via Flickr
Young Black men are not safe, and new research is telling us why. A study that was conducted by researchers at Rutgers University-Newark shows just why police violence is actually an epidemic. And this HUGE problem is taking Black lives faster than you think.
According to USA Today, “uses of force by police officers, whether warranted or not, are now the sixth-highest cause of death for males between the ages of 25 and 29.” And if you’re a young Black man, you’re “two-and-a-half times” more likely to be killed than a white man.
Fatal Encounters, a journalist-run database that documents police-involved deaths, and the National Vital Statistic System’s mortality files supplied researchers with the data to draw their conclusions.
Oh, and it applies to Black women too, because it revealed a higher risk for us all.
Life expectancy in the USA has been falling for 2 years. While people continue to die prematurely, it’s passed time to ask WHY we allow police violence to occur at such a high rate when it’s completely preventable. This is a public health issue we can stop right now!
We can start by pressuring our local district attorneys and mayors to take police brutality SERIOUSLY by holding police accountable. And if they don’t we should be making sure they don’t hold office any longer. The numbers aren’t lying, but anyone saying we can’t stop this problem is!