Clearly people misread situations. There are definitely false accounts of racial profiling, but to immediately assume it is not true is to deny that there is also a lot of validity to those complaints. Racism exists in the police force as it does everywhere else. [I am not saying that is what YOU are doing Wolf - I know you are as wise as ever and are waiting for the conclusion of the investigation.] I have seen firsthand the difference in how I am treated and how friends and loved ones of other ethnicities are treated. I never knew my own priviledge until I saw other people were treated and talked about when they were not present. I got pulled over by a policeman for the first time (in the 12 yrs that I have had my license) a few months ago. My good friend, a trilingual, upper- middle class, doctoral student and son of a college professor, who is black, has been pulled over 16 times. His driving habits are equal to mine. He is terrified of police, as is his mother. She never drives even one mile over the speed limit, because tiny, gentle woman is sincerely, profoundly afraid of the police. She has her equally legitimate reasons for that, things she has seen and experienced.

I would like to see more information about this case as well, but I am not going to immediately assume that 4 white police officers badly beating up one black man is completely free of racism. I think that is unrealistic. If it turns out that there were other things at play, so be it. Even better...but most of the symphony musicians I have met are not what one would characterize as "tough guys." Clarinets and violins aren't generally weapons used on the street.