Black Americans are three times more likely to be killed by police violence compared to white Americans, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Harvard University.
The report from the T.H. Chan School of Public Health was authored by Gabriel Schwartz and Jacqulyn Jahn and published in peer-reviewed academic journal PLOS.
It examined over 5,000 police-related fatalities in metropolitan areas covering a five year period from 2013 to 2017.
The report found black Americans in those areas were on average 3.23 times more likely to be killed in a police incident compared to white Americans.
“Nationally, black people are at much higher risk of being killed by the police, but in some places the difference is truly enormous,” the authors said.
“Black Chicagoans are more than 650 per cent more likely to be killed than white Chicagoans.”
The data revealed a large variation in the number of police-related fatalities across metropolitan areas in the United States.
The overall rate of fatal police violence was higher in America's west and south, but the disparities between black and white fatalities were more pronounced in the nation’s northeast and north-midwest cities.
The observational study does not draw conclusions as to the reasons behind the disparities.
The authors said place-specific policies, such as firearm regulations, levels of segregation, and differences in police training and behaviour could explain the gap in incidence rates.
“People’s risk of fatal police violence varies hugely from one metro area to another,” the authors added.
“Some metros have death rates nine times those of other cities, which points to how preventable these deaths are and why so many people are protesting police violence across the country.”
Black Lives Matter protests are still ongoing in the United States, one month on from the death of black man George Floyd in police custody.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporters hold placards while marching in Washington DC, USA, 24 June 2020. Source: EPA
The grief and anger expressed by hundreds of thousands of marchers in the United States has also been witnessed in Australia.
In June rallies took place in cities across Australia, highlighting the issues of police brutality and Indigenous deaths in custody.
There have been at least 434 aboriginal deaths in custody in Australia since a royal commission examining the issue handed down its findings in 1991.
Most of the inquiry's 300 recommendations were not implemented.
George Floyd's death was compared with that of Dunghutti man David Dungay Jr, who died in Sydney's Long Bay Prison after being restrained by guards.
In the last month, NSW and South Australian police have launched separate internal investigations into the circumstances surrounding recent arrests of Indigenous men.
South Australian police are investigating a video that appears to show an officer striking an Indigenous man during an arrest.
NSW Police are investigating the arrest of an Indigenous teen who was filmed being slammed to the ground by an officer, as well as the repeated tasering of an Indigenous man in a Sydney park.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people also remain over-represented in Australian prisons, making up 28 per cent of inmates despite constituting only 2 per cent of the national population.
