"How do I know the difference you ask? Let's take a ride through the hood and I'll point it out." You don't actually know the difference for that reason, you are making a probabilistic assumption--a pre-judgement. And this type of pre-judgement (wink) is self-fulfilling with time.
Which is of course the point of the article (a clue to which is in the title). A white guy lugging around an AK47 gets a wink. A black guy carrying around a toy gun gets shot and killed. Some consider the situation in Ferguson to be an argument for the 2nd amendment. I suppose that means that all those black people ought be exercising their 2nd amendment rights by carrying assault weapons. Now THAT would make for good television (anybody remember Network?).
so having worked for a prosecutors office - I will explain how police told me they do their jobs. they cruise around looking for dirtballs. that is reality. when I was young I lived in pacific beach I saw cops regularly crusing around. Even as I was working for a prosecutors office... I got regularly attitude checked by cops at the beach. When with a surfboard, bicycle cops said some of the most vile things about my girlfriend... just to get me to react so they could take me in. Cops cruise for dirtballs and they mostly cruise around in target rich environments. When you get stopped you get an attitude check. Some cops are crooked and many lie. Police reports are scanned and filtered by multiple pairs of eyes. That is just reality... its why we need a strong constitution and a strong opposition to a police state. A small percentage of cops and prosecutors are gestapo in waiting. But... that could be changed quickly.
I guess we are also going to pretend that a lot of blacks, when asked questions by cops, make things harder than they have to be. Instead of simply answering the question or complying with a simple request, they wanna go on a rant and throw a temper tantrum. Of course the media doesn't tell you that part of these incidents, instead, they make it seem like cops are just targeting black men for no reason. Heck, the cops stop and question everyone...things get bad for blacks because unlike the other groups of people, they wanna make a scene and be non-cooperative. Like the story of the guy with the toy gun. If he would've simply complied with the request to drop his weapon, none of that would have happened. And let's not act like a lot of these toy guns don't look real. When I was a teenager, I had plenty of BB guns and pellet guns that looked damn near identical to real guns.
Liberty City which is probably a 40 block radius is considered Lil IRAQ around here. If im a cop, i might shoot first and ask questions later as well. They are asking for federal assistance. Where is Al Sharpton when you need him? http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/07/05/4217547/save-liberty-city-from-domestic.html
So shoot 'em. Sounds reasonable. Like all those white guys who get stopped every day for carrying toy guns in department stores.
Unfortunately, and trust me I know there are trigger happy dickhead cops out there. When you have a split second to decide what to do it aint easy. REEFER was a long time graffiti artist down here who recetly was tasered to death by Miami Beach Police. He was asked to put down his weapon ( a can of paint ) instead he ran away and when they cornered him they killed him. Who tasers a kid for spray painting anything sheesh, a scrawny little kid. Look up the story so you can find out the color of his skin. Knowing that cops are nowawadys idiots, on pins and needles just do what htey fuck they say...yes it sucks but it is what it is.
Not sure if I my comment annoyed you... I was not trying to say its not bad for good people. especially good black people in tough neighborhoods. I know for sure 20 years ago cops profiled... and I can't imagine they don't still. And those are the good cops.