> The Google trends for "black lives matter" searches peak in 2016 and 2020. The media only brings it up in election years, even though police brutality happens every year.

That's correlation, not causation. Even if there's a connection to election years, the causality could very well be reversed (e.g. activists increase their efforts to get attention when it matters most). However, I'm inclined to think your observation is just coincidence or misses a critical factor.

Let's see if there's another peak in 2024 then.

You should look up what 2 very specific events happened in July 2016 and July 2020 when "black lives matter" trended on Google.

If you mean people were killed by police, that happens every year, you just don't hear about it if the media doesn't hype it up.

But the Washington Post has statistics that clearly show there's no four year cycle to police shootings: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/polic...

Just wait until 2024 and they'll pick another case to hype up. Despite the fact that police brutality happens every year and nothing gets done about it. It's all bread and circuses.