Latest Police Shooting Another Example Of Racial Inequality?

The two individuals pictured above are the two peace officers accused of shooting and killing a six year-old child last week. The child's father tried to elude the officers, and once the chase was ended, these officers fired 18 shots at the vehicle -- with five of those bullets entering the child's body, killing him. The officers have now been charged with murder, and are in jail with a bond of 1 million dollars each.

The incident is a tragic one, and the charges may well be founded. That will be determined by a jury. I am not writing this post to question whether these officers are guilty or not. My question is whether race has entered the picture.

Note that the two officers are black, and the child was white. I have to wonder if we would have seen the same outcome if the officers were white and the child was black. Would two white officers be charged with murder and be in jail on 1 million dollar bonds? If that was the case, would we be hearing a myriad of excuses for the officers -- or would they be charged with a lesser offense, or have a smaller bond?

I think so. There have been far too many instances of white officers killing unarmed black individuals, and only a tiny fraction were charged with murder (and I don't think any of them had a 1 million dollar bond).

I'm not saying that these officers don't deserve the charge or the bond they have received. But we can't say that racial inequality has been achieved until white officers are treated the same for the killings they do.

Race shouldn't matter. All officers suspected of killing an unarmed individual unnecessarily (regardless of age) should be treated the same. But that doesn't happen, and it's wrong. I suspect these officers may actually be found guilty -- but we can't claim that has solved the problem of racial inequality in our justice system as long as white officers continue to go free.