Since most police criticisms are about police interacting with people society deems less valuable (poor people, blacks, the homeless, the mentally ill) and as a result society doesn’t really care about their rights, I’m wondering what role underlying social dynamics played in this outcome.
In Dallas, a woman’s boyfriend committed suicide. A police officer suspected he was murdered, and tried to have the dead person’s girlfriend charged. There is a video that shows him screaming at the person he interrogates.
She eventually sued for over $1 million, and the police officer was put on desk duty. The entire department said they would change policies.
But here are some facts about the case
- This was in the south (Dallas Texas)
- The police officer was a black male
- The woman was white
So if the races and genders were reversed, would anyone care? If a white female detective did this to a black male in the south would anyone care?