Police murder of community members is literally an everyday event. In about the time it takes to get a good night’s sleep, police will have killed someone else in the U.S.

Murders by police aren’t well tracked by any government agency, mostly just advocates and activists combing the news. We know that we miscount deaths by police, so there are probably even more. The numbers that we do have still tell an important story.

Rick Hill has tracked murders by police since 2000 on a website called “Fatal Encounters”. “Black/African-American” were 27% of the police murders. They are currently only 13% of the U.S. population. 

“Native-Americans/Alaskans” were killed in 1% of the cases and are about 1% of the population. This is at odds with other research that finds indigenous people are killed at a higher rate than any other demographic. It’s worth noting that 25 million people were murdered through government-backed genocide to found this country. This severely reduced their present-day population. Police murder of indigenous people continues the ongoing violence led by the U.S. government.

“Hispanic/Latino” people were 16% of police murders and are 18% of the population. “European-American/White” people were murdered by police 47% of the time. They are 60% of the population. In the last 20 years, police killed 28,174 people of all races in the United States. 

At Pacific Northwest Family Circle, we know a person’s race dictates how likely they are to be murdered by police, but not *if* they are at risk. People of all races have some risk of being killed by police. 

When police kill our Loved Ones, they put us in a club that we never wanted to be in. We know what that feels like. And we feel the same about George Floyd’s Family. We are truly sad that they can understand our pain, because our Loved Ones were murdered by police, too.

Black Lives Matter have always mattered. We will say Black Lives Matter for as long as we have the breath to do so. We are brokenhearted to watch the brutal murder of George Floyd, because our Loved Ones were killed brutally.

Murder is brutal.

Whether killed because they were Black or in a mental health crisis or by mistake, the result is the same. Our Loved Ones will never come back. And this never gets easier. It gets harder.

Because police murder happens every day, and we must live with it every day.

Justice for George Floyd and #AllStolenLives

Justice for Christopher Kalonji
Justice for Bodhi Phelps
Justice for Chance Thompson
Justice for Quanice Hayes
Justice for Terrell Johnson
Justice for Chase Hammer
Justice for Brad Lee Morgan
Justice for Daniel Isaac Covarrubias
Justice for Alex Dold
Justice for Captain Brian A. Babb
Justice for (alive) Andre Thompson
Justice for (alive) Bryson Chaplin
Justice for Deano Case
Justice for Remi Sabbe
Justice for John Elifritz
Justice for Jesse Powell
Justice for Patrick Kimmons
Justice for Matthew Burroughs
Justice for Andre Gladen
Justice for Giovann Joseph-McDade