The recent death of an African American teenage girl in the state of Kentucky while in police custody is just a “drop in the bucket” of what blacks face, a researcher and historian in Washington says.

“There’s a history of violence, brutality, cruelty,” against blacks, said Dr. Randy Short, who has a Ph.D in African studies.

Blacks still “really don’t have human rights” in portions of the United States, including in Kentucky, Dr. Short told Press TV on Tuesday.

“Thousands and thousands and thousands of Americans are murdered by law enforcement and also prison personnel,” he added.

Despite what the US media and some politicians claim, “the main killers, the main agents of terrorism in American history have been white people,” Dr. Short said.

A demonstration was held in New York City on Monday to protest the death of 16-year-old Gynnya McMillen while in police custody.

McMillen died in January in her prison cell. The black girl was being held at the Lincoln Village Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

Investigators said several officers put McMillen in a type of martial arts restraint after she refused to take off her hoodie so a mugshot could be taken.

The latest police killing comes as law enforcement departments across the United States face increased scrutiny over allegations of excessive force against black people and other minority groups.

Police in the United States killed over 1,150 people in 2015, with the largest police departments disproportionately killing at least 321 African Americans, according to data compiled by an activist group that runs the Mapping Police Violence project.

The report also said charges against police officers who do use deadly force are very rare and that police use of lethal force is not correlated to violent crime rates.