Study Finds Over Half Of ‘Very Liberal’ Participants Believe Cops Killed At Least 1K Unarmed Black Men In 2019

Altadena, CA – A recent study found that a staggering 53 percent of those who report having very liberal political views believe at least 1,000 unarmed black men were fatally shot by law enforcement officers in 2019.

In reality, a total of 11 allegedly “unarmed” black males were killed during officer-involved shootings in 2019, according to an ongoing database established by The Washington Post.

Out of those 11 incidents, at least three involved suspects who brutally attacked the officers who were trying to arrest them.

Channara Pheap choked a Knoxville police officer, stole the officer’s Taser, and used it on him before he was fatally shot by the officer, Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen told the Knoxville News Sentinel at the time.

Isaiah Lewis was running naked from police in Edmond, Oklahoma, when he forced his way into someone’s home, KOKH reported.

Lewis charged at an officer inside the house and was tasered twice, but still managed to pummel the officer until he fell unconscious, according to Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater.

He was trying to unholster the unconscious officer’s gun when a second officer came into the house and shot him, KOKH reported.

Marzeus Scott brutally attacked a female police officer outside a hotel in Blytheville, Arkansas before she opened fire on him, bodycam footage showed.

Two of the 11 “unarmed” black men killed by police – career criminal Marcus McVae in Texas and Christopher Whitfield in Louisiana – died while actively fighting with the officers who were trying to arrest them.

Christopher Watkins was fatally shot while trying to run down an East Baton Rouge sheriff’s deputy with a vehicle, East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux told The Advocate shortly after the incident.

Another “unarmed” suspect, Ryan Twyman, actually managed to hit an officer with his vehicle before he was fatally shot, a video released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department showed, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Twyman, a probationer wanted in connection with stolen firearms found at his home, hit the deputy hard enough to shove the deputy out into the center of the parking lot, according to the paper.

Twyman was killed when two deputies opened fire.

Another suspect included in the database was Kevin Mason, who got into a standoff with Baltimore police after claiming to be armed and threatening to shoot police, WJZ reported.

Mason also had a female hostage inside the home when police shot him.

At least six of those same 11 cases involving “unarmed” black men listed in The Washington Post’s database have been ruled as justified shootings so far.

A study published by the Skeptic Research Center and the Worldview Foundations Research Team on Feb. 20 revealed that people across the political spectrum tend to be “uniformed” about true facts when it comes to fatal officer-involved shootings.

“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,” the study noted.

Just over 31 percent of study participants who classified themselves as “very liberal” said they believe approximately 1,000 unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019.

Another 14.29 percent figured that number was closer to 10,000, while 7.86 percent said it was over 10,000.

Only 15.71 percent of the “very liberal” respondents provided an answer of “about 10,” according to the study.

Similarly, nearly 27 percent of study participants who described themselves as “liberal” said they believe approximately 1,000 unarmed black men were killed by police in 2019.

Another 12.12 percent were sure the figure was 10,000 people or higher.

Although the gross overestimations decreased with moderate, conservative, and very conservative study participants, less than half of any of those groups estimated that about 10 unarmed black men had been killed by police in 2019, according to the study.

The disparity between the number of cases included in The Washington Post’s database and the responses from the study participants is stunning, especially when considering that a vast majority of the 11 cases included in the database did not involve suspects who were truly unarmed in the first place.

Similarly, the study revealed that every group across the political spectrum overestimated how many people killed by police in 2019 were black.

According to the study, between 23.4 percent and 26.7 percent of the fatal officer-involved shootings in 2019 involved black suspects.

Study participants who described themselves as “very liberal” estimated that 60.4 percent of the suspects killed by police were black, while “liberal” respondents said that figure was closer to 56 percent.

“Moderate” participants said 45.88 percent of the suspects killed by police were black, “conservatives” figured it was 37.8 percent, and “very conservative” respondents provided an overall answer of 44.5 percent, according to the research findings.