African-Americans Disproportionately Affected by Police Killings

According to a recent Sputnik.Polls survey, conducted by ICM Research in the United States exclusively for the Sputnik news agency and radio network, over half of Americans (51 percent) attribute the increasing rate of police killings of African-Americans to a society-wide increase in aggression and violence. A third of respondents (33 percent) blame growing police racism.

When asked to give a reason for the increasing rate of police killings of young African-American males, in a question that cited a ProPublica report according to which individuals from this demographic, in recent years, were 21 times more likely to be shot dead by police than their white counterparts, every fifth respondent (22 percent) said the most probable cause is a lack of police professionalism.

Only 8 percent of respondents saw no objective reason for this alarming data.

ICM Research conducted the survey for Sputnik News Agency from May 1 to 4, 2015 in the United States. It polled 2,047 people representative of their country’s population in terms of sex, age and geography.

The confidence interval is +/- 3.1% at 95% confidence.

The international public opinion project kicked off in July 2014, in partnership with ICM Research, a reputable British pollster. The project involves regular surveys in the United States and Europe on the most sensitive social and political issues.

Sputnik (sputniknews.com) is a news agency and radio network with multimedia news hubs in dozens of countries. Sputnik broadcasts through its websites, analog and digital radio, mobile apps and social media.