Deadly Stereotypes

If you only read the statistics, you might think that America’s police officers and America’s black population had declared war on one another. Precise figures are hard to come by, but those compiled by The Economist magazine are unambiguous: At least 458 people were shot to death by the police in the United States last year. Of those, about one-third were African-Americans. On the other hand, race relations between blacks and the police is also marked by violence: So far this year, 46 police officers were killed by gunfire in the line of duty, and the shooter was black in more than 40 percent of those deaths.

The question most Americans are now struggling to answer is: Why? Is the high percentage of black victims proof of racism? Or does it perhaps show just the opposite — the danger the police have to live with because of black criminals? Especially in light of statistics that show most black fatalities are the result of black-on-black crime.

These statistics are more than just a macabre numbers game, and neither [figure] should detract from the tragic fate of those blacks killed by white police officers. Those deaths sparked protest marches all across America last weekend. But the problem will never be solved unless the causes are determined and ultimately addressed.

America’s Policemen See Themselves as “The Law”

Open racism, the personal hatred of a black civilian by a white cop, is probably the least likely motive in most fatal shootings. At least there is no evidence that that is the case. But it is just as certain that deeply rooted racial stereotypes come into play if police officers calculate their personal risk when they are ordered to a crime scene. A dispatcher describing a possible suspect as being a young, black male with a weapon puts him in grave danger of being shot down by the first policeman to arrive on the scene. That’s what happened to a 12-year-old boy brandishing a toy pistol in Ohio recently.

But there are other reasons for the many police shootings in America. America’s policemen have a far more distant relationship with citizens than many of their European counterparts. American police cars bear the motto “To serve and protect,” but the men inside the cars often see themselves less as friends and helpers and more as [a representation of] “the law” in the same sense as a Wild West sheriff did. Anyone who acts stupidly might quickly pay for it with their lives because these policemen serve in areas that are poor, and where criminality and violence is commonplace. In the United States, that means areas that are predominantly populated by blacks and other minorities. That’s often a deadly combination.

Adding to the danger is a police force that faces so many weapons. In a nation where there are more than 300 million guns available and in use, every police officer has to expect to be shot at by even third-rate criminals. On the other hand, the police tendency toward self-defense has meant equipping them like paramilitary special forces, resulting in them seeming more like an occupying army. The subsequent loss of trust by the black community speaks volumes on that score.

Blacks’ protest marches are unlikely to solve the issue of police brutality, but they do serve to let white America know there is still a race problem.