Not to minimise the obviously egregious systemic racism at all, but one part (note, only one part) of the problem seems to me that there's just way too many guns floating about in the US. I wonder if cops over there are often frightened underneath all the macho bollocks, though they won't admit it - there's a chance that eg every driver they pull over for speeding could be heavily armed, which must be a psychological stressor on some level.
Cops do get shot and killed on duty and it helps cement a deeply toxic locker room us and them mentality and it's become deeply entrenched and inured to criticism. No easy answers here though, since there doesn't seem to be much appetite for gun control.
Again, i'm not suggesting that police racism isn't endemic, just making the point that availability of guns exacerbate s the problem massively.
