As politicians are working to find solutions to police violence, having a comprehensive understanding of the statistics is essential. //

If Democrats truly want to solve police brutality they should do a little research.

The current media trend indicates that blacks are targeted by the police; however, new research reports just the opposite. A study released in late 2019 found “no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities” across police shootings. //

The findings continue, citing that “white officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers.”

Rather, police are far more likely to kill whites during a confrontation. For example, in 2017 457 white Americans were shot to death by the police in comparison to 223 black Americans.

This trend continues into 2020 where statistics show that police more commonly kill whites during confrontations. The ratio of police violence by race has not changed much over the past five years. //

When taking population differences into account, the argument against systemic racism holds up as well. Despite representing 13% of the population, the FBI reported that in 2017 black Americans committed 53% of homicides and 54% of robberies. Further, when looking into violence committed against police, black American men represent 33% of cop killers despite being only 6.6% of the population.