Title: Do Police Kill More White People Than Black People? | Snopes.com
Headings: Do Police Kill More White People Than Black People?
Do Police Kill More White People Than Black People?
More white people are killed in police shootings than Black Americans, but overall white people are statistically less likely to be killed by police than Black people.
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What's True
In absolute numbers, more white people than black people are killed in police shootings (because white people outnumber black people in America). What's False
Regardless of absolute numbers, it is true that proportionally, Black Americans are several times more likely to be killed in police shootings than white Americans are. Subscribe to our Snopes Debunker newsletter and get the latest fact checks in your inbox for free: By subscribing, you're accepting our terms and conditions and privacy policy. Keep reading, our fact check continues below. Origin
In September 2016, the ongoing issue of police shootings and race came to a head after a white police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, shot and killed Terence Crutcher, an unarmed 40-year-old African-American man. Similar shootings throughout the U.S. have been caught on camera and widely shared via social media, prompting the development of the Black Lives Matter movement to address a seemingly constant stream of American police officers killing unarmed black people. The issue has also inspired some critics to disingenuously counter that white people are the ones who are killed most frequently by police officers, as expressed in a 21 April 2015 Washington Times article: An analysis shows that more white people died at the hands of law enforcement than those of any other race in the last two years, even as the Justice Department, social-justice groups and media coverage focus on black victims of police force. Any “analysis” of police killings will of course show that in absolute numbers, more white people are killed in police shootings than black people, because (non-Hispanic) whites comprise a roughly five times greater share of the U.S. population (62% vs. 13%).