I think you are taking the simple way out so you don't have to think about it
You are also being extremely--*extremely* naive about the problem of systemic racism, and seem to be viewing reality through colored glasses (pun intended)
I was a public defender in NY in the 90s. I represented clients who were largely black and hispanic. I was not a bleeding heart (I actually wanted to be a prosecutor, but I didn't have the political connections, so I took the defense job) I had plenty of clients who blamed everything on racism, when their real problem was that they were addicts and had behavioral problems. And yeah, while personal responsibility is the prime consideration in my book, you can trace some of that to systemic racism itself--so the issue is deep and complex. I think I understand it far better than you give me credit for. I literally had to use delay and legal tactics to get some of my clients away from racist judges--there was one judge in one well-off white community who would sentence anyone who was black to jail even if it was a traffic ticket. My most vivid memory was watching a couple white deputies yell "get in line, N****s" to a group of black men who were linked together with ankle braces and chains. I had seen plenty of confederate flags down in VA when I was in law school--but this was NY in the 90s! I had one client who was charged with harassment and resisting arrest who had his face turned into hamburger by a white cop. No doubt, he wasn't a choir boy--I strongly suspect he was drunk and mouthed off to the cop--but that does not justify them beating him to a pulp. Just as a criminal record does not justify killing someone. Every cop present at the scene of course testified that it was all just a result of him struggling and somehow rearranging his own face in the struggle. They all lied to back up their fellow officer. The lone non-cop who saw it go down refused to testify because he was on parole and didn't want to be sent back to jail. I worked with one entire police department that was later completely disbanded because they were using the drugs they seized from people they arrested. I was once pulled over when I drove to a black neighborhood to interview a client (because we had to do a lot of our own investigations) Simply because I was white. The cop told me as I rolled up the window "were you aware that this is a place where white folks come to buy drugs?" I didn't tell him why I was there (cause cops were not fond of defenders) I just let them illegally search my car and make something up to charge me with (which was later dismissed of course)
I could go on and on about this subject, but I'll spare you Emily since it is not exactly on topic (and this is my thread lol) but the bottom line is that racism runs deep in society and particularly the police. I don't believe *all* cops are horrible or racists--I have family members who were cops, and I had plenty of positive experiences with police I personally worked with. But the institution as a whole is riddled with corruption and racism, and even the good apples are complicit in allowing the bad to persist unabated. Black Lives Matter arose out of a recognition of this problem--racial profiling, a lack of community policing, an inordinate number of black men dying at the hands of police. I am not going to debate the stats with you, there are other threads for that. But I think you are blind to some very significant societal issues. You seem to base your opinion on a small subset of opinions. I base mine on personal interactions with thousands of people in these respective groups, along with the statistics and commentary from every point of view. I don't dismiss any of it. End o' rant!
