Its disturbing to suggest it?
I'd always like to think that I attempt to see politics from all sides of the spectrum but is there something I'm missing here? There's no way he actually believes that so what is there in this that makes him be disingenuous? Is he not worried because he's white? Does he actually hate black people? I really can't think of much beyond that.
There's a heavy emphasis, at least what I can tell as an outsider looking in on US culture, on the 'nobility' of the police profession. It is held up, similarly to military service, as a profession of sacrifice. Potentially risking one's life in the name of defending life, liberty, and justice. To suggest that the police are anything less than noble lions, proud and strong, is seen by many to belittle that sacrifice.
Then couple that with the fact that yes, in the United States there is a much higher probability that a person - not criminals, not suspects,
people in general - will carry a gun. In a single second, a person could draw, shoot, and kill an officer who doesn't act first. So they default to the position of presuming that threat unless it is proven otherwise. That unless they can see your hands do not have a gun in them, they cannot be certain you do not have a gun in them. If faced with Schrodinger's cat they would act on the presumption the cat is alive and will claw them if they open the box.
This was not helped on either end by the event that has defined American culture and politics for the last decade and a half - 9/11. Firstly, the possibility of the profession's 'sacrifice' is intertwined with one of the most catastrophic events in the nation's history. Besmirch the police, you besmirch the actions they took to save lives on the worst day in living memory for many, even if it was one department in one city faced with extraordinary circumstances. Secondly, is even while they don't typically, actually fight terrorists, they are positioned as the 'blue line' that defends society against such evil. They
must be paranoid and suspicious, so they will never be unprepared. They
must be well armed, so they can take down the enemy. They
must shoot first, or they may lose their own life, and others will die because they didn't protect them first.
That mindset trickles down into their everyday policing and behaviour, and since such everyday policing and behaviour is already fucked up by societal expectations of who is or isn't more likely to be a threat, the result is... not great.
