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US Police Kill More Than 2 People Daily

US Police Kill More Than 2 People Daily
US Police Kill More Than 2 People Daily

US police have killed people at a rate of more than two a day this year, a level far higher than typical federal counts, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The Post found that so far this year, at least 385 people have been shot and killed by police across the United States, a rate of more than two a day.

The newspaper is tracking such killings across America because local police departments are not required to file reports to the federal government, meaning that nationwide statistics are incomplete or unavailable, AFP reported.

The Post found that in general, blacks were killed at three times the rate of whites or other minorities in the police killings it analyzed this year.

The paper also reported that many of the killings stemmed from minor interactions between police and community members that escalated into sudden violence.

In one case, for instance, police in the Florida city of Miami Gardens killed a schizophrenic man who was waving a broomstick. His mother had called police because she couldn’t persuade him to come in from the cold.

The tally comes as a national debate is taking place about the level at which police use deadly violence, especially in black and Latino communities.

One of the most prominent recent cases to fuel the debate is that of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old who was fatally shot last year in Ferguson, Missouri. In Baltimore last month, riots broke out following protests over the death of Freddie Gray, 25, who died from injuries sustained in the back of a police van.

Financialtribune.com