Police violence has reared its ugly head in the United States yet again with thousands of people hitting the streets of Minneapolis to protest the death of George Floyd over the past few hours. The city's mayor appealed for calm as police officers and protestors faced off across barricades in clashes that left one man dead. They come after George Floyd died on Monday evening when he was pulled from his car by four police officers with one kneeling on his neck. Onlookers filmed as he continually shouted "I can't breathe" and the footage quickly went viral, prompting shock and outrage. The incident has drawn comparisons with the death of unarmed black man Eric Garner in the New York borough of Staten Island in 2014 after police officers placed him in a chokehold.
According to a Washington Post analysis, black Americans are disproportionately affected by police violence across the United States. The data refers specifically to police shootings and it relies primarily on news accounts, social media postings and police reports. Since January 01, 2015, 4,728 people have died in police shootings and around half, 2,385, were white. 1,252 were black, 877 were Hispanic and 214 were from other racial groups. As a share of the population, however, things are very different. Black Americans account for less than 13% of the U.S. population but the rate at which they are shot and killed by police is more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
Number of people killed in police shootings in the U.S. since January 01, 2015.
