Why do police killings of African Americans get disproportionate news coverage?

[Confused Democrat]

It fits a narrative. It helps the democrats divide people into groups.

It just amazes me how many people fall for this narrative, even very intelligent people.  I had a discussion with several co-workers (one lawyer, the other a data analyst) who literally thought that the overwhelming majority of people killed by policy were African American.

Yes, it's factually correct that more white people are killed by the police in the United States, but that's a dubious statistic unless you first adjust for population.

If you adjust for population first, black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers.

[Confused Democrat]

It fits a narrative. It helps the democrats divide people into groups.

It just amazes me how many people fall for this narrative, even very intelligent people.  I had a discussion with several co-workers (one lawyer, the other a data analyst) who literally thought that the overwhelming majority of people killed by policy were African American.

Yes, it's factually correct that more white people are killed by the police in the United States, but that's a dubious statistic unless you first adjust for population.

If you adjust for population first, black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers.

Uh, I discussed this in detail in my original post.  The stats I linked to indicate that they are 85% more likely to be killed by police than their portion of the population (not 150% as you say).  

Also there are confounding circumstances as I discussed, African American communities have far higher rates of crime and violence (over 50% of all homicides are committed by African Americans) on average so you would expect more African Americans to be killed by police if only for that reason.

Also I acknowledge that there may be historical/cultural reasons (economic/physical oppression and resultant cultural pathologies) for the high rate of violence/crime in AA communities.

I believe I was pulling my numbers from the same WP study that you cited (your link is behind a paywall, so I couldn't view it). Here's where I got my information from:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/07/11/arent-more-white-people-than-black-people-killed-by-police-yes-but-no/?utm_term=.df5da70c460d

As for your other point about the African American community's higher rates of crime and violence being the reason  for more African Americans being killed by police. The WP article points to studies that say there is no correlation between violent crime and who is killed by police officers.

Also, I believe those FBI numbers that you cited only account for arrests and not convictions, which pokes some holes in your argument.