WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – A poll conducted by ICM Research exclusively for Sputnik and published Tuesday revealed that one third of US citizens think police racism is the main reason behind the growing number of blacks killed by law enforcement in the United States.
According to an October study by ProPublica non-profit corporation, the risk of being shot by police in the country for young black men was 21 times higher than for white men.
"Racism is obviously a factor, a bigger factor is usually socioeconomic status which appears to indicate that something is ‘about race’ due to the unfortunate common occurrence of certain ethnic groups commonly living in low socioeconomic circumstances," Petrichor said.
The poll follows a wave of controversial killings of citizens by police as well as ongoing wide-spread police brutality throughout the United States, prompting calls for reform and general civilian oversight.
