A YouTube video is using statistics to try to prove that police brutality is a rare occurrence. However, critics have similarly gone to YouTube to attack that video as being misleading.
The first video is posted on the account of Officer Joe Snuffy, where visitors can find short animated cartoons depicting fictional highway patrol officers. The new video seems to be a departure from the usual fare on the account.
The creator uses the total number of police contacts with civilians to calculate that the total number of complaints against police for excessive force make up only 0.49 percent of all police contacts and only 0.0039 percent when looking at confirmed cases.
In response, another YouTube video argues that, when compared with the number of contacts an individual makes with other civilians, the number of violent contacts with police officers is actually quite high.
“You are 5.8 more times likely to be a victim of police brutality than you are to be the victim of aggravated assault by one of your own citizen peers,” it concludes.
