Reginald Leon Boston Jr
Jacksonville, Florida
According to CBS affiliate WJAX, 20-year-old Reginald Leon Boston Jr. was fatally shot by Jacksonville police who said they had set up an undercover operation to find a man who robbed someone at gunpoint. Police had three suspects, including Boston.
Officers attempted to arrest Boston and two others when suspects allegedly displayed a gun that they would not put down, WJAX reported. Officers shot two suspects, including Boston. Boston was killed at the scene.
It is not clear if Boston was the person holding the gun.
|
|
In the United States, use of deadly force by police has been a high-profile and contentious issue. In 2019, 1,004 people were killed by police shootings according to The Washington Post and 1,098 people were killed by police in total according to the Mapping Police Violence project.
A lack of reliable data has made conclusions about race and policing difficult. Several non-government and crowdsourcing projects have been started to address this lack of reliable data. Research has provided mixed results on the extent of racial bias in the police use of deadly force, with some studies finding no racial bias, while other studies conclude there is racial bias in the use of deadly force.
Firearm Suicide By Race/ethnicity In
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Underlying Cause of Death. A yearly average was developed using five years of the most recent available data: 2016 to 2020. The term homicide includes shootings by police. See the Methodology page for more information.
Black On Black Crime Specifically Murder For 2014
A 5-year period of FBI data collected from participating departments around the country showed that on average at least 2,776 blacks are killed by 2,476 black suspects, or 89%. By contrast, whites kill blacks at a rate of 8.3% . Blacks kill 15.4% of white victims with an average of 513 per year of 3,313 white homicides.
The data is gathered from departments that voluntarily report their numbers to the FBI. The data does not include the entire country. However, the numbers are remarkably consistent year over year.
This study from 2002 to 2011 showed an average of 16,128 homicides per year in the United States. Of that, 7,980 deaths per year were black or 49% of all victims. Whites made up 7,729 per year or 47% of all victims. Total black homicide deaths surpassed total white homicide deaths in 9 of the 10 years in this time frame.
Combining the data from both studies shows:
- 7,980 blacks are murdered per year
- 7,102 blacks kill other blacks per year
- 1,190 whites are murdered by blacks per year
- 662 blacks are murdered by whites per year
Also Check: How Do I Know If I Have A Police Record
Don’t Miss: How Much Does A Police Report Cost
How Many Police Shootings A Year No One Knows
A summer of high-profile police shootings, most notably the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., has rekindled a decades-long debate over law enforcements use of lethal force.
Police unions and some law-and-order conservatives insist that shootings by officers are rare and even more rarely unjustified. Civil rights groups and some on the left have just as quickly prescribed racial motives to the shootings, declaring that black and brown men are being executed by officers.
And, like all previous incarnations of the clash over police force, the debate remains absent access to a crucial, fundamental fact.
Criminal justice experts note that, while the federal government and national research groups keep scads of data and statistics on topics ranging from how many people were victims of unprovoked shark attacks to the number of hogs and pigs living on farms in the U.S. there is no reliable national data on how many people are shot by police officers each year.
The government does, however, keep a database of how many officers are killed in the line of duty. In 2012, the most recent year for which FBI data is available, it was 48 44 of them killed with firearms.
But how many people in the United States were shot, or killed, by law enforcement officers during that year? No one knows.
Even less data exists for officer-involved shootings that do not result in fatalities.
Kimberly Kindy contributed to this report.
Control For What Happened Studies
Consider the following alternative to a typical benchmarking study. First, compile a data set that includes rich detail about police-shooting incidents, as well as a risk set of incidents where police encountered civilians in confrontational situations but did not shoot. This comparison group might include cases where suspects were Tased instead of shot, or cases where cops drew their guns without firing. Second, instead of just comparing the racial breakdowns of the two groups, as one would do in the simplest benchmarking analysis, put together a statistical model that takes into account all other details, such as the time of day, whether the suspect whom the cop encountered was armed or attacking, whether the incident started with a call or a traffic stop, and the violent-crime rate of the surrounding neighborhood. This allows you to compare black suspects and white suspects who encountered cops in roughly similar situations, and determine whether those from one racial group or the other were more likely to be shot.
The most famous study in this vein is Roland Fryers An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force, which received prominent coverage in the New York Times in 2016 and was ultimately published in the Journal of Political Economy. Fryer found evidence of bias in the use of nonlethal force but not in fatal shootings.
Several other studies are worth noting here as well.
