I'm white. My brother is a cop and my father is a retired cop. For the majority of my life I've lived and worked in a predominantly black area. And, much like Eliza, I have the same general feeling that police are not trustworthy.
Posters on this thread, and people in general, seem to fall into one of two categories in how they perceive police (police as a whole, not individuals): A) Most officers are good people but there will always be a few bad apples, or, B) Surely there are still a few good officers, but overall there is a systemic problem of them abusing their power and they cannot be trusted. I think which category a person falls into depends less on that person's skin color and more on the police environment in their area. If you have lived your whole life in a place where the police you've encountered are easy-going, friendly neighborhood officers, you'll hear about police brutality incidents on the news and think "That's one of the bad apples." If you live in an area where the police act like an oppressive force looking for and causing problems, you'll think "Not surprising, this is what cops do."
I try really hard to give police the benefit of the doubt and remind myself of the 'few bad apples' possibility but, the more time goes on, and the more opportunities I've had to witness police interactions firsthand, the harder it is for me to believe that. For a few years I worked in a club that had 8-12 on-duty officers working as security each night and believe me, not a shift went by that I wasn't thankful to be one of the 'us' (in the eyes of the officers, being that I was an employee) versus being one of 'them' (the customers). There were nights that the police showed up for their shifts hyped up about being "in a mood today" and "looking forward to beating the crap out of someone". I watched a cop escort a customer out of the building through a double door. Instead of walking the man through the one door that was open, the cop pushed him through the glass of the door that was closed. Not because the man was struggling, just because he could. The officers all had a good laugh about it later that night as we were waiting for the glass company to come out and replace the glass. I watched one of the officers punch a handcuffed man so hard in his face that several teeth came flying out of his mouth. The cop took off the cuffs and told the man to pick up his teeth or he would ticket him for littering. I watched the officers beat a man unconscious and then pepper spray him to get him to regain consciousness. The man, lying on the ground outside the building, would come to for a minute and then pass out again. At which point, the officer would resume dousing his face with pepper spray. When the ambulance showed up the officer turned them away even though the man was still unconscious. The ambulance left and the cop and victim continued the cycle of pepper spray, wake up, pass out, pepper spray... This went on for twenty minutes. And I can't tell you how many times the officers would sit around at the end of the night drinking, getting hammered, and then run out of the building and speed off in their cruisers when a call came in.
I could go on and on with examples but the point is, these are some of my experiences that shape my view of police mentality and their culture of brutality and abuse of power. None of these incidents ever made the news and none of the officers ever got in trouble. Honestly, I doubt any of these incidents were even reported. Around here, that's just what police do, and both sides understand that. If you're lucky enough to live in an area where the police really do protect and serve, that's great. But understand that different police departments have different environments and attitudes. To say that the black community mistrusts the police because they're black is incorrect. If a black community mistrusts the police it's because the police in their area have shown them over and over why they don't deserve to be trusted.
. Might just be the case with a pp.
