, 2015, in a house in Amarillo, Tex. Randall County deputies were responding to a reported burglary at a home. Dobbins confronted deputies when he came out of the house.
- Steven McKenny, an unarmed 21-year-old white man, was shocked with a stun gun and shot on Sept. 21, 2015, in Paris, Tex. A Texas highway patrol trooper approached McKenny after he saw him sitting on a concrete barrier in the center of the highway. McKenny became angry, leading to an altercation.
- Darren Billy Wilson, an unarmed 47-year-old white man, was shot on July 21, 2015, in White, Ga. Bartow County deputies said Wilson threatened them with a stick when they arrived to investigate a domestic disturbance.
- John Deming, an unarmed 19-year-old white man, was shot on July 5, 2015, on a street in Pleasanton, Calif. When Pleasanton police officers responded to a burglary alarm at a car dealership, the man was standing outside the business. He tried to run and struggled with an officer.
- Derek Cruice, an unarmed 26-year-old white man, was shot on March 4, 2015, in a house in Deltona, Fla. A Volusia County sheriff’s deputy was part of a squad serving a search warrant for narcotics at the home when he shot Cruice in the face.
- Deven Guilford, an unarmed 17-year-old white male, was shocked with a stun gun and shot on Feb. 28, 2015, on a street in Roxand Township, Mich. Guilord struggled with an Eaton County sheriff's officer during a traffic stop and was shot seven times.
- Alexander Phillip Long, an unarmed 31-year-old white man, was shocked with a stun gun and shot on Feb. 26, 2015, in a vehicle in Terre Haute, Ind. Long rammed the law enforcement vehicles of the U.S. Marshal's Service and Terre Haute police who were trying to arrest him. Police said that Long refused to show his hands and reached inside his jacket.
- Rodney Biggs, an unarmed 49-year-old white man, was shot on Feb. 26, 2015, in a vehicle in Gulfport, Miss. Gulfport police say Briggs hit a light pole, refused to leave his vehicle and reached for a gun. His family said police tried to forcibly remove him from his car and shot him in the neck, adding that he had a history of chronic pain and could not get health care.
- David Kassick, an unarmed 59-year-old white man, was shot on Feb. 2, 2015, in Hummelstown, Pa. A Hummelstown police officer shocked Kassick with a Taser and then shot him twice in the back as he lay on the ground.
- Ralph Willis, an unarmed 42-year-old white man, was shot on Jan. 29, 2015, in a yard in Stillwater, Okla. Willis, a suspect in a homicide, made a threatening gesture toward a Stillwater police officer.
- Johnny Ray Anderson, an unarmed 43-year-old white man, was shot on July 5, 2015, in a yard in Hawaiian Gardens, Calif. Los Angles County sheriff's deputies were responding to a 911 call from a homeowner about an attempted break-in.
- Jeremy Linhart, an unarmed 30-year-old white man, was shot on June 9, 2015, on a street in Findlay, Ohio. Linhart was a passenger in a vehicle pulled over by a Findlay police officer. As he tried to get back in the car, he struggled with the officer
- Ryan Bolinger, an unarmed 28-year-old white man, was shot on June 9, 2015, on a street in Des Moines, Iowa. During a traffic stop, Bolinger acted erratically, then led Des Moines police on a chase. He got out of his car and walked quickly toward a police car.
- Daniel Elrod, an unarmed 39-year-old white man, was shocked with a stun gun and shot on Feb. 23, 2015, on a street in Omaha, Neb. Elrod, a robbery suspect, disobeyed commands from Omaha police to show his hands.
- Michael Ireland, an unarmed 31-year-old white man, was shot on Feb. 17, 2015, on a street in Springfield, Mo. Called to investigate a suspicious person, a Springfield police officer chased Ireland on foot and then shot him during a confrontation
- Autumn Steele, an unarmed 34-year-old white woman, was shot on Jan. 6, 2015, in Burlington, Iowa. A Burlington police officer said he shot at Steele's family dog and struck Steele by accident.
There is a 2016 academic study that makes the claim of reverse racism that police feel more comfortable shooting a white suspect because they do not face the same level of scrutiny when killing a black suspect. This study will no doubt be considered controversial but so too should be the claim that has been made by some that the police are hunting African Americans in the United States. The police are not perfect, and some no doubt have biases and prejudices that in some cases are racial while others are just incompetent or not suited to being police men. However one must take into consideration that in a country with 1.1 million police officers there were 990 people killed by the police in 2015 and out of that number 93 were unarmed.
In 2012 for example there were 12.2 million arrests in the United States Out of all these arrests if we use 2015 numbers provided by The Washington Post which should be in the same ball park 0.008% ended in a fatality and out of that 0.000762% were unarmed when killed by the police. Black Lives Matter's and the mass media's campaign to portray that African Americans are being systematically hunted and killed by the police is a lie. That this has instilled genuine fear into African Americans is horrific.
These numbers need to be reduced but one must recognize that this necessitates common sense reforms that facilitate good police work and not slandering and libeling law enforcement with propaganda in order to advance a radical agenda .
In 2012 for example there were 12.2 million arrests in the United States Out of all these arrests if we use 2015 numbers provided by The Washington Post which should be in the same ball park 0.008% ended in a fatality and out of that 0.000762% were unarmed when killed by the police. Black Lives Matter's and the mass media's campaign to portray that African Americans are being systematically hunted and killed by the police is a lie. That this has instilled genuine fear into African Americans is horrific.
These numbers need to be reduced but one must recognize that this necessitates common sense reforms that facilitate good police work and not slandering and libeling law enforcement with propaganda in order to advance a radical agenda .
If a police officer does wrong let him or her be held accountable in a
court of law. Non-violent protest has a place in seeking justice but
hateful rhetoric seeking to incite violence has no place. Nor does distorting or
misrepresenting the facts in evidence in order to pursue a
revolutionary and violent agenda. The end of this path does not protect black lives but endanger them further as police become more defensive and militarized to respond to new and greater threats, such as snipers turned homicidal through hate filled rhetoric.
Five police officers murdered and six badly wounded in Dallas, Texas by snipers. Sadly it's not the first time, two years ago two police officers were gunned down, ambushed, in New York
City while in their car.
Ninety unarmed males were shot and killed by the police versus three females in 2015 according to The Washington Post's data. There is a far stronger case to be made that the police are engaged in a war on men if one is to look only at the data and the category, but most would agree that is not a serious argument.
For too long the human rights community has focused on differences splintering human identity into more exotic nomenclatures, in the process losing our common humanity and possibly having lost the ability to hold a national conversation on what really matters.
Philando Castile (age 32) was a cafeteria supervisor in J. Hill Montessori Magnet School in Saint Paul, Minnesota and a role model to hundreds of children there. Dylan Noble (age 19) was a “happy-go-lucky, 19-year-old on the go” who had a job and no mental illness or depression. Look beyond their racial identities to their shared common humanity and the unique contribution they were making with their respective lives and the true depth of their loss begins to be understood.
Remember that each person killed was a unique human being who will never be seen again, who had a family, friends and a life project that was cut short. Each life taken before its time diminishes all who stay behind. Human life is sacred and needs to be protected.
Now is the time to regain our common humanity and engage in a
national dialogue in which all sides listen, without their ideological baggage, if we want to avoid continuing the escalating cycle of
violence and make things better.
* People Shot Dead by the Police in 2015 The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/
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