A timely new study just released by a Harvard economics professor concludes that while blacks are more likely than whites to be confronted by police, there is no evidence that blacks are more likely to be shot by police officers. In some instances, blacks are actually less likely to be shot.
These results fly in the face of the contentions of groups like Black Lives Matter and some government officials that African-Americans tend to be singled out for lethal treatment by law enforcement personnel – contentions that have helped fuel the violent reactions to recent fatal shootings of blacks by police.
The author of the study, Rolando G. Fryer, Jr., an African-American economics professor, looked at more than 1,300 police shootings in Texas, Florida, and California between 2000 and 2015. He described the findings as “the most surprising result of my career.”
The study does not address individual instances of police bias and excess, but it does make a compelling case that the problem needs to be approached more realistically and with greater nuance and precision.