This is a message from many protesters who filled American cities for nearly two weeks, demanding justice for the death of George Floyd and trying to end the numerous killings of black Americans by police. Protests spread throughout the United States and around the world, and activists took to the streets of many capitals in solidarity with the movement.
Floyd was just one of many Americans killed by police.
But such cases are rare in other developed countries. Statistical comparisons show that police in the US tend to shoot, arrest and imprison more people than in similarly developed countries.
Each country listed below either accompanies the U.S. in the G7 group of the world’s most advanced economies, or has the same ranking on global indicators of wealth, freedom and democracy. But when it comes to policing and criminal justice, the U.S. stands out, and black Americans suffer disproportionately.
Data on arrests, deaths, and prison populations do not exist uniformly in developed countries, so it can be difficult to determine exactly how the U.S. is compared to each nation. For example, it is impossible to know exactly how many people die at the hands of police officers in the United States every year: there is no single nationwide database containing such information.
Policemen are more likely to use force against black Americans, and according to a study published in the American Journal of Health in 2016, black men are almost three times more likely than white men to die from police intervention.
