By Joshua Russell
The past 18 months have seen an unprecedented debate in the United States over the police and the use of force. The killing of unarmed African-Americans by police has thrust the racial tensions that many white people were unaware of or ignored into the national spotlight.
Tremendous damage has been done in African-American, Latino, and Native American communities by police forces. These communities are targeted at a much higher rate than white communities and are subjected to the use of force much more frequently. Police in the United States in general use lethal force far more than in other industrialized countries.
Why is this the case?
