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Ivan G Thompson
a book bubble about
The Making of A Great America Uprooting the Spirit of Racism
Religion & Spirituality
Author Insight
Did You Have to Shoot to Kill?
Minority kids are more likely to be killed by police than adults. Moreover, shot while running away. Help me understand. Was the child/minor a murder or armed robbery suspect? How does running justify an officer taking a minor’s life? I’m 56. I grew up watching cop shows like “Baretta,”“Kojack,” etc. Most times, the cop chased down the unarmed man/kid and subdued him. George-Floyd-type-street-justice is killing someone for a crime that wouldn’t warrant capital punishment if caught/convicted/sentenced. Washington-Post-Kimberly-Kindy-05/14/21 “…I started digging into our Fatal Force database to see how often children are dying by police gunfire…I immediately knew readers would be alarmed that more than 100 children have been shot and killed by police since 2015. Children who were racial minorities were dying by police gunfire at a significantly higher rate than adults who were racial minorities. Children were also more likely to die as they attempted to run away from police. The recent shootings have triggered renewed calls for changes in police training so officers are better equipped to handle tense encounters with children. This haunting quote comes from Dearrea King, the grandmother of 13-year-old Tyre King, who died in a police shooting in 2016: “These kids are running away because they are afraid. They are trying to get someplace safe because they do not trust the police.”
Book Excerpt
The Making of A Great America Uprooting the Spirit of Racism
This excerpt comes from the chapter entitled "A Few Bad Apples":
An August 2019 study entitled “Risk of being killed by police use-of-force in the U.S. by age, race/ethnicity, and sex”(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1821204116) highlights the disparity between deaths by the police between black and whites.
“We estimate that over the life course, at levels of risk similar to those observed between 2013 and 2018, about 52 (90 percent uncertainty interval) of every 100,000 men and boys in the United States will be killed by police use of force over the life course, and about 3 of every 100,000 women and girls will be killed by police over the life course. Figure 2 displays the ratio of lifetime risk for each racial/ethnic group relative to white risk for both men and women. Note that a rate ratio of one indicates equality in mortality risk relative to whites. The highest levels of inequality in mortality risk are experienced by Black men. Black men are about 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police over the life course than are white men. Black women are about 1.4 times more likely to be killed by police than are white women… Among all groups, Black men and boys face the highest lifetime risk of being killed by police. Our models predict that about 1 in 1,000 Black men and boys will be killed by police over the life course (96 per 100,000).” (Frank Edwards, 2019)
The Washington Post’s own “comprehensive examination of police shootings showed that black Americans account for just 13 percent of the population but one-fourth of shooting victims. Among unarmed victims, the disparity was even greater: More than one-third of those fatally shot were black.”
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