Policing and Race: Depends on Who You Ask

Bay Area residents of a few years--or anyone following the news, really--probably remember Johannes Mehserle's trial for the killing of Oscar Grant; you may remember, in particular, the fact that the trial was moved from Alameda County, which was the site of the killing. The change of venue occurred because of the animus in the surrounding community--“in particular, the rare nature and gravity of a murder charge arising out of an on duty uniformed police officer killing an unarmed man during an arrest, the high degree of political turmoil associated with this case, and the resulting avalanche of intense, continuing and current media attention.”

When Judge Jacobson wrote that Grant's killing was "viewed by many as being a case about race relations between the police and minority communities", who did he mean by "many"? The change of venue motion included a poll of Alameda County population, which revealed a racial divide regarding opinions of the case.

I'm bringing this up because today's post on the Pew Center on the States blog includes survey findings on the recent killing of Michael Brown. While the news on Ferguson were just one item among several in a busy news week (the Ebola virus, the death of Robin Williams, the strikes in Iraq and the strikes in the Ukraine), black respondents followed Ferguson news more closely than white respondents.

More importantly, there were big differences in opinion on both the killing of Michael Brown and the police response, and they are exactly what you would expect--supporting research conducted by Dan Kahan and others that shows that one's political/legal opinion depends a great deal on one's culture and experiences.

Update: The National Guard is on its way--just like in the '60.