Just like every other American, I hate a lot of things. I hate most modern music; I hate commuting; I hate hearing people chew with their mouths open; and the list goes on. But a serious hatred that is highly prevalent in our country today is the hatred of police. So I thought it would be a good idea to begin 2016 with a little lesson on law enforcement for police lovers and haters—because I believe that if you are going to loathe something, you sure as hell better know a thing or two about it.

To begin, I would like to respond to the notion that all law enforcement officers are bad, evil, corrupt, jaded, etc. As history has already proven to us, it is certainly not impossible for an entire organization to be evil (or at least borderline evil); I surely do not have to remind you of the Nazi Party.

So what is the possibility that every single police officer in the country is corrupt?

Before I go any further, it is important to note that a central argument against law enforcement officers is that the entire system is corrupt and needs to be altered heavily—whether it be training, discipline, or another field. Numerous supporters and members of groups like Black Lives Matter argue that all police officers are corrupt, probably as a consequence of the system in which they are associated; however, many supporters and members of the same groups would also argue that not all police officers are corrupt, but too large a number of them do not serve and protect as justly and honorably as their advocates suggest. I would like to examine these possibilities.

There are currently over 900,000 sworn-in law enforcement officers in the United States of America, spanning over 18,000 law enforcement agencies (as of 2008), as well as a fluctuating number of candidates in roughly 650 academies across the country. (The FBI cites that there were 1,001,984 full-time law enforcement employees in 2011, so we can assume that number today is closer to one million than 900,000.)

One may not be able to carry a stable argument when contending that nearly one million individuals over 3.8 million square miles are banding together against a specific ethnic group. Then again, I believe there were somewhere around eight million people in the Nazi Party—one of the most evil organizations to ever poison this planet—so perhaps one could develop a compelling argument.

Let’s take a look at law enforcement killings. The Washington Post spent the year conducting extensive research on individuals gunned down by law enforcement officers in 2015. The highly regarded outlet claims that 990 people were shot dead by police officers from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015. In addition to The Washington Post, The Guardian has a database called “The Counted,” which tracks the number of people killed by police officers in the United States. They claim that 1,145 men and women were killed by police last year. Then, there is also a site called killedbypolice.net, which claims that 1,206 people were killed by police officers in 2015. This website includes the names and links to news stories for nearly every single one of the individuals the site claims was killed by police last year.

The websites all give different numbers, and I’m sure if you find another site or news article describing their findings regarding police killings in 2015, they’d give you a different number as well (or check back with "The Counted" in about a week; their numbers continue to change 3 months into 2016). However, unless you are looking at heavily biased sites, it’s highly unlikely that any of them are intentionally lying to you. Firstly, The Washington Post was tracking the number of people shot and killed by police. The Guardian and killedbypolice.net base their numbers off of everyone who was or most likely was (at the discretion of the site) killed by law enforcement officers in 2015; their numbers reflect individuals who died in custody, died as a result of being shot with a Taser, hit by a vehicle, shot by a gun, or by other means. The Guardian and killedbypolice.net’s findings are a bit more subjective in that sense, since some causes of death are not explicitly stated and may be labeled as “killed by police” in a burden-of-proof sort of way.

“The Counted” states that 582 of the people killed by police in 2015 were white, while 304 were black, 195 were Hispanic/Latino, 24 were Asian/Pacific Islander, 13 were Native American, and 27 were either another race or unknown. So that means that nearly twice as many white people were killed by police as compared to black people. But, look at it this way: this data shows that out of every million people, an average of 2.94 whites were killed, while an average of 7.22 blacks were killed, meaning that in relation to population, more than two times as many black people were killed by police as white people. Those numbers look even scarier when you consider that by 2014, the United States had 318,857,056 inhabitants; approximately 77.36 percent of the population is white, 13.22 percent is black, 1.24 percent is American Indian or Alaska Native, 5.44 percent is Asian, .23 percent is Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and 2.51 percent is multiracial. So this seems like an outrage—unless you look at it another way.

Out of 6,484,507 violent victimizations (rape, robbery, various forms of assault, etc.) from 2012-2013, black persons were responsible for committing about 1,452,530 of them—or 22.4 percent. White persons were the offenders in about 2,781,854—42.9 percent—violent victimizations in that time span. (This data does not reflect property crimes, such as burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.) So this means that black individuals account for roughly 22 percent of violent crimes and 26.6 percent of people killed by police in 2015. White people account for about 43 percent of violent crimes and roughly 50.8 percent of people killed by police last year. Hispanic/Latino people account for around 15 percent of violent crimes and 17 percent of people killed by police officers last year.

