As Obama was on his way out with Trump coming in there was an uptick in police brutality. Then there was the Kaepernick thing which seemed to inflame tensions for months. That went on from one football season into the next. It was just barely starting to wind down as the next season began. And of course the media had to revive it. That season (as it went into the next) we seen a glorification of the military on the football field. For several weeks all the coaching staff were made to wear camouflage outfits, jackets,hats, etc, as the league set rules against kneeling during the anthem.

I don't think we have a drastic issue with police, quite yet, but is relatively a greater concern in larger metropolitan areas where we have larger congregation of a minority populations. While I'll also suggest some larger economically challenged cities in certain areas tend to have issues.

I got into a debate with an old childhood friend of mine back during the 2016 election cycle. I practically lived with his family when I went to grade school. He is now a cop in Kent where we/I lived. It's a smallish college town here in Ohio, I imagine you've heard of it being it made national news in the 70's often over protest against the Vietnam war. 4 dead in Ohio? But as I was advocating for Sanders one of my arguments was the rising violence against LGBTQ, minority people, and advocacy groups and rallies for them. He attempted to down play my concerns. Even after his first attempt as I then posted several articles backing up my claims in which I used just against the LGBTQ population. Which at the time there was a wide agenda against this section of our population going on presently for months. You might remember the restroom debate going on at the time which inflamed a lot of those attacks. Then you had the kneeling issue of above to go with it. My point is, maybe the news just isn't getting to the smaller towns of law enforcement yet, or he was attempting to lighten concerns for those following me. As he made a point to ask me if I remember what he does for a living. The sadist part of this is that his mom is like 3/4 Native American who when you see her it, really shows. And he of the 4 siblings is as dark as his mom. Marie comes in second. So I know for a fact as I went to school with these people he felt the racism that comes with the color. I imagine he dealt with it to some degree in the Navy also. We all know how the military can be. So I have a hard time believing as a cop and being of mixed race he doesn't understand what the reality and nature of the beast is. Or he's been so well conditioned and inseminated into his surrounding society he's blissfully ignorant of it, and or compliant to it.

@William_Mary What I know for sure and for certain is we are not born hateful or fearful. Many are taught to be mean and hateful by their parents, teachers, preachers, and our elected officials reinforce that. Bush so loved 9/11 he played the fear card to the hilt. We are also brainwashed into believing there is a difference even before the hate and fear comes the 'difference' factor. Work on making people think they are better because of their difference and you can DO ANYTHING with them .