Some Things Colin Kaepernick Needs to Know About Police Shootings

By Dan O'Donnell

September 2, 2016

(WISN) In the latest episode of "The Dan O'Donnell Show," Dan runs down the facts about police shootings and inner city violence in America that Colin Kaepernick apparently never bothered to learn.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is protesting the National Anthem because, in his words, “there are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder,” but there are a few things that he needs to know about police shootings.

The Washington Post found that in 2015, police and law enforcement officers shot and killed a total of 987 people. As of mid-July, that number stood at 1,502. Of those victims, 381 were black. 382 were Hispanic, Asian, another race, or were of an unspecified or undetermined race. 732—a full 49%—were white.

Black Lives Matter activists have been quick to point out that African-Americans comprise just 13% of America’s population but made up 25% of the deaths in police shootings, but this doesn’t tell the whole story.

In 2015, the Department of Justice studied the Philadelphia Police Department and concluded that African-American and Hispanic police officers were far more likely than white officers to fire their guns at black suspects. A similar study from the University of Pennsylvania found that African-American police officers were 3.3 times more likely to fire their guns than were officers of other races.