skeptic poll
Skeptic Magazine recently conducted a poll on public perception of police violence on black individuals. The results are striking. A majority of liberals and moderates believe that 100 or more unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019. A minority of ALL political demographics believe the number is over 10,000.

The real number was between 13 and 27.

All political orientations overestimated the percentage of people killed by police who were black.

skeptic poll

Here's the summary of their findings:
  1. The available data on police shootings of unarmed Black men is incomplete; however, existing data indicate that somewhere between 13-27 unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019. Adjusted for the number of law enforcement agencies that have yet to provide data, this number may be higher, perhaps between 60-100. Yet, over half (53.5%) of those reporting "very liberal" political views estimated that 1,000 or more unarmed Black men were killed, a likely error of at least an order of magnitude (see Figure 1).
  2. The available data suggest that 24.9% of people killed by police in 2019 were Black. However, across the political spectrum, survey participants overestimated this number. Those who reported being "liberal" or "very liberal" were particularly inaccurate, estimating the proportion to be 56% and 60%, respectively (see Figure 2).
Take-home Messages
  1. Our overall findings indicate that people are uninformed regarding the available data on fatal police shootings in the US.
  2. Specifically, we found that the more people reported being "liberal" or "very liberal" on social and fiscal matters, the greater the discrepancy between the available data and their estimations.