Police Killings: In Perspective
Mike Walker, Col. USMC (ret)
All,
We are seeing rioting, burning, assaults, beatings, and murders associated with the killing of unarmed Black people in America.
I understand lawful protest but the rest is unconscionable, indefensible and just plain wrong. Here is why:
The FBI compiled and released the crime statistics for 2019. Given the United States has over 300 million people, it is not surprising that the police carried out millions arrests in 2019.
Very few arrests ended with the police killing the suspect: 1,004 out of the millions - a very small fraction of 1%.
Of the 1,004 fatalities, 963 (95.9%) of the suspects were armed.
That left 41 unarmed suspect fatalities:
19 were White
13 were Hispanic/Asian/Pacific Islander
9 were Black
That is why I hold lawful protests over the police killing of unarmed Black people as legitimate but the rest is unconscionable, indefensible and just plain wrong.
All Americans need to keep things in perspective and act responsibly!
See the FBI website for details: Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program | Federal Bureau of Investigation
