When I was a kid I ended up having to leave home for a little while. I spent that time with a family who came to be like family to me. The father was a cop working narcotics. He and I got along well. Gruff as he was, he felt it was important that I understood his worldview and why he looked at reality the way he did. I won’t say he hated black people. He honestly didn’t hate any race. Instead he had an open concern about the violence of minority communities–blacks in particular. This was back in 89, when the racial tension in America was building towards the 92 riots. The belief that blacks are somehow more violent has not subsided, as evidenced by this video in which a woman who’d been arrested for a traffic violation speaks with an officer (unrelated to the arrest itself) transporting her to jail.
I’m kind of burying the lead here. She was roughed up considerably by the cop. She tried his patience early on in the exchange and he decided to stop being patient. It didn’t end well for anyone, but there is evidence on that tape that this was an expectation by police–that when they see a black person they are more prepared for a violent encounter than otherwise. I write this to amend that statement. I believe officers are more amped when responding to blacks–especially now. I believe this has gotten much worse in the shadow of three recent fatal attacks on cops (we cannot allow ourselves to forget about this 2014 attack).
I’m not about to overlook the Dylan Noble shooting. This white teen was shot under similar fear-based conditions to the majority of black shootings. The video shows that the officers involved had their guns out in the car and pointed at Noble’s truck before they pulled the kid over and even after they ran the plates and found no priors. The difference here is that the kid was clearly looking for suicide by cop. Still, the fear and force and anger that created the situation resonates with me.
More on this later as time has expired.