Fatal police shootings in US on track to match 2015

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

Despite growing concern regarding the use of force by police officers resulting in fatalities, 2016 is shaping up to at least match last year’s total number of people killed in police-involved shootings, according to recent data.

With roughly a third of the year in the record books, 305 people have died in such incidents, according to statistics compiled by the Washington Post.

That tracks well with data compiled from 2015 that found 990 people mortally shot by law enforcement officers. Three hundred and twenty-nine were killed though April.

The summer months of 2015 showed the largest increase with 104 people killed in July before slowing down to 94 in August and 81 in September – the same total through October.

Even though it’s been the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of generally white police officers that have provoked national outrage, whites accounted for nearly half of all of those killed in police-involved shootings last year. And that again carries over for this year.

Hispanics accounted for just 17 percent of those killed last year and constitute 15 percent in 2016 – closely mirroring their share of overall demographics from the 2010 census – the latest available data.

But blacks, who constitute just 13 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for 26 percent of those killed in 2015 and 23 percent so far this year.

Larry Hamm, a community organizer based in Newark, New Jersey, said that the number of blacks killed in police shootings is “astronomical” compared to their percentage of population.

“In that sense it is a much more onerous problem,” he said.

But while “police brutality” has been “characterized as a black problem” it’s really a problem “that affects all groups”, he said.

Perhaps most disturbingly, roughly a quarter of those killed by police in 2015 exhibited some sign of mental illness. And the same holds true for those killed this year.

“I don’t think police in this country are adequately trained to deal with the mentally ill,” said Hamm, who is the chairman of People’s Organization for Progress.

That begs the question of who ultimately should be responsible for responding to the needs of the mentally ill -- police officers charged with law enforcement, or health care professionals trained to address their needs.

The issue has gained traction since former President Ronald Reagan severed funding for mental health services in the 1980s, forcing many of those in need of treatment on to America's streets where they continue to face homelessness.

"People were literally turned out into the street, and our country did not do enough to deal with the challenges that the mentally ill face," Hamm said.