Protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Michael Brown was fatally shot by police in 2014, the year before the Washington Post built its database. Joshua Saleem / AFSC
Why WaPo, that Pulitzer looks stunning!
We'd like to offer a huge congratulations to the Washington Post team that won a Pulitzer Prize this week for their excellent research and reporting on fatal police shootings in the U.S. Based on original research and reporting, their team built an incredible database that includes previously unknown (or uncompiled) details about 990 shootings in 2015. Data journalism, we love you. Especially data journalism that helps us change the conversation on militarism and violence.
Their key findings include:
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Black people account for a little over 13% of the U.S. population but about 26% of people fatally shot by police;
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Black people are more likely than any other demographic group to be shot after a routine traffic stop; and
- about 25% of people fatally shot by police have a history of mental illness.
Most importantly, as the Post's executive editor pointed out in a story on the project's award, this project "delivered on a core journalistic mission - telling the public what it needs to know," bringing badly-needed facts to an important national conversation. We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
This is journalism at its best. Congrats on a job well done. Maybe you'll help us change the national conversation on other aspects of militarism - like mass incarceration, immigrant detention, and political violence - by bringing new or underreported facts to these public dialogues.