Unfortunately I would have to take out a subscription to the New York Times to view the first article, which I will not be doing any time soon. (ah, wait, here we go, thank you pbromaghin for posting a direct link.)
I love reading these people's stories. I can't claim to fully understand where they are coming from as black individuals, but looking in from the outside I have always thought very favorably about police officers in general, whether black or white, simply because it is such a difficult and very dangerous and sometimes life-threatening job. But of course there are assholes in the police forces; as there are in any profession. I've also thought for a while that the problem of rapport between police officers and the black community in many places could be alleviated by a movement in the black community to rise up and become police officers themselves, to bring people together instead of being more and more combative, but what do I know.
As for the homeless photos, well, I just think it's funny that they must have chosen the most good-looking homeless people they could find. Not even most people in general (when cleaned up) are that good-looking. As was said above, entirely superficial.
