There have been a number of high-profile killings of African-American males by police in America. The Guardian Newspaper began a new study tracking the statistics surrounding law enforcement shootings. These killings have led to protests, rioting, and a vast national debate about the treatment of young African-American men by police. This has posed the question of institutional-level racism resulting in shocking levels of injustice.

The Guardian’s study found that this is indeed a clear and on-going problem that is not going away. In 2015 young African-American men were five times more likely to face police-involved deaths than white males from the same age group. This rate means that 1 in 65 deaths of young African-American men is caused by a fatal incident with police. This and various other statistics in the Guardian study demonstrate a clear systemic bias in the conduct of law enforcement. This bias is coming under a greater level of public scrutiny, and even if the rates of incidents is on the rise, the number of cases of officers involved facing trial has risen dramatically.

We are half way through the year and hoping this number decreases. African American males are automatically seen as a threat which is unfortunate. When a young black male with no criminal history is killed by police for an alleged crime he commented and a white male that walks in a church and shoots nine praying people is arrested without incident and is fed by the police, you know there is a real problem with the law enforcement in the United States. The white man who we know is a murderer gets his day in court while the black male who alleged commits a crime is killed.