}

It's a fact that blacks are disproportionately shot and killed by police. These statistics are at the core of the Black Lives Matter protests. Individual racism of officers and systemic racism definitely are factors, but are they the main factor? Blacks make up roughly 14.7% of the population but are arrested for roughly half of murders in the U.S. (arrested though not necessarily convicted). It would make sense that the more violent crime a group commits, the more likely they would have violent encounters with the police. But of course I'm a "terrible person" and "racist" for pointing out these statistics. I'm simply questioning the narrative that all this disparity can be chalked up to racism. Some is but there's no way of nailing down a percentage.

So there is a large gap between the rate of police shootings of blacks (and Hispanics) vs that of whites. But there is an absolutely massive gap between the amount of men that are killed by police and the amount of women. It's because cops are obviously sexist, right? If a group wanted to run with the narrative police shoot men because they're all sexist they certainly could. (Men make up 88% of police officers but you can certainly be biased against your own gender or race.) But showcasing ways in which men are abused or marginalized by society isn't in vogue these days. Maybe cops are sexist... or maybe men simply commit more violent crimes, are more physically imposing, and are more likely to be carrying a firearm. I'm sure no one has any problem with me calling out men like that.

In general, cops should rarely kill anyone unless absolutely necessary. I feel like the police force in the U.S. is getting far too militarized and should default to non-lethal force. Honestly, the gap between how often police in the U.S. kill civilians vs. the rest of the world is the most disturbing gap of all.

Since it seems to matter to people I'll list out my potential biases. And yes, I'm a straight white male... the most vilified group of people by SJWs. But no, I'm not a republican. I'm a vegetarian and I think disco sucks.