Also Check: How Long Does Police Academy Take
The Claim: Us Police Killed Eight Unarmed Black Men In 2019
In response to the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement after the death of George Floyd, Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of the conservative group Turning Point USA, posted a statement on Facebook.
Kirk claimed in a during the Blackout Tuesday campaign that, according to the Washington Posts database of police shootings, police killed eight unarmed Black men in 2019. Other Facebook pages have reposted the video, adding to its viewership.
Kirk uses this figure while arguing that systemic racism does not exist within law enforcement. He did not mention in the video that Black Americans make up 13% of the population but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans, as the Post reported. He also did not mention, as explained by Naomi Zack in her book on racial profiling and police homicide that when 4.4 million random stop and frisks were conducted in New York City, during the period from 2004 2012, even though Blacks were disproportionately singled out, the incidence of further police action was less for Blacks than for whites.
Kirks claim that police killed eight unarmed Black men in 2019 is incorrect for several reasons.
Recommended Reading: How To Buy Police Seized Items
Violence At Us Protests
The new data on fatalities and violence at American protests comes from a database created by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project , a non-profit, working in collaboration with a group of researchers at Princeton.
ACLED, a widely cited source for data on civilian casualties in Yemen, has been a non-partisan monitor of protests and violence in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Latin America, and launched its US Crisis Monitor in July, citing concerns over hate crimes and rising political violence.
ACLED found that the overwhelming majority of the more than 9.000 Black Lives Matter demonstrationsthat took place across the US after the killing of George Floyd have been peaceful. News reports at the height of demonstrations over Floyds killing cited dozens of deaths in connection with protests, butmany of those turned out to be examples of deadly crimes carried out in the vicinity of protests, rather than directly related to the demonstrations themselves, the researchers concluded. ACLEDs dataset only focuses on political violence.
Most of the protesters killed this year were shot to death, and many of the incidents involved confrontations at protests that escalated and turned deadly when at least one of the people involved had a gun.
Both Reinoehl and Perry have claimed they were acting in self-defense when they opened fire and that they felt their own lives were in danger.
Dont Miss: How To Write A Cover Letter For A Police Job
Read Also: What Happens When You File A Police Report On Someone
What Is The Problem
Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by gun violence. They experience 10 times the gun homicides, 18 times the gun assault injuries, and nearly 3 times the fatal police shootings of white Americans.
Gun homicides, assaults, and police shootings are disproportionately prevalent in historically underfunded neighborhoods and cities. This lack of funding intensifies our countrys long-standing racial inequities.
Local groups, residents, and city officials are driving solutions to reduce gun violence and increase safety in their communities, but data and resources are needed to support these efforts.
Police Violence Is A Systemic Problem In The Us Not Simply Incidental And It Happens On A Scale Far Greater Than Other Wealthy Nations
by Alexi Jones and Wendy Sawyer,June 5, 2020
There is no question that the number of police killings of civilians in the U.S. who are disproportionately Black and other people of color are the result of policies and practices that enable and even encourage police violence. Compared to police in other wealthy democracies, American police kill civilians at incredibly high rates:
The chart above compares the annual rates of police killings in each country, accounting for differences in population size. This is the most apples-to-apples comparison we can make with this data.1 But the total number of deaths at the hands of police is also worth seeing in comparison with other countries:
The sources for these charts are listed in the table below. For more statistics on police, arrests, and incarceration in the United States, see these other pages:
Read Also: How To Get Full Police Report
You May Like: How To Become A Police Officer Michigan
Are Black Or White Offenders More Likely To Kill Police
How police get killed by blacks and how many by whites? Thats important at this particular time.
A reader posed this question via Twitter in response to a recent fact check on New York Police Department Commissioner William Brattons 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.
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?
The first question is impossible to answer accurately, though many have tried by piecing together different types of data. The FBI maintains a limited database of self-reported homicides by police, and it is a conservative estimate at best.
But there is reliable data to answer second question, using the FBIs database of police deaths and injuries. So we dug into it.
You May Like: How To File A Police Report For An Accident
Trying To Transform Reform And Reimagine Policing In California
Mike Gipson views the issue from two perspectives: as a former police officer in Maywood, California, and now as a longtime state Assembly member. From both sides, Gipson said, he has been bothered.
It was troubling back in 1992, when I wore a police uniform and we viewed a videotape of motorist Rodney King and the abuse this man went through, Gipson said. It was a slap in our face, the Black community, when those officers were acquitted. I was horrified then and Im horrified now when individuals lives are taken at the hands of police. It doesnt have to happen at the rate it is.
