I don’t think that is framed correctly.
Black or white statistically you are far more likely to be killed (or assaulted) by non-police Of the same race as you.
I think everyone knows that, and to say police are the most likely to assault of kill black people takes the wind out of the sails of the legitimate issues. In other words police represent an additional threat to one of the groups and not the other, but in either instance the police are not the most likely perpetrators to either group.
That really doesn't matter that much. If a stranger assaults someone and a police office assaults someone, those are not equal. The stranger can be tried and convicted, but the police officer not as easily if at all. Also the stranger is a stranger, while the police officer I pay for and exists to serve and protect me.
An example of this is a police office in San Diego sexually assaulted (forced oral sex) 16 women after going to their house after they called the police to report a crime. That is so much worse than a stranger doing those things. And by the way... the police officer was convicted and served six months.
Not if law enforcement institutions, and society as a whole (including jurors) doesn't treat crimes as seriously where people who look like you are the victim. Were that the case, you might want to correct it by starting a movement dedicated to convincing society of the proposition “Lives of people who look like me matter”.
Not that there is a currently-relevant group with exactly that origin story, where the crystallizing event was the lack of accountability for a particular act of non-police homicide.
I assure you it matters to the victims and their families.
And I don’t disagree about the morality of police abusing their powers...but a death is a death and a tragedy is a tragedy. No one is celebrating the death of their loved one no matter what the killers skin color or occupation.
> That is so much worse than a stranger doing those things.
Again it’s not like the victim of a sexual assault is saying thank god I was rapped by a non-officer.
Your assurance is no different than my opinion. You are speaking for victims just as I am, but I've been hurt by people I trust and I've been hurt by strangers. They aren't equal to me and I don't think I'm alone in that.
> Again it’s not like the victim of a sexual assault is saying thank god I was rapped by a non-officer.
If you think that is what I was trying to imply then I must have severely mis-worded my previous comment.
I’m the first to welcome enhanced penalties for officers committing crimes in their official capacity...but I find your words very disturbing.
Aside from the fact that such a victim may very well feel that way (or more likely the inverse: I wish the person who raped me had not been an officer so I could seek justice) this observation seems orthogonal to the point since it is a question of perception.
The person who has not (yet) been raped is justified in being more fearful of a random police officer than of another random human because there is the perception (and indeed often the reality) that the police officer is able to act with impunity.
Also, for some groups, each interaction with a stranger comes with a small chance that they are a criminal who seeks to do you harm, but interacting with police carries a near 100% chance that they are suspicious of you and carefully watching your every move looking to find any justification to bust you.
I am not black and I am more fearful/wary of police officers than other strangers on the street. I never even considered the actual odds before.
I have been pepper sprayed by police officers for consuming cannabis in public. I have been mugged in the night by a black man with a gun. The mugger never pointed his gun at me. When he found the food stamps in my wallet he gave it back to me and told me to "stay safe". I am more scared of random police officers than I am of black men I encounter.