> Either way, I think calling attention to his skin color in the way you did is petty and rude. This line was not in the reply I got by email (via HN Replies).

> Either way, I think calling attention to his skin color in the way you did is petty and rude. This line was not in the reply I got by email (via HN Replies). I'm glad I caught it here because it illuminates a core problem with these conversations about policing and race. I did not at all mean or knowingly suggest that the individual officers are bad people who thought bad things about this man because of his race -- i.e., these bad racist officers need to be removed and replaced with good non-racist officers, if any such unicorns exist. But I understand why it might seem that way to family, friends and other defenders of police because so many critiques of policing do demonize them personally. I wasn't trying to make this point, but good people acting in concert can easily end up behaving very badly, and even bring out the worst of human nature and its often false, reflexive assumptions about others. This ought to be particularly true for police, who confront the worst of humanity more than the rest of us. You may disagree that black Americans are disproportionately victimized in this way by the police or that this played into what happened here, but that argument is not a personal one.