Critiquing an author from a Texas Newspaper

According to an opinion by John Hawkins, on “Texas Insider”, there has been more white people who got killed by a police officer in the U.S than black people. Quoting a fact from the New York Times, John wanted to make sure it is clear for everyone that there are more white people getting killed than black people per year. He wanted to prove that saying there are more black people being killed by a police officer is a non-sense. To strengthen his argument, he provided a quote that stated “The study examined more than 1,000 shootings in 10 major police departments, in Texas, Florida and California.” And said that “the study finds no racial bias.”

The author is targeting black people who are rioting for black justices and those who are in “Black Lives Matter” movement. All though John provided different sources from trusted websites, it seems like the facts and his point quite don’t match. The quote he provided was based on three states, “Texas, Florida and California.” This itself could create a bias because a study like this, where it concerns everyone living in the country, should be studied in all across America and not only a few states. According to Washington Post, it stated that “As of Sunday, 1,502 people have been shot and killed by on-duty police officers since Jan. 1, 2015. Of them, 732 were white, and 381 were black (and 382 were of another or unknown race).” This is the kind of article that John would use in order to support his side. However, this article is launched just for the purpose of the fact and not to make an argument against the black people who are rioting. I think that John’s credibility is not that satisfying because he didn’t really use enough facts to back up his argument. I say that because there is one big thing which he didn’t realize. He only compared the death rates of blacks and whites who got shot by a police officer but didn’t compare the percentages of black and white folks living in America.