Yes I did say that and yes, I think you misunderstood.
If people who killed policemen got the same treatment as policemen killing people, they wouldn't even face trial. I'd prefer neither people nor policemen would be exempt from prosecution but the second best option would be that those who are above the law would also be apart of the law.
Let's consider every case in the past 50 years in America where a civilian killed a policeman or where a policeman killed a civilian. I don't know the statistics, but I would guess that 1/500 cases of where civilian kills policeman is justifed. I would also guess that 97/100 cases of where a policeman kills a civilian is justified. Then we look at the 3/100 that were not justified. Some of those are unavoidable accidents. Some are avoidable mistakes, bad police work. But then some are ruthless killings, motivated by race, consciously or unconsciously.
I get that if I were black, I would probably come up with radically different numbers that what I guessed above. I respect the view of rational black men, who are law abiding, and who describe bad personal experiences with policemen. As a suburban middle class white guy, who has never lived near many black people, who has no close friends who are black, who has a dad who was a cop in LA in the 60's-70's, who has a current friend on the highway patrol, and who has a brother-in-law who's a cop, I trust the police. I see them as the good guys. They don't go to work looking to shoot anyone. I know that my dad never fired his weapon and he worked areas in LA that had high crime rates.
I want to know what are the true statistics. To whatever extent racial bias exists in police departments, I want it stamped out. I know what I see on the media and you-tube, horrifying scenarios where it seems police are doing a terrible job and firing their weapons when they should not. In certain cases, prosecution is needed. Sorry if this offends anyone, but I also see what appears as strange behavior from some black men who are being arrested. I can't tell if they are high, if they have mental disability, or if they are just being resistant. If 3-4 cops had their guns pulled on me, I would be scared to death, would freeze, and what do absolutely whatever they told me to do instantly. I mean how do you keep moving in any direction, and play deaf, when the police are bearing down on you and telling you to freeze? Again, this doesn't justify a wrong choice to fire the weapon.
99% of the population, white, black, left or right, are abhorred at every situation where a policeman kills anyone with no justification. The problem is the perception on how often this happens, and then how to fix it. Obviously the more frequently it happens, the more radical the fix. White conservatives think it happens far less that black liberals do. Where is the truth?
