I think it's sad whenever an innocent person is shot, and I don't think the color of the victim's skin makes one incident any more tragic than another.
However, I do think we have to sort out the reasons for the mistake. And in this case, is
does seem to me (based on what little I know) that the officer was prejudiced (though I didn't necessarily make that same conclusion in every previous case).
...this would not have happened had it been a white guy. I know there could be a lot of factors at play and we all want really badly to believe that race wasn't the major factor here. But, it was. And, sure, the natural tendency is to step back and deny it because it's uncomfortable and scary but at a certain point we as a society should stop doing that.
The big question is how, exactly, do we as a society fix something like this? I think the current method a lot of people want - media outrage against white cops - will likely backfire. In the past, it has led to violent protests where
more people were hurt. (And I also don't want police officers to become so afraid of what will happen to them if they shoot a black suspect that they
won't shoot when there
is a dangerous situation.)
I definitely believe there is still prejudice out there, but assuming that
every white person is prejudiced is using the same "logic" as assuming that
every black person is dangerous. It isn't going to solve the problem either.
So what do we
really need to do?
