Last year, U.S. police killed 1,232 people, the worst toll since the non-profit Mapping Police Violence began counting these deadly encounters in 2013. More than three each day. The increase occurred as homicides overall decreased by a record 13%. The 2023 tally of police killings may rise slightly because more cases may be added as the database is updated. The toll compares with the 1,202 people police killed in 2022, 1,148 in 2021, 1,160 in 2020, and 1,098 in 2019. Not only shootings are tallied but also people killed by stun guns, beatings, or while restrained. As reported last month by Sam Levin at The Guardian:
High-profile 2023 cases included the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in Memphis; the tasing of Keenan Anderson in Los Angeles; and the shooting in Lancaster, California, of Niani Finlayson, who had called 911 for help over domestic violence. There were hundreds more who garnered little attention, including Ricky Cobb, shot by a Minnesota trooper after he was pulled over for a tail light violation; Tahmon Kenneth Wilson, unarmed and shot outside a Bay Area cannabis dispensary; and Isidra Clara Castillo, killed when police in Amarillo, Texas, fired at someone else in the same car as her. [...]
In 2023, Black people were killed at a rate 2.6 times higher than white people, Mapping Police Violence found. Last year, 290 people killed by police were Black, making up 23.5% of victims, while Black Americans make up roughly 14% of the total population. Native Americans were killed at a rate 2.2 times greater than white people, and Latinos were killed at a rate 1.3 times greater.
Black and brown people have also consistently been more likely to be killed while fleeing. From 2013 to 2023, 39% of Black people who were killed by police had been fleeing, typically either running or driving away. That figure is 35% for Latinos, 33% for Native Americans, 29% for white people and 22% for Asian Americans.
Under the circumstances, it’s no surprise to learn, as researchers at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have done, that Black people exposed to news about shootings of unarmed Black individuals have sleep problems. Their study—Officer-Involved Killings of Unarmed Black People and Racial Disparities in Sleep Health—was published Monday in the peer-reviewed JAMA Internal Medicine journal.
The researchers recorded 331 officer-involved killings of unarmed Black individuals. More than a third of participants in the study were exposed to such a killing in their state in the 90 days prior to an interview with them. Revealed were increases in short sleep (under seven hours a night) and very short sleep (under six hours) for Black respondents who had been exposed to the killings of unarmed Black people during encounters with police. No such effects on sleep health were found in white respondents.
Said the study's lead author, Atheendar S. Venkataramani, a physician and associate professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, "These findings show that poor sleep health is another unfortunate byproduct of exposure to these tragic occurrences. Exposure of Black Americans to police violence—which disproportionately affects Black individuals—adversely impacts sleep health of these individuals, a critical keystone that further impacts our mental, physical, and emotional well-being."
From the study:
Unequal exposure to police violence, a cardinal manifestation of structural racism, may also contribute to racial disparities in sleep health.16-22 Both direct and vicarious exposure to police use of deadly force have been linked to poor health outcomes, most notably poor mental health.23-35 Even exposure to nonlethal police encounters have been linked to poor health outcomes.36-38 Sleep health may be adversely affected through several of the mechanisms identified in this literature. Officer-involved killings may diminish expectations about future well-being and longevity, induce hypervigilance, and increase stress including posttraumatic stress disorder, many of which have been associated with poor sleep.24,39-44 Exposure to police killings of unarmed Black people may be viewed as particularly unjust manifestations of structural racism.23,24,27
Four years ago, after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, there was an immense and angry nationwide response from people of all colors that seemed to presage serious reform in police operations from coast to coast as Black Lives Matter signs showed up even in white suburbs. Countless articles and essays, talk shows, and even a few books covered the subject. Organizations made proposals for change not just for police but the entire criminal justice system. Then the spark was all but extinguished. And today it seems most Americans aren’t losing any sleep over police shootings. Those who are apparently don’t count.