"Out of the bars and into the streets," and a bunch of the kids in the bar joined the march. I think sometimes the white kids, especially the college kids, join such protests because it is an "adventure," cool to say they were there. But I do think a lot of them, even the ones who are at least partly in for the thrill of it, also do recognize that these murders of young black men by cops are really, really wrong, and they do want to protest against them.



I am an old fat white woman with a cane who cannot stand or walk very long, but if I could get there, I would be marching, too, though I would have to take a lot of breaks.



This is lynching, and it serves the same purpose--to intimidate black citizens and keep them "in their place." Back when lynching was done openly and sometimes even advertised in advance so people could pack picnic baskets and take their kids to watch, some white people shared pictures of the murders the way kids used to trade baseball cards. During that period, the police, sheriffs and sheriffs' deputies in the area were not merely complicit in allowing the lynchings to go on, but often actually the leaders and organizers of the murderous events.



All too many LEO departments, especially in the most racist parts of this country, are staffed partly, or even largely, by the same sort of people who gleefully participated in lynchings. I realize that at least some people go into law enforcement because they really want to serve, though even those people are bound to risk being corrupted by the pernicious culture of so many departments. A lot of their corrupt attitude is about abusing their power over any citizen, but they know that if they try it too much with white people, they will get reined in. Of course, if the white people they assault belong to sufficiently marginalized classes--like the mentally handicapped, the very poor, or certain subgroups of teenagers--they will go after them, but only because they assume that those people can be safely abused, without repercussion.



LEOs who cannot go along with the abuses committed by their "brothers in blue" will usually be hassled out of the department, or they will just quit in disgust.



However, an awful lot of people who become LEOs do so because they are attracted to the idea of having power over others, especially if they believe they will be allowed to exercise that power without accountability. I once knew a young man, a fairly heavy drug user with a bully mentality, who wanted to become a DEA agent or a cop. He always said, "I would have a gun and a badge, and access to drugs. The best of all worlds!" He was the sort of person who really could get into positions of responsibility because he could "present" well, despite the nastiness of his real character. If he had not contracted a debilitating disease, I bet he would have become a cop.



Cops with that abusive mentality assume that they can go after pretty much any black person, regardless of that person's age, gender, or status (but especially young black men, of course), and most people will accept whatever BS story they come up with to claim that their victim became belligerent, resisted arrest, attacked the cop, reached for their own waistband or for the cop's gun, seemed to have a weapon, etc. Of course racism pure and simple is a main reason why they attack black people, but part of the reason is that the cops don't feel the need to show any restraint when interacting with a black person, because they believe that no matter what they do to the black person, most people will accept it as having been justified.



That the cops throw off all restraints when interacting with a black person is evident in the way they typically approach black citizens, even for a minor traffic stop, like a seatbelt violation (!): the cop comes in yelling curses and shouting peremptory commands, often drawing his gun before there is any reason to. When approaching a white citizen under similar circumstances, a cop will usually (not always, but usually) speak reasonably politely, and the gun won't be out unless something specific causes the cop to think he needs it.



Consider what happened to that poor guy who was shot when he tried to comply after the cop (who had approached him in the first place only for a seatbelt violation) demanded his ID. Witnesses say the cop already had his gun out as soon as he got out of his car! The young black man had just pulled in to the gas station. He didn't even realize there was a cop on his tail, because having done nothing wrong, he had no reason to think a cop would be following him. But the cop already had his gun out. For a seatbelt violation!



I think that is one aspect of the LEOs' racism: they automatically assume that a black man is always going to be dangerous, almost as though having black skin is a weapon. They also assume that a black man is going to have drugs or weapons on him. In fact, I actually doubt whether the cop approached that man over a seatbelt violation. I bet that was just an excuse to check him out in hopes of finding a weapon or drugs, so he could meet some sort of arrest quota that he carried in his own mind or that his superiors "unofficially" imposed on the cops in the department.



That off-duty cop who shot the kid last night was doing random "pedestrian checks" (!) of young black men, and when the 4 he first approached ran from him, he chased them (Why?). Then when he mistook his victim for one of those 4, he chased him . Why did the first 4 run? Maybe they did have drugs or weapons on them and didn't want to get in trouble. Or maybe young black men make the rational choice to run from any cop who approaches them, since any interaction with a cop so often escalates to the point of their being beaten, arrested, or killed.