Monday, June 01, 2020

Mapping Police Killings



Black Americans are two and half times more likely to be killed by a police officer than white Americans. Of course not all states are equal. Black Americans in Utah actually have an incredible 9.2 times more chance of being killed at the hands of the police than a white person. In Rhode Island 8.74 black Americans are killed by the police for every white person killed.

Al Jazeera has mapped out Where black people are most disproportionately killed by police in the United States. When mapping numbers by geographical area cartographers often have to make a decision between mapping total numbers or numbers adjusted by population. Al Jazeera has responded to this challenge by mapping both the total number of black Americans killed in each state (using proportional markers) and the disproportion rate in every state (the number of black Americans killed for every white American killed).

While Utah has the highest disproportion rate of all states California is the state where the highest number of black Americans have been killed at the hands of the police between 2013 and 2019. Just in that 7 year period 186 black Americans were killed in California by the police.

Black Americans appear to be safest (at least in terms of being killed by the police) in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, New Hampshire and Vermont. These are the only states in the USA where black Americans (between 2013 and 2019) were not killed at the hands of the police at a higher rate than white Americans.

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