Majority of US police say racial clashes make their jobs riskier

Shooting incidents between black citizens and police officers have left many officers worried about their safety and reluctant to conduct some of their duties, according to a survey released Wednesday.

"About as many (72 percent) say officers in their department are now less willing to stop and question suspicious persons. About nine-in-ten officers (93 percent) say their colleagues worry more about their personal safety," said the new Pew Research Center national survey conducted by the National Police Research Platform.

This wide-ranging survey of nearly 8,000 policemen and women from departments with at least 100 officers also found that over 86 percent of them think their work is harder today due to high-profile incidents.

In 2016, 232 black Americans in the United States were shot dead by police, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total 957 deaths from fatal police shootings, according to a database compiled by The Washington Post.

These fatal shootings have aggravated tensions between police and blacks, leading to revenge on police by black Americans.

On July 17, 2016, a black former Marine killed three police officers and wounded several others in a shooting incident in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

On July 7, 2016, a 25-year-old black Army veteran named Micah Johnson ambushed and killed five police officers in Dallas, Texas.

On July 5-6, 2016, two black men were shot dead by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, which sparked angry protests by African Americans across the nation against police brutality and racial discrimination.

source: Xinhua