# Do you think there were racial undertones in this interaction with the police

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-there-were-racial-undertones-in-this-interaction-with-the-police/767820>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 7, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-there-were-racial-undertones-in-this-interaction-with-the-police/767820 "2016-10-07T02:29:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-there-were-racial-undertones-in-this-interaction-with-the-police/767820/1 "2016-10-07T02:29:41Z")

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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

1. This was in the south (Dallas Texas)
2. The police officer was a black male
3. 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?

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YFAljrHAZmA/hqdefault.jpg "Woman wins $1 2 million settlement after Dallas police interrogation") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFAljrHAZmA)

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**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-there-were-racial-undertones-in-this-interaction-with-the-police/767820/2 "2016-10-07T17:38:09Z")

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> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> 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?

Have you not been paying attention to the country the last couple of years? If the races were reversed there would have been protests and it would have been a national story.