How a Controversial Study Found that Police Are More Likely to Shoot Whites, Not Blacks

Roland Fryer Jr. never cared much for the cops. When he was growing up, his family dealt crack in Daytona Beach, Fla., and while Fryer was on his way to becoming a celebrated economist at Harvard University, many of his cousins and closest friends were serving mandatory sentences in prison. During his childhood, encounters with police were fraught with danger.

"As a kid, I didn't like the police at all," Fryer said. "I grew up on one side of the story."

Fryer said that after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and other recent cases in which police killed unarmed black civilians, Fryer felt he had to know more. "My emotions are flaring," he recalled. He spent a year not only gathering data with teams of research assistants, but also riding along with officers and completing several days of law-enforcement training himself.

The economist published his findings this week in a draft paper that is already causing controversy.

Read more at The Washington Post.