Police shootings reflect structural racism

The deaths of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, and other unarmed black victims at the hands of police sparked a national conversation about racism and policing, from the Black Lives Matter movement to kneeling NFL players. Critics of these protests have attributed police shootings to “bad apples” within police departments, or argued more black victims die at the hands of police because higher rates of violent crime in black communities lead to more interactions with police.