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> "Today, the likelihood that you'll be shot by a cop if you're black is astronomically higher than if you're white."

That's actually false and it's an impression being carried out by the media. When interacting with the police, you are more like to to be shot if you are white than if you are black.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/upshot/surprising-new-evid...

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If you look at the linked study they're careful to point out that they're only looking at what happens when you're already stopped by police. Blacks in America are much more likely to be stopped overall, so it's not definitive.

They're looking at P(shot|stopped by police and white) and P(shot|stopped by police and black) not P(shot by police|black) and P(shot by police|white).

Well, it makes sense that blacks are more stoped by the police in the USA than whites, since they are the ones committing - by a great margin - most of the violent crimes. The black community in the USA (representing 12% of the population) commits more homicides and attempted homicides than all the white community (which is 5x times larger). Thereby, of course they have more interaction with the police.

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