Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has responded to the furore over police killings of black people by saying black victims were “99 per cent” likely to be killed by another civilian (most often another black person) and only 1 per cent by the police.

“There’s too much violence in the black community,” Mr Giuliani said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “A black [person] will die 1 per cent or less at the hands of the police and 99 per cent at the hands of a civilian – most often another black [person].”

He added that police killings of black civilians “happens rarely, although with tremendous attention”, suggesting that Black Lives Matter activists ignore so-called “black-on-black” violence.

“If I were a black father and I was concerned about the safety of my child – really concerned about it and not in a politically activist sense – I would say, ‘Be very respectful to the police, most of them are good, some can be very bad and just be very careful’,” Mr Giuliani said.

“I'd also say, ‘Be very careful of those kids in the neighbourhood, don't get involved with them because son, there's a 99 per cent chance they're going to kill you, not the police’.”

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According to FBI data, 90 per cent of black people murdered in the US in 2014 were killed by other black people. However, the data also showed that some 82 per cent of white people murdered in 2014 were killed by other white people.

Mr Giuliani added the phrase “Black Lives Matter” used by activists who protest for police reform, is “inherently racist”.

“Of course black lives matter, and they matter greatly,” he said. “But when you focus in on 1 per cent of less than 1 per cent of the murder that's going on in America and you make it a national thing, and all of you in the media make it much bigger than the black kid that's getting killed in Chicago every 14 hours, you create a disproportion.”