USA - Two recent articles have calculated that every year the police kill an average of 1,100 people, and that since 2005, only 54 police officers were indicted

Two recent articles in the New York Times and Washington Post have calculated that every year the police kill an average of 1,100 people, and that since 2005, only 54 police officers were indicted for murder, and only 12 convicted, and sentenced to an average of four years. The articles (see New York Times, 30/04/2015 and washingtonpost.com, 11/04/2015) recognize the importance of two non-profit organizations ("Fatal Encounters" and "Killed by Police") that, through a widespread press review, showed that the official data provided annually by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on so-called "justifiable homicide" committed by the police, recorded less than half of the deaths at the hands of police. The FBI actually has always admitted the incompleteness of their data, caused by the fact that the local police have no obligation to provide any updates regarding this type of "crime" but they do so only on a "voluntary" basis. Certainly, however, the gap between the two figures is very strong: an average of 400 deaths a year, according to the FBI, and 1100 according to the NGO. The fact remains, however, the percentage of murders committed by the police that is sanctioned is infinitesimal: in 10 years only 54 indictments. The follow-up of indictments made by the NGOs indicates that of the 54 cases, 19 are still open, 23 have led to an acquittal, and 12 to a conviction. The painstaking work of the NGOs, who have crossed the data of victims and defendants, seems to belie the impression that the media are giving in the last period that the victims of police violence are mostly colored people. The data of NGOs, covering the killings from 2013 to date, indicate that, when it is possible to identify the races, blacks are about 30% of the dead, and whites about 50%.