What you say is true, and explains why black people are targeted by the police, and in many instances get killed or beaten by the cops. Sure there is racism, but in many instances the cops involved are black too. If young black men are committing crimes then should elderly Asian women be stopped and searched, or perhaps Muslims schoolgirls?
Racism is an issue, but making this all into a black and white thing will get us nowhere. Why is there no outrage when white people are killed by the police? It looks to me like there is an endemic problem among police of using excessive force and killing people without justification. That’s what needs to be addressed.
How much does racism really factor into this then? Probably less than you think. I was watching the news earlier and they were saying that in the US over 1000 people are killed by the police every year. No mention of race, just total number. It made me think that maybe @Beyond_Beyond does have a point.
While 1000 killings by police is certainly something to be concerned about, on a per capita basis it’s actually quite low compared to some other countries. This quote is about Jamaica, which has less that 1% of the population of the US:
“Police killings have been decreasing in frequency since Indecom began its work in 2010. Last year, 101 people were allegedly killed by officers, compared to 210 in in 2011 and 258 in 2013.”
So in 2013, the rate of killings by police in Jamaica was approximately a quarter of that in the US, which has over 100 times more people. Nearly all Jamaican police are black, and the majority of Jamaicans are black. How much does racism factor into that? Could it just be a culture of violence and impunity among the police?
“The report said longstanding practices of tampering with evidence, leaving victims to “bleed out” and the use of unlawful killings as an alternative to arrest and lengthy criminal proceedings continued.”
Indecom is an independent agency that investigates killing and violence by the police, and as you can see since they came into operation the number of killings dropped significantly. In many places like Canada and the US you have cops investigating cops. Maybe they should make something like that in the US.