Sounds to me that once again, the prevalence of firearms in US society dictates the heavy-handed response procedures the police employ.
Unless the expectation is that a car backfiring is not a weapon discharging, and unless police are not fearful of a firearm response, you are going to have these issues. Not because people are black. But because there are guns everywhere and people use them sometimes in ways they shouldn't. Police think they cannot afford to risk responding politely or reasonably but must use overwhelming force to mitigate the risk. Sometimes this means they will make mistakes.
For me, this has less to do with individual police officer behaviour than grotesque US firearms laws and what they entail. Fire your do-nothing parliamentary representatives. They make this stuff happen.
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