“We are raising funds to support a critical legal defense in the fight against unchecked corporate power and a system that continues to favor the few over everyone else. This case isn’t just about one individual—it’s about challenging a status quo that protects the interest of the powerful at the expense of justice and fairness,” read one of the fundraising pages that was quickly removed by GoFundMe.
It’s because…
Police kill Black people at disproportionate rates
Though nationwide statistics are less readily available, multiple studies have found that police kill Black people at disproportionate rates.
A study in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine in 2016 examined all 812 fatalities that resulted from use of lethal force by on-duty law enforcement from 2009-2012 in 17 states. The study used National Violent Death Reporting System data.
The majority of victims were white people, at 52%, but “black victims were over-represented (32.4%) relative to the U.S. population.” The fatality rate was 2.8 times higher among Black victims than white victims.
So yes, police violence against PoC in the US is overrepresented by almost 3x the rate of white victims. It’s a major issue. Black on black crime is also a major issue but that is also correlated with poverty in general. So they aren’t the same issue at all, and BLM are free to advocate for whatever specific issues they want to focus on, because they can’t possibly have the resources to take action on every form of hateful discrimination that PoC face on a daily basis (like poor access to healthcare and worse treatment than white patients when they do get medical care, to name another couple of examples).
