During an interview with CBS Correspondent Catherine Herridge, President Donald Trump sparked flames of racial tension. When asked about recent incidents of police brutality against Black Americans, Trump responded by pointing out that more white people are killed by police annually.
“Why are African-Americans still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country?” she asked.
“What a terrible question to ask,” Trump answered.
“So are white people. More white people, by the way,” he continued.
To Trump’s point, more white people are killed by police each year. The White population in America is more than four times that of Black Americans. When accounting for population size, statistics show that Black people are 2.8 times more like to be killed at the hands of police than white people. Despite the current Black population making up 13.4% of the country, a third of the people killed by police harm were Black. Furthermore, Black people were 1.3 times more likely to be unarmed when killed by police harm than any other group.
Current social movements in the wake of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery’s deaths have sparked major police reform. All three were unarmed at the times of their deaths.
