Other research shows more pronounced distinctions. The tendency not to call the cops among those in the black community is exacerbated after reports of police violence. Research published in the American Sociological Review by the sociologists Matthew Desmond, Andrew Papachristos, and David Kirk has shown that “police misconduct can powerfully suppress one of the most basic forms of civic engagement: calling 911 for matters of personal and public safety.”

The researchers examined police calls in Milwaukee neighborhoods in the aftermath of the brutal beating of Frank Jude. They also examined calls following the killing of Sean Bell in Queens, New York, in 2006; the assault of Danyall Simpson in Milwaukee, in 2007; and the killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland in 2009. The number of calls to police in black communities dropped following each of these incidents, with the exception of Grant’s death. In each instance, it took a year for crime-reporting to return to previous levels.

It’s understandable that communities enduring a disproportionate share of police violence are skeptical of authorities. But that can create a cycle where some communities and individuals refuse to report crimes, and thus crime is harder to suppress. This is not because safety isn’t valued, but because of the fear that involving police could make an already bad situation worse. As the journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones put it, “many of us cannot fundamentally trust the people who are charged with keeping us and our communities safe.”

White communities don’t seem to make similar calculations when calling the police. In the Milwaukee study, white neighborhoods did not see a similar dip in crime-reporting following the high-profile and local events involving police violence. That makes sense given white people have not had the same difficult relationship with police and state-sanctioned violence, making them less likely to fear harm by police. For black people, an examination of that history can easily discourage someone from picking up the phone—even when they’re in need of help.

In the days following the Starbucks incident, several people, including Karen Attiah of The Washington Post and Jason Johnson of The Root, have noted that in case after case—black children at a swimming pool, a black Harvard professor trying to get into his house, and the latest, two black men waiting for a business meeting at Starbucks—white people have routinely called the police for situations that could have likely been resolved with a conversation.

In apologizing for the escalation at their store, Starbucks acknowledged that, in this instance, the call to police was excessive. “Now certainly there are some situations where the call to police is justified. Situations where there is violence or threats or disruption,” Kevin Johnson, the company’s CEO, said in a video. He then added that this was not one of them. And yet, the fact that such methods were resorted to is common. In fact, black people are more likely to say that their mere presence has made others suspicious, according to a report from Pew Research.