I'm not black, but I follow most of the same rules that your Dad taught you. The police are taught to behave in certain ways based on what they perceive as possible threats. So I always make sure to act as non-threatening as possible.

I've been stopped several times for traffic stops and the police have always been polite, except for one time when the officer really was a jerk. But I just stayed cool and made sure to memorize his badge number in that situation and I filed a complaint.

The thing is, I think MOST police officers are decent people trying to do a hard job. But there are a few bad apples, as with any job. The problem is that when you meet a bad apple at a department store check out, the most you have to deal with is an ugly attitude. But with cops, they have guns and they have the authority to kill you. So just one bad apple is too much.

I think the militarization of the police due to the war on drugs has been a big problem. So is the power of the police union and the fact that bad cops are often not disciplined. For example, Derek Chauvin, the cop whose knee was on George Floyd's neck, had had many complaints about him. Why was he still on the job?