For instance, I've been reading lately that black men have been found hanging from trees by nooses in California recently, and that the deaths were ruled suicide. Do you believe that these deaths were suicide?
I guess there could be outright premeditated cold-blooded murders that are disguised as suicides, but I can't imagine that's very common. I mean, you can't bring a body in with a zillion bullet holes and tell the coroner it was suicide. And, as you point out, a noose is going to (hopefully) generate a lot of suspicion and a thorough investigation.
The main area of uncertainty is not the number of police killings, but the number of justified versus unjustified killings.
She had been shot eight times while sleeping.
You're a white supremacist and you are arguing in bad faith. Get the fuck into the sea, you vile fucking bigot.
But you can bring in a body that was in the backseat of your cop car, handcuffed behind the back, and with two shotgun wounds to the chest and tell the coroner it was suicide, and have it signed off on...
Well, no, because “zillion” isn't a number.
But with actual numbers of bullet holes, yes, history shows that happens. And that the inconsistent injuries either get convenient explanations, or are left off the report as if they didn't happen. Now, when these things get additional public scrutiny, it's an embarrassment, but that usually hasn't happened, which is why there is a culture of impunity.
That isn't to say that coverups don't happen, and numbers aren't occasionally wrong or manipulated. But how far off do you think these numbers really are?
And do you expect these numbers are manipulated even in areas with black chiefs of police, attorneys general, and distict attorneys?