For every black victim of the police, there are equivalent white victims

Antiracists believe police abuse is based on race, but the statistics show it is based on class: almost everyone killed by the police in the US is poor, and police killings are racially proportionate to US poverty: 1/4 are black, 1/4 are Hispanic, and half are white. Many black victims of the police are well known today, but white victims are quickly forgotten. This is convenient for the police—it makes the problem of police militarization look much smaller than it actually is.

Here are a few incidents with white victims that parallel those with black ones:

Shot like Oscar Grant and Daunte Wright by a cop who claimed to have meant to use a Taser: Brian Riling was shot in the stomach, and Eric David Butts was shot in the lower back.

Shot like Philando Castile while obeying the police: David Kassick was shot twice in the back while lying facedown in the snow after being stopped for an expired inspection sticker.

Shot like Tamir Rice and John Crawford III while holding a BB or pellet gun: Hannah Williams had a BB gun in her rental car. Payton Ham was in his yard playing with an airsoft gun. Daniel Shaver was in his hotel room when someone saw him near the window. (These kinds of killings are common: Since 2015, 124 white people and 46 black people have been killed by the police because they had toy weapons.)

Shot like Mike Brown and Rayshard Brooks while resisting the police: Derek Cruice…