I dotted thy circle but I disagree.

I called up my local skull-cracking cops up here in WA because my mother-in-law is beside herself with the smells coming from the next door neighbor. It definitely smelled chemical to me; I called the non-emergency number and had a squad car show up to discuss whether or not there was a meth lab next door. They respectfully informed me that there's no longer any money in meth, they haven't busted any meth labs in a couple years, and whatever smell was coming out of the house (which they smelled, and found disagreeable) wasn't probable cause. They suggested that my mother-in-law's best move was to talk to their landlord and see if she could get them thrown out for an illegal grow operation. My grandfather then contacted the landlord, discovered it was the landlord's grow operation, and went over to improve and close their hydroponic system such that it was no longer leaking.

That's white people bein' white in a white community where all the players are white.

Five years previously in LA, I was awoken by a rude banging on my door at 3am. I opened it to find two officers with guns drawn. They blanched at my whiteness, apologized for the disturbance, and mentioned politely that they had heard complaints of a domestic disturbance. When I frowned, they asked me my address and looked bashful (they had clearly screwed up). They then asked if I could please invite the lady of the house to come forth so that they could confirm that she wasn't in any distress. Bleary-eyed and confused, my then-fiancee popped her head out and the cops apologized and left. For the next fifteen minutes we heard them banging on doors and shouting at people.

Two of my neighbors were hispanic. Three were black.

I was once pulled over in Los Angeles by a young, new-on-the-job patrolman who, upon coming to my window, said "I'm sorry sir I didn't realize you were white" who then, stammering, asked to see my license and registration. When I asked him what I had been pulled over for he said "I confused you with somebody else."

In the grand scheme of things, my encounters with cops have been largely congenial - even when I was a punk-ass kid singled out by name by the police chief. On the other hand, my friend with the long hair, baja jacket and goatee was forced to stand in a stress position for 45 minutes because he looked Native American (he's more Jewish than I am). The same guys who helped me out with my mother-in-law's non-methlab? Used a battering ram on the door of a daycare by mistake.

I think the majority of white people never encounter Cops Behaving Badly because the cops default to best-behavior against white people. On the other hand, people of color get to see the cops doing whatever the fuck they want.

Fundamentally, everyone needs "public safety officers" but the officers charged with that task have a demonstrated predilection to define "public" in ways that are disadvantageous to all but the privileged.