Black cop.

Editor,

You have to understand racism to understand why a black cop behaves like a white cop. The institution of the police is a racist institution. Cops see the black community and treat black individuals they encounter the way the institution of the police sees them: criminal, unworthy, a threat -- a threat to themselves (the cops) and a threat to the white world.

"Broken windows" policing is a racist practice. It targets black men and confronts them in order to prevent crime. A flawed model. Police are supposed to deter (or if deterrence fails, respond to) infractions not fish for them.

The same with shooting people of color. The racist institution of the police sees cops as unassailable authorities, dominant in every situation. Anyone who does not instantly comply with a cop's orders, no matter how arbitrary, is a threat. And a threat is neutralized with force. Deadly force if necessary.

The institution of the police sees black men as deserving of lying face-down in the dirt, dead or dying who cares which, unless they submit without struggle to whatever humiliation or beating a cop dishes out.

The racist model of policing creates conflict where there is none, and the cop, the aggressor, has to be victorious in every encounter, even if the black man targeted has to die.

Re: "After Walter Scott Shooting, Scrutiny Turns to 2nd Officer" (4/18/2015)