According to an October 2014 study by the ProPublica non-profit corporation, the risk of a young black man being shot in the US by police by police is 21 times higher than that of white men.
"If you are African-American you meet the police with diminished credibility. The police don’t believe what you say. They are more likely to be provocative in their conduct. They have an expectation that if they assault you or hurt you they will likely get away with it," Kamau said.
"It’s not limited to African-American males," Kamau said. "I think more study and further polling, at least to police brutality victims, would demonstrate that it’s pretty widespread across sexual lines between men and women."
Kamau, a decorated former Hawthorne, California, Police detective sergeant, said that the African-American experience with US police was often dependent on location, because police recognize urban areas, where most minorities live, as having higher criminal activity.
"It’s not what most people want to hear, but it’s a fact, and it’s not trending away from that reality," Kamau said.
"It’s actually trending in a more entrenched manner that if you’re a minority person and you encounter police, you are likely to have a distasteful experience, at a minimum."
Ongoing police brutality and racial profiling continue to be major social issues in the United States. Over the course of the past year, numerous killings of African-Americans by US police sparked nationwide protests and received wide media coverage in the country and abroad.
