Report show Phoenix has highest rate of fatal police shootings in nation
by godless Friday, Nov. 16, 2007 at 9:42 AM

A report published by ColorLines magazine shows that Phoenix has the highest per capita rate of fatal police shootings of any large city in the US.

ColorLines magazine, a national journal published by Applied Research Center, recently released a report showing that Phoenix, Arizona has the highest rate of fatal police shootings of any of the largest US cities. The rate for Phoenix is 5.07 fatal shootings per 100,000 people, much higher than the next highest cities: San Diego at 3.02 and Philadelphia at 2.78. The rate is more than 5 times higher than in New York City (0.97 per 100,000).

The report also shows that Latinos are disproportionately more likely to be killed by police officers than whites. The authors of the study pooled data from the 27 largest US cities that track race/ethnicity and found that one in six of the Hispanic victims of police shootings were from Phoenix, even though Phoenix only had 6% of the total population.

Although the Phoenix area is 41% Hispanic, Phoenix police officers are 77.8% white. Mesa has a similar racial mismatch, with only 14.2% of officers identifying as Hispanic. Some blame cultural and language barriers between the police force and civilians for the high rate of Latinos being killed by police.

The article also points out the lack of effective civilian review boards in Phoenix (but it fails to point out that the Mesa City Council has specifically barred the implementation of a review board).

As pointed out by Phoenix attorney Augustine Jimenez, one of the best ways to combat this rash of fatal shootings is for civilians to take to the streets with cameras to document police abuses. That's the goal of Phoenix Copwatch, a local group that fights racism and police brutality. Those interested in joining Copwatch should contact phoenix_copwatch@yahoo.com to find out about the next training on Saturday, December 1st.

Local bilingual magazine Barriozona reported on the ColorLines article, which prompted a televised knee-jerk reaction from Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, in which he claimed that all victims of police shootings "deserve it".

This, in turn led to a further rejoinder from Barriozona, in which the publisher of ColorLines responds to some of the "ridiculous" claims of Mayor Gordon.

You can read the entire special issue of ColorLines magazine about police shootings across the country at http://www.colorlines.com

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