More police were killed last year (2015) than unarmed blacks were killed by police. As many unarmed whites were killed by police last year as unarmed blacks. Out of 800,000 police officers and tens of millions of police encounters with civilians, the total unarmed people killed by police was 90. And that includes those unarmed people who were attacking the officers at the time, like Michael Brown.

There is a problem. There is no epidemic of police killing unarmed blacks. Police are not hunting blacks. Police are not out of control. Out of those tens of millions of encounters with citizens, 870 people were killed by police, and they were armed and/or a serious threat to the officer. That is not “out of control”. Half of those 870 were black, but on the other hand, young black males make up less than 5% of the population, but commit half the nation’s murders. Police have every reason to be nervous approaching a group of young black males; it would be irrational to not be.