Do you personally know a police officer who arrested someone because of race? If so, what happened?

I myself have made mistakes and as such been arrested . At no time have I ever been mistreated even with me being belligerent towards the arresting officers. I complied with orders and suffered no mistreatment whatsoever .

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NO.

I live next to a reservation and I see it all the time. It is really strange to watch and see nobody really say anything because it usually happens in primarily the white communities outside the reservation. One time I gave a ride to a friend who was Native American and they noticed a tail light was out on my vehicle. To me this wasn't to big a deal. To late go buy one to replace it so I just accept I may get pulled over which I know I'll just get a warning but I would simply replace it the next day when places were open. They were really concerned and kept asking why I wasn't worried about being pulled over. I explained why and they were confused by it. I asked why. They said that most of their friends and people they knew who were Native American would be pulled over for it and would have their vehicle searched. My response was well if you don't have anything illegal than why worry about a search. They said it was just the way they felt having to sit in the back of the police car while the search was conducted and having to wait over an hour for the whole thing to be completed. I guess in a way I can understand if that is standard for every time you get pulled over. I mean how would you feel if every time you were pulled over and this happened. Imagine going to work and it happens. If you were a supervisor and someone worked under you told you that they were late because their vehicle had to be searched by the police. I think you would think something was going on with them because most people would think that an employee was doing something suspicious outside of work and that may cause you to trust the individual less. In small rural communities everyone sees and hears about everything so even when it comes to people renting places to individuals, they may not rent to them because they heard that they were pulled over and had their vehicle searched. It's not because they are Native American but because the first thought is that they may be involved in drugs which they aren't most of the times. There is also a lot of unfair treatment in the court system which everyone hears about but says nothing. The mayor of the town next to mine was caught stealing prescription pain killers out of people's houses. He would take his kids for a walk and stop at an elderly persons house that he knew was on pain killers and say his child had to use the bathroom. He would take the child into the bathroom and steal their pain killers. He did this to a lot of houses. You see his wife was a Physician assistant and he had a job at the chiropractors office so he knew who was on what pain killers because he was able to look in medical records. When they arrested him, he wasn't taken to jail but to rehab. When the case came to court it was tossed out because the deputy sheriff didn't read him his rights. Which is interesting because he was a deputy for over 5 years and never forgot to read anybody else their rights. Haven't met one Native American that received this same treatment. I've even seen several military members on leave get pulled over for DUI but when it gets to court it is always downgraded to reckless driving. It wasn't because they were just at the legal limit because a couple of them were very high BACs. When you ask around it usually downgraded out of concern for their future and to help that service member from getting into trouble when they return to duty. Sadly a Native American friend in the exact same situation was given a DUI which caused him trouble when he returned to duty. I wonder if it was because they didn't care much about his future. If you sit back and really look at situations that are happening to minorities and start to compare to cases concerning a white individual you start to see that their is a lot unfair treatment. It really all comes down to perception and also putting yourself in that individuals shoes to understand the feelings involved.

I grew up in a family of police officers, fire fighters and service members on both sides for generations. I have witnessed harassment by police to groups (teens, lower ranked military, poor and men).
I have seen favoritism towards beautiful women, men dressed in a suit and higher ranked military members too. So I don’t doubt that racism is experienced from what I have experienced.
I have found if you treat the older officer with respect and follow their instructions they will usually let you off with a warning if the infraction is minor. If they are a younger officer they tend to enforce more laws with tickets and less warnings.
We have rights but pride will land us in trouble every time. Being humble and respectful will get you a long way with authority. One of my First Sergeants once told me if you mess up weather by accident or on purpose it doesn’t matter, just be a man, don’t explain, and just tell me you’re ready for whatever punishment I have decided. Then 9 times out of 10 I will just let you off, especially if you rarely get in trouble.

Having been a police officer prior to 9/11 amd state trooper after I did see concerns with investigating foreigners that resembled middle east descent. These concerns were in the form of question after a probable cause stop was initiated for the safety of our citizens.

I have never seen race as an issue in my limited interactions and observations of law enforcement. To be fair, I live in one of the least diverse states in the union.