Title: Are black or white offenders more likely to kill police? - The Washington Post
Headings: Are black or white offenders more likely to kill police?
Are black or white offenders more likely to kill police?
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A reader posed this question via Twitter in response to a recent fact check on New York Police Department Commissioner William Bratton’s claim that more than 100 officers are killed every year due to anger, hatred and violence. Bratton earned two Pinocchios for misrepresenting data on police killings. While more than 100 officers die on duty every year, accidents generally outnumber murders of police each year. Officers killed by offenders acting out of “anger and hatred,” such as ambush attacks, are a small percentage of officer deaths each year. Story continues below advertisement
It was a timely inquiry, given the recent debates over race and homicides of and by police. And it was an important one, in the aftermath of the deaths of young black males recently killed by police and the assassination-style killings of two NYPD officers by a black offender. Are black or white victims more likely to be killed by police? Are black or white offenders more likely to kill police? Advertisement
The first question is impossible to answer accurately, though many have tried by piecing together different types of data.