Dan Zak and Ellen McCarthy, from The Washington Post, write about the experiences of African American law enforcement and police officers. One of the officers they interview was David J. Thomas, who tells his story. Thomas “remembers being 22 and telling his father that he himself was going to become a police officer. It was a decent job in public service, in a city dying with the auto industry: a $20,000 salary and the chance to be out in the community. His father was furious. He hated the police for the way they treated black people, Thomas says, and was convinced the racism of police culture would corrupt his son.”