Not all cops are thuggish, racist bullies relying on a gun and a badge to give them the authority to do anything they please. And not all blacks are uppity, drug crazed punks with something to hide, a chip on their shoulder and a weapon in their back pocket. But they both wear a uniform that identifies them to the other as potentially dangerous and totally vile.

This problem ain't going to go away any time soon. And it isn't restricted to our urban ghettos. You have the same situation with Palefaces and Redskins on the reservations, revenooers and moonshiners in Appalachia, Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank, Algerians and Frenchmen in the Paris exurbs, and Chicanos and Anglos in the barrios. Eventually they get organized and incorporate: Italian Mafiosi, Vietnamese Tongs and Chinese Triads and the Irish Mob. Today its the Central Americans, the Columbians, the Cartels and Cocaine Cowboys. One community oppresses another, and it employs its most vulnerable and oppressed members to enforce the oppression. Sure, the crime is real, and so is the oppression, but the roots are political and economic, and yes, ethnic. Except in America its worse, because everybody's armed. And the cops are always smart enough to leave the really nasty ones alone, and pick on the amateurs to push around.

Yes, there are racist cops and vicious gangstas, the system breeds them on both sides, and each side justifies its abuses as responses to the outrages of the other. But those who aren't either one soon find themselves stereotyped by the other, and both sides soon find themselves forced into their roles. And too often any attempt to break the cycle is either mistaken as weakness...or "hands by the waistband". All the things you mentioned are true, but the real villains are neither redneck pigs nor surly blacks. Its The System, or as they call it, The Man.