Fact check: Per capita, are more white men or black men shot by police?

1. Summary of the results

Based on the available analyses, Black men are shot by police at significantly higher per capita rates than white men. The data consistently shows that Black Americans face disproportionate rates of police violence:

• Black Americans are killed by police at twice the rate of white Americans according to The Washington Post database cited in multiple sources ^[1]
• The fatal police shooting rate among Black Americans was 6.1 per million of the population per year between 2015 and May 2024, which is higher than that for any other ethnicity ^[2]
• Black Americans account for roughly 14 percent of the U.S. population but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans ^[3]

This pattern extends beyond fatal shootings to broader use of force incidents. In Canadian cities, similar disparities exist: Black people in Hamilton make up 17% of use of force incidents despite being only 5% of the population ^[4], and Black people in Toronto are 1.6 times as likely to have force used on them by police ^[5].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The analyses reveal several important contextual factors missing from the original question:

• Non-fatal shooting disparities: Research shows that non-Hispanic Black people were disproportionately injured in nonfatal shootings by police but had 35 percent lower odds of fatal injury when shot, compared to white victims ^[6]. This suggests that while Black individuals are shot more frequently, they may be less likely to die from those shootings.
• Systemic patterns of abuse: The analyses document extreme cases of racial violence, including six White law enforcement officers who tortured two Black men in Mississippi ^{[7] [8] [9]}, highlighting that disparities extend beyond shootings to broader patterns of racially motivated police violence.
• International perspective: The Canadian data ^{[4] [5]} suggests this is not solely a U.S. phenomenon, indicating broader systemic issues in policing practices across North America.

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question itself appears neutral and factual, seeking statistical clarification rather than making claims. However, the framing could potentially be problematic:

• The question focuses narrowly on shooting rates without acknowledging the broader context of systemic racial disparities in policing that the sources consistently document
• By asking for a simple comparison, the question may inadvertently minimize the complexity of racial disparities in police violence, which extend beyond just fatal shootings to include non-fatal shootings, use of force, and extreme cases of torture and abuse
• The phrasing doesn't account for the historical and ongoing nature of these disparities, which multiple sources indicate have been documented consistently over nearly a decade of data collection (p1_s2 covers 2015-2024)

The evidence overwhelmingly supports that per capita, more Black men are shot by police than white men, with the disparity being approximately 2:1 according to multiple independent analyses.