The main cultural problem in the US is the acceptance, but the white majority at least, that police behaving like they do is part of the job and acceptable.

I refer to the fact that you can be tased, shot, beat, arrested, held down by 4 policemen, beaten etc 10 times more easily than you can in Western Europe -- and people think that's OK, or what "the police is supposed to do".

Even the fact that getting out of your car when stopped by a traffic cop (something totally OK in 99% of the world) means you can be shot in the US...

That is not good either, but I was thinking of for example the drug war.

A lot of police militarization, at least before 9/11, was driven by Drug War mythology. Now there's a badder bogie man.

I don't think the white majority finds that behavior acceptable either. Twice as many white people are killed by cops every year as black people for example (and yes, I understand the population ratios, my point is it's still a lot of white people also being killed by cops). I think it's primarily a question of: how to stop it, what reforms to make, where to start?

>I don't think the white majority finds that behavior acceptable either.

Acceptable at least in the sense that there's not widespread revolt against it.

A couple of US style incidents in other western european countries would have toppled the government or at least the justice minister -- and yet tons of them happen in the US with little to no protest (aside from special activists and groups).

Acceptable also in the sense that it's the prevalent wisdom: "don't do this or that, or you'll might get shot/tased/etc", which people have internalized, instead of considering something rare and outrageous.

The fact that a cop can shoot someone (black or white) just like that, and that it happens tons of times a year, is not much different to my European sensibilities than still having the segreggation. Or still having the death penalty -- oh, wait, they have that too...