Now ,as a policymaker, Gipson is trying to transform, reform and re-imagine policing in California, including holding bad police officers accountable and putting policies in place that remove them from the profession I once loved, he said.
Mac said the origins of policing are from the era of slavery, when slave patrols monitored enslaved Black people, deploying tactics similar to those that some officers use today.
For example, Mac compared the slave patrols ability to confront formally enslaved Black people to the stop-and-frisk policies still used in many states.
Ray, like many others, said he is deeply disturbed that the Senate did not vote on the proposed George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Super tragic, he said.
Read Also: Do You Get Paid While In The Police Academy
Homicide Most Common Cause Of On
Since 1975, a total of 284 police officers have died on the job. Of these, 101 were homicide victims, while 88 were killed in vehicle accidents often while rushing to respond to a call in poor road conditions.
Aircraft crashes during transportation or surveillance operations in more remote regions account for 29 deaths, and often claimed many lives in a single crash. On three occasions, officers were killed during training exercises.
Recommended Reading: What Shows Up On A Police Background Check
Cities And States With The Highest And Lowest Levels Of Police Violence
Over the past year since Floyd was murdered, 25 states saw a decrease, 19 states an increase and seven states had the same number of police killings compared with the same period a year ago.
New Mexico had the highest rate of police killings at 10 people killed by police for every million inhabitants followed by Montana and Alaska, both with 8 people killed per million inhabitants. The East Coast states of New Jersey, followed by Connecticut and Rhode Island, had the fewest police killings at less than 1 person per million inhabitants over the past 12 months.
The rate in the state of Minnesota, where George Floyd lived, increased from 10 police killings per million inhabitants the year before Floyd was killed to 13 one year after his murder. This includes Daunte Wright who was shot and killed by police officer Kim Potter during a police stop on April 11, 2021.
You May Like: Do You Have To Pay For The Police Academy
Daily Gun Violence Impacting People Of All Ages In The Us
Every day, 321 people are shot in the United States. Among those:
- 111 people are shot and killed
- 210 survive gunshot injuries
- 95 are intentionally shot by someone else and survive
- 42 are murdered
- 65 die from gun suicide
- 10 survive an attempted gun suicide
- 1 is killed unintentionally
- 90 are shot unintentionally and survive
- 1 is killed by legal intervention*
- 4 are shot by legal intervention and survive
- 1 died but the intent was unknown
- 12 are shot and survive but the intent was unknown
What Is The Top Cause Of Death For Police Officers On Duty
Felonious killings were the top cause of death for law enforcement officers on duty, reaching a 25-year high in 2021, with 73 deaths. The majority of killings were committed using a firearm, which is consistent for the last 25 years of data. Five of the felonious killings in 2021 were unprovoked attacks on law enforcement officers. The rest occurred during regular police activity such as traffic stops or investigations.
Fifty-six officers were accidentally killed in 2021. Fifty-two of those deaths came from motor vehicle crashes. Accidental deaths of law enforcement officers on the job decreased sharply after 2012. A National Institute of Justice study addresses some reasons for the decline.
For example, one common cause of accidental deaths is when officers exit a vehicle on the roadway, which makes it more likely theyll be struck by other vehicles.
The study showed that agencies that increased training and required reflective gear for patrol officers had fewer accidental deaths after exiting vehicles. Additionally, better airbag technology and increased seat belt usage helped prevent deaths while driving.
Also Check: How To Become A Va Police Officer
Gun Violence By The Numbers
The Centers for Disease Control provides annual statistics on fatal firearm injuries. Using data from the most recent years available , Brady establishes five-year averages of firearm fatalities. While Brady historically used CDC data to establish averages for gun-related injuries as well, recent findings show there are more accurate sources. Due to funding restrictions and other constraints, the sample size utilized by the CDC is so small that its estimate of firearm injuries ranges significantly. Data provided by Healthcare Cost and Utilization Projects HCUPnet, and collected from emergency departments and databases, gives a more comprehensive picture of gun injuries in the U.S. The numbers below represent a three-year average of the most recent HCUPnet data available . It is important to note that data reported for children and teens contains data only for 1-17-year-olds.
Us Police Shootings: How Many Die Each Year
On Sunday morning, three police officers were shot dead in Baton Rouge. This attack came just 10 days after five police officers were killed in Dallas. Both events were revenge attacks for the killing of young black men by police.
The bloodshed has shocked the US, leading President Barack Obama to call for calm. But how many police officers are killed in the US in a normal year? And how many people are killed by police?
Don’t Miss: How Dangerous Is It To Be A Police Officer