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1. c22+(OP)[view] [source] 2020-06-23 22:50:07
> Again it’s not like the victim of a sexual assault is saying thank god I was rapped by a non-officer.

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.

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