Since the Treyvon Martin case opened up to the public some odd years ago, the public has heard of more and more “innocent” African American men being killed. This has led to the racial protests and anarchy we are used to today. Although, it is self evident when you look into the statistics that these police officers are not only non-racist but are doing their job at a high level. In an article written by the National Review they used statistics from the Post that said American police had fatally shot 965 people in 2015, 564 of those killed were armed with a gun, 281 were armed with another weapon, and 90 were unarmed. This means that 70% plus cases involving fatal shootings are after an officer is put into danger, defending himself or defending someone else. When it comes to race the common view is that these fatal shootings on the black communities by white law enforcement is normal. However, its only 4% of all fatal shootings performed by officers each year. Then the next most common argument these “Black Lives Matter” protesters us his that though black males only make up 6% of the United States population they make up 40% of unarmed men shot by police each year. the misleading statistics is used to hypnotize the general public without giving out all the facts. Young African American deaths really have nothing to do with race; in fact they sort of bring up a more plausible issue in police force. Everyone talks about racism but never sexism. Those that are classified as criminals or threats are usually primarily male. Police officers rarely ever fire their gun at a female. And the reason mostly black males are fatally shot is simply because general areas with large black populations tend to have high crime/death rates. In the National Review article they said blacks “commit homicide at close to eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined….among males between the ages of 14 and 17, the interracial homicide commission gap is nearly tenfold.”(French pg. 1) Also they said “In 2014, for example, while black Americans constituted only about 13 percent of the population, they represented a majority of the homicide and robbery arrests. 82 percent of all gun deaths in the black community are from homicide. For whites, 77 percent of gun deaths are suicides.”(French pg. 1) Therefore, with years of data and the elements presented it is evident that these cops aren’t out here to target a specific demographic but instead base their watches off the data they are given and unfortunately sometimes the incidents result in death. People make individual choices to break the law it has nothing to do with race. A white man is just as dangerous as a black man.
French, David. “The Numbers Are In: Black Lives Matter Is Wrong about Police.” National Review. National Review, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/429094/black-lives-matter-wrong-police-shootings
Rowan Counterintuitive 