Quote:
Originally Posted by DaemonSeid
But again, race really doesn't have a play here over police procedure, which it was discussed, was improperly followed.
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Race actually does have a play here but not in the way that Americans are used to dealing with race.
Americans are used to dealing with race in terms of a racially prejudiced cop (usually white) targeting racial and ethnic minorities (usually males) because they dislike minorities and want to justify targeting them.
However, what has been found regarding race and law enforcement is that racial and ethnic minority officers are often the ones using force on racial and ethnic minority suspects--for various reasons including alleged suspect demeanor and even the perceived need to prove themselves to fellow officers. White officers who do or do not feel a particular way about black males, for instance, do not necessarily translate this feeling into behavior (police brutality, shooting suspects, harassing blacks) to the extent that people think they do.
So when we talk about police brutality and profiling, in terms of police procedures, we do have to acknowledge that black males are most often the victims of this and there is a huge cover-up going on that allows cops to be acquitted most of the time. This is about a structural issue regarding race in police procedures and not the individual level issue of racial prejudice that Americans are used to focusing on. That's why the race of the officers (and even the existence or nonexistence of prejudices) is not key. Black and Hispanic officers are just as susceptible to perpetuating this structural inequality in many contexts.