Exploring Correlations Between Race and Police Brutality: An Analysis of Statistics of Black and White Police Homicide Victims

Outline Of The Legal Issue

America has a history of institutionalized racism in its government. After the abolition of slavery, laws such as the French Black Code of Louisiana of 1751 were passed which required colonists to stop any blacks, and use any necessary force to stop "any black carrying any potential weapon, such as a cane” (Clayton, n.d.). Similarly, the colony of New Spain, prohibited all blacks from carrying arms in the sixteenth century (Clayton).

On the broad level, the founding fathers of The United States stated in the Declaration Of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” (United States, and Continental Congress Broadside Collection, 1776) There are different interpretations of this quote, but being one of the founding documents of the nation, the statue law states that everyone must be treated equally under the law. Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 is the primary civil rights law victims of police misconduct rely upon. It intended to undo oppressive conduct by government and vigilante groups. It states that it is “illegal for anyone acting under the authority of state law to deprive another person of his or her rights under the Constitution or federal law” (“Police Misconduct and Civil Rights”, n.d.)

There are specific federal laws for to this issue. In relation to charges pressed against them, “police are immune from suit for the performance of their jobs unless ‘willful’, unreasonable conduct is demonstrated. Mere negligence, the failure to exercise due care, is not enough to create liability under law. Immunity therefore means that in the typical police-suspect interaction, the suspect cannot sue the police. Civil rights remedies (non-monetary) come into play for willful police conduct that violates an individual's constitutional rights” ("Police Misconduct and Civil Rights”). In relation to the use of excessive force, “the officer's intentions or motivations are not controlling. If the amount of force was reasonable, it doesn't matter that the officer's intentions were bad. But the reverse is also true: if the officer had good intentions, but used unreasonable force, the excessive force claim will not be dismissed” ("Police Misconduct and Civil Rights”). 42 U.S.C. § 14141 prohibits State or local law enforcement officers from conduct that deprives persons of rights protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States. That being said, according to the Department of Justice, “the types of conduct covered by this law can include, among other things, excessive force, discriminatory harassment, false arrests, coercive sexual conduct, and unlawful stops, searches or arrests. In order to be covered by this law, the misconduct must constitute a pattern or practice’ -- it may not simply be an isolated incident” ("Addressing Police Misconduct Laws Enforced By The Department Of Justice”, n.d.)

Methodology

For this study, raw data was collected from archives of “The Guardian”, “Mapping Police Violence” and “Killed By Police”. Police homicide statistics from 2015 and part of 2016 were analyzed and presented through three bar graphs. The first two graphs compared total police homicide victims of African Americans and Caucasians, and police homicides per capita for each race. The final bar graph was made up of the following five variables for each year: total deaths by police, total deaths by police for each race and deaths by police per capita for each race. The raw data for per capita deaths (deaths per million) were multiplied by 10 to be more visible and identifiable on the graph. All 2016 statistics were collected at the same date (October 13, 2016) in order to avoid errors in the study.

Findings And Interpretation

(Figure 1.1) Graph displaying police homicide data from 2015 and part of 2016

In both 2015 and 2016, more whites are killed by police in total 561 compared to 306 and 261 compared to 138 (around twice as much), but that is not taking into consideration the percentage of the population each race makes up. Per capita, more blacks are killed than whites 72.7 compared to 29.3 and 32.8 compared to 14.2 (around twice as much). The numbers are less for the partial year, especially the total # of police homicides is to be expected, but even so, the bars are fairly proportional, meaning that these trends could continue for the whole year.

While whites make up the majority of the United States population and it is therefore to be expected that they would make up the majority of any statistic, blacks are killed much more by police in proportion. These findings raise many questions. Do police target blacks over whites, is it a matter of racial profiling, do blacks commit more crimes and are therefore looked as as more threatening to police?

(Figure 1.0) Raw U.S. police homicide data

Conclusion and Directions For Further Study

The findings of this study find that when not considering the percentage of the United States population each race makes up, more whites are victims of police homicide in total (not in proportion) than Blacks. However per capita, Blacks fall victim to police homicide more than Whites. As questions are raised about police accountability and equality under the law, studies could be done to answer these questions. A new study could compares the number of violent crimes per capita for each race with the number of people killed by police per capita for each race. It would study whether crime and police killing have a correlation and whether this could be due to racial profiling. This study brings up the question of whether policemen consciously target certain races and communities. Reasons could include seeing them as easy targets and their access to lawyers. One could Interview American policemen of all races anonymously about their experiences with co-workers and their observations of them while on the job. Questions would include subjects like the consistency in enforcement and methods when dealing with different races (all other things equal). Another study could look into race related stats in drugs enforcement. It would compare use and sale statistics for each race with the amount of people jailed for it.

One could localize the study to take local laws such as arrest quotas into consideration. The same data collection and study could be done in Canada, looking at Canadian police killings, especially per capita and focusing on Aboriginals. This study also has a major error. Statistics for 2016 were only for part of the year. A new study would look at the data of full years for a more “apples to apples” comparison.

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