I thought the comments by the mayor were pretty honest. He has a bi-racial child and he had to balance the two realities of wanting to raise his son to respect authority and admire police but also couldn't disregard the reality that there are sometimes two sets of rules depending on color and he needs to know about it as a matter of practicality and safety.
And as far as these stats, IMO it shows the police are thinking twice about getting in a possible life and death situation over something minor. But this isn't a good situation overall. What one would hope would come out of some terrible events like the ones that have transpired is that officers start using a little more discretion before deciding to use lethal force against anyone and especially against black men. And when that happens long enough, you start to see more trust between the people and the police. Citizens and police are supposed to be on the same side. There is no way to justify killing two police officers that did nothing wrong simply because they share a badge with others. That is its own form of bigotry. And if people think police being afraid to engage to stop crime is a good thing, wait until that crime escalates or hits a little closer to home. One hopes it never would have had to come to this. But now that it has, people have to start making serious choices. If we start dividing things by color or badges instead of criminal and citizen then we are all in for a world of hurt. And enough of the wrong people have been hurt already. You never balance those scales by killing more innocent people, no matter what side you are on.
