black-lives-matter/

The deaths of black men at the hands of white police officers in recent years have raised a number of questions about the treatment of racial minorities within the criminal justice system, as well as about patterns of arrest-related deaths more generally. Some researchers have called for Congressional-mandated government databases to be more thorough so they can better find patterns in the violent interactions between police and civilians.

A new study reveals that voicing support for police can be a “dog whistle” politicians use to appeal to voters threatened by challenges to America’s racial status quo. Donald Trump’s expressions of support for police, researchers find, served as coded language that mobilized voters who were anxious about the social and economic status of white Americans in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.