General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Chris Cuomo: Police reform won't happen until 'white people's kids start getting killed' [View all]Caliman73
(11,726 posts)Too easy to be misinterpreted by people who want to misinterpret it.
If White kids from more affluent backgrounds started to be killed in the types of police interactions that these Black people have been killed in recently and in the past. If they were killed for seemingly no reason and in the same proportion as Black people have, then there would be such an outcry for reform of the systems of policing.
Black people have always been portrayed as deserving recipients of the problems they are subjected to. Something about the race that just brings problems upon itself. People aren't too keen on looking inward and examining the attitudes from themselves that creates the situation where Black kids and young men are seen as inherently dangerous and in need of "stern" policing.
I know that these are anecdotes and not indicative of a larger picture, but they stand out. A young Black man picked up an air rifle at Walmart and people freaked out, called the cops, and the young Black man ended up dead. Two White young men not only picked up an air rifle at Walmart, but were actively shooting at people in the store. They were apprehended alive and well. Similarly you have the story of the 12 year old in Chicago who was killed at the playground less than 30 seconds after police arrived and the young Latino kid who was killed in California with the replica gun with the orange tip. Then you have the man in his 60's walking around with a loaded AR-15, drunk and belligerent, threatening police and they took an hour and 45 minutes to talk him down.