It is immensely important to correlate these statistics because law enforcement officers do not go around murdering people; police killings are directly linked to criminal or alleged criminal activity. (This explanation, however, does not excuse every or any officer who has killed someone; justifications, in my opinion, are specific to the particular case/incident in which they are associated.)

So to claim that law enforcement officers are directly targeting a particular race seems contradictory to the data provided by some of the most credible sources you can find.

Yet, to a lot of people, 1,145 or 1,206—or whatever the most accurate number may be—still seems too high. That’s strictly subjective. You could look at that as 1,206 people or .000378 percent of our population. Then you can add that about 5,377-times more people commit violent crimes than are killed by police in this country, if you feel like that supports your view. Or you can say that American law enforcement officers have killed twice as many people in one week as United Kingdom officers have in five years, and you may be happy to shove that in police lovers faces. You can do whatever you want with statistics.

Some claim, though, that police killings have increased in the past decade or so, arguing that police officers and agencies are out of control. There’s really no data to back this up or refute it. Multiple individuals who have independently tracked these types of statistics prior to 2015 claim that the number of people killed by police each year is upwards of 1,000; however, there are no definitive numbers given. You could argue that the increase of media attention and the new era of easily accessible cameras everywhere contribute to the belief that police are on killing sprees, and though it is obvious that not every single police officer in this country has done his or her job justly, statistics do not prove that there is any form of police epidemic occurring today—even credible news outlets like The Washington Post admit that.

But is there a war on police?

According to some articles that ran late last year, 2015 was supposedly one of the “safest” years for law enforcement officers, disputing the “war on cops” belief. 48 officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2012, 27 in 2013, 51 in 2014, and 50 in 2015 (35 by firearms, 8 by vehicular assaults, 6 by a suicide bombing, and 1 by being beaten to death; in addition to these 50, a number of others died as a result of injuries sustained in 2015 or in previous years). Articles cite that the decrease in the number of violent deaths of officers in the line of duty this past year is the sole reason why there is absolutely no war on cops. In other words, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, etc., fail to mention the number of officers held at gunpoint, shot at, physically attacked, wounded, and threatened in 2015, all of which would consequently back the “war on cops” argument, should the data support it, of course.

Unfortunately, there is also virtually no credible data from 2015 to support or refute either argument here as well. We didn’t even receive this type of information from 2014 until a few months ago. In 2014, 11,151 law enforcement agencies employing 536,119 officers reported assault data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of those officers (around 400,000 fewer than are sworn-in in the United States), 48,315 were assaulted while in the line of duty, 13,654 of which sustained notable injuries. Of the 48,315 assaulted officers, 38,611 were attacked with personal weapons (hands, fists, feet), 1,950 were attacked with firearms, 951 were attacked with knives or other cutting instruments, and 6,803 were attacked with other dangerous weapons. Now, these statistics do not include the officers who died in the line of duty—feloniously or accidentally—in 2014. And remember, this data only reflects 536,119—under 60%—of the 900,000+ officers who serve this country.

To believe or not believe the “war on cops” view is, like always, purely your own opinion, considering that most of us have different ideas of its meaning and lack significant information to develop a convincing argument.

So have I really even proven anything this entire time?

Statistics themselves are objective, though interpretations of statistics will typically vary enormously. Take, for example, the number nine: it is the same to everyone. We all count to nine the same way and all accept it as one given quantity. However, if I said I ate nine candy bars last week, even though it is the same exact number to all of us, each person listening would form a different opinion. Depending on lifestyles, some may think that’s a lot to eat in one week, some may think it’s not, others may be disgusted, and some may think I’m slacking.

Though humans are certainly not candy bars, it all rides the same wave; we are given information and our brain feeds us distinct opinions. Human nature makes us desire to have those opinions confirmed—not contradicted—so we tend to flock to the resources that validate our beliefs, even if those resources aren’t factual. It is not a crime to form an opinion based on nonsense, but sometimes there is no excuse for that.

There was no need for me to write this piece. We are some of the luckiest individuals in history because we have a vast amount of information at our fingertips, yet we somehow stand to be the most ignorant. We share articles and post memes that include half-truths or skewed statistics or made-up “facts” that fuel our anger and beliefs, when we should actually be doing some digging to find the real truths that were ignored before we jump to a conclusion on any given subject.

Maybe you don’t believe these findings, which is perfectly acceptable. I am not a “professional researcher,” and though I spent many days and long nights researching and drafting this piece, there is a possibility I have missed some key facts or statistics regarding this subject.

I advocate researching and double-checking. A lot of news outlets like to tell their own stories without carefully consulting the facts, so it’s your job to stay informed and stay smart. There are libraries and bookstores and websites and databases overflowing with knowledge and information, beckoning to be discovered by the masses. They could validate your hatred, or they just might help change your mind.