It is racial fear that causes these tragedies, but it is the proliferation of firearms that makes racial fear particularly deadly in the US. It is easy to blame the officers involved, or their training, or the use of racial profiling or racism generally. One man was lying on the ground restrained by two officers when one of them shot him the chest. The camera recorded the policeman telling the woman, "I told him not to reach for it, I told him to get his hands up." The other was in a car with a woman and a child in the rear seat.

Source: New Zealand Herald July 10, 2016 17:11 UTC