As far as the whole "why did the Shaw cop chase after VM" thing, with his history, I would imagine just the way he was behaving and acting gave the officer more than enough to gather suspicion than just the color of his skin.
And you know what? I realize there is racism in the world and I realize that racial profiling does happen. But I will tell you this: Who do you think a cop would be more likely to find suspicious and perhaps follow...Vanilla Ice or Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air??? Who would the average cop prefer to beat down - Justin Bieber or Denzel Washington? It is about far more than skin color. It is about the way they dress, the way they carry themselves, the way they speak that makes someone look suspicious. I am sorry that so many in the black community choose to act this way and call it their culture. Well their CULTURE is what is getting them killed and is getting them profiled - much more than the color of their skin. Act, talk, dress like a , you will be treated like a , even if you are a medical student. Act, talk, dress like a normal person in society and you will be treated as such, even if you are a violent criminal. Perception is the key and police - and all human beings for that matter - respond to a lot of visual and verbal cues when making an initial assessment of another human being. They say that first impressions count, well, yes, they do. Your initial assessment of someone might be totally incorrect or off base once additional information is known, but when you are talking about life and death situations like these, where the totality of the event last less than 3 minutes, there isn't a whole lot else to go off of.
Think about how many times per day you make an initial visual summary of a person. You see a man iin a 3 piece suit and tie, you would likely think "businessman" even though he may just be headed to a funeral, or a wedding, or to a court appearance. You see someone wearing gold chains, baseball cap turned sideways and their pants hanging down, you are going to think "street " even if the person is a straight A student that volunteers with the elderly 3 days a week.
