The horrific killing of Dallas police officers by Micah Johnson was apparently meant as retaliation for the actions, as depicted in numerous videos, of US police he perceived as periodically "executing" men for the "crime" of being black.
Maybe Johnson had personal experiences with racist and brutal police or knew others who had. Or, perhaps it was something noted in his biography, but not yet commented upon: having served in the US Army in Afghanistan, trained to fight against people who had never personally oppressed him or other blacks, he could have decided to be a soldier on the "home front" against those he viewed as more deserving of his fire than the Taliban: racist white people and their "soldiers", the police.
We may never know all the factors which produced Micah Johnson's actions. His extremism had no visible support among blacks, but police are far more distrusted within the black community than among whites.
If perceptions of police behavior still differ substantially by race what evidence exists to resolve this disparity? Fortunately, there is a growing body of data which can greatly advance our understanding. It suggests that what has been captured by videos and gone viral is definitely an important part of the truth, one whites rarely are otherwise exposed to. But it is not the whole of it.
Let's start with cases throughout the US in which police kill civilians. The Washington Post has documented and summarized what is known about all 990 cases in 2015 in an ongoing project. In compiling the data, based on news reports, public records, internet databases and original reporting, each case was described with regard to whether the victim had a weapon, their race, gender, age, and what transpired. Contrary to the circumstances characteristic of widely discussed police killings caught on camera such as those of Eric Garner, Walter Scott, and Philando Castile, 91 percent of those shot had weapons on their person, typically guns or knives. In 77 percent of the cases the encounter was described as an "attack in progress" on the police officer.
I examined the critical subset of 93 cases in which the dead civilian was determined to be unarmed, eliminating several incidents where the deaths were likely unintentional, though possibly negligent (e.g. a bystander). In the remaining ones, whites represented 36 percent of those shot, blacks 43 percent and Hispanics 20 percent. Interestingly, 48 percent of unarmed whites were deemed to have been attacking the police officer who killed them, as compared to 41 percent of blacks and 28 percent of Hispanics. Data gathered on the 35 comparable cases in the first half of 2016 showed a nearly identical racial composition. There was no determination in the newer data regarding whether those killed were attacking, but reports of physical altercations or movement towards it, not merely verbal confrontation or refusal to obey police commands, indicated 67 percent of whites, 41 percent of blacks and 20 percent of Hispanics probably were.
What can one conclude from these data? First, case summaries necessarily relied heavily, but not exclusively, on police reports. Moreover, the bare bones description of some well-known ones hardly capture their disturbing features. Nevertheless, unless one is prepared to largely disregard police reports and assume weapons reported were often "throw-aways" posthumously planted, the vast majority of instances in which police use lethal force on civilians occur when they can reasonably imagine they are under mortal threat.
Even if one might not take the crime reports entirely at face value they do suggest being white affords a significant level of additional protection in avoiding death in an unarmed confrontation with police. In other words, the bar is lower to shoot Hispanic or black civilians than white ones. Still, a sizeable minority of white unarmed civilians were killed despite not attacking a police officer. As the dramatic videos have shown, many fatalities could have been avoided regardless of the race of the victim, though a higher percentage of non-whites are likely to have been needlessly killed. Cases involving Hispanics might be most subject to second-guessing.
Two other studies, carried out by the Department of Justice in Seattle and Albuquerque deepen our understanding of police misuse of force and racial disparities in policing. In both departments an exhaustive review of all "force reports" indicated police often used it in situations where it was 1) unconstitutional (e.g., pedestrians are not required to stop if not under reasonable suspicion, or be respectful), 2) unnecessary to protect the officer or the public, 3) when civilians are incapable of complying (e.g. drunk), or 4) where police actions created unnecessary escalation. Weapons, such as Tasers, were often used without cause. Blacks and Hispanics were disproportionately subject to inappropriate force, but whites were also victimized. Interestingly, in Seattle, 20 officers in a 1300 person police department, accounted for 18 percent of all force incidents. Finally, both departments did little or anything to properly train, supervise or discipline officers.
It is the widespread use and perceived legitimacy of inappropriate force by what may be a small proportion of police officers, even if unprovoked lethal force is relatively rare, which creates an environment in which citizens, especially blacks and Hispanics, come to distrust law enforcement and assume the worst examples of police brutality and unwarranted killing of civilians are more common than they are. The viral videos that enraged Micah Johnson and millions of others, are atypical of police killings. Yet they are understandably not considered as such, especially by those who often have experienced, witnessed or heard of routine non-lethal violent police misconduct in their communities.
The growing use of cameras to capture grave injustice on the ground, coupled with social media's capacity to create an immediate world-wide audience, creates a toxic atmosphere. Police departments must recognize they can no longer tolerate practices which are dangerous to innocent civilians, and, after Dallas, innocent police as well. This will be a difficult undertaking, based on police reform's mixed results, but resisting it will produce more Micah Johnsons, not less.