Lynching in the age of colour blindness: a crime against humanity...

Between 1882 and 1968, a period of 86 years 3,446 African Americans and 1,297 whites were lynched in the United States.[ii] These were people who were killed, usually by hanging, often by hysterical mobs of people acting outside the law. The perpetrators of these crimes were self-appointed judges, juries, and executioners. 73 per cent of the victims were African Americans. The average rate of lynching was 55 people per year. The average rate of lynching throughout that period was .046 per 100,000 people.

 In Chicago, in the 33 months from January, 2009 to November, 2011 there were 51 people killed by Chicago Police Department officers, according to official CPD statistics.[iv] The police acted as officers of the law, but they acted as judge, jury and executioner in these cases. Police shot 160 men and 1 woman in those months. African Americans were 74 per cent of the victims; 20 per cent were other people of color. The average rate of police killings was 18.5 per year in this period. The average rate of police killings in Chicago was 0.64 per 100,000 people.

 In the United States as a whole in the last decade of the 20th Century, from 1990 to 2000, there were 2,054 people killed by police.[vi] The average rate of such killings was 205 per year. The average annual rate of killings by police in the country as a whole was .066 per 100,000. Full story...

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