I've thought about this one too.
I'm white and used to live in England's version of project housing.
Everyone was white, piss poor and almost no one went college and nearly everyone was a crook of some kind. Quite a few joined the army, some went to jail etc...
Like you say about your friends not caring much about the black people killed by other black people but furious about the cops... was a bit like that where I lived to... no guns there though and people not getting killed , but hating the cops! and everything was blamed on the government, hardly any one had personal responsibility.
Many of the cops actually really were complete *******s and myself I've been on the end of violent lying aszhole cops..
In the end I think its a combination of things that would bring it out of a depression... takes both sides to make it happen. Government has to do things to help people up and the the people have to lift themselves up. And the cops have to be trained and held accountable.
Also having travelled the world a fair bit and lived in a