CA data show racial disparity in police use of deadly force

"Black men have been killed by police in California at eight times the rate of other residents over the past decade, according to records released under the first in a series of new state initiatives to disclose data on the use of deadly force by law enforcement.
Statistics published by the California attorney general, Kamala Harris, stated that about 19% of almost 1,000 homicides by law enforcement recorded between 2005 and 2014 were against African American men, who made up only about 3% of the state’s population.
Harris said last week that “clear racial disparities” had emerged from the figures, which also showed African Americans were arrested and died in custody at disproportionately high rates."

This data reflects other data sets which show the same patterns.  What the data does not show is whether the disparity is caused by unlawful police behavior that is racially motivated, or is caused by a high rate at which black males expose themselves to situations in which police use deadly force lawfully, or some combination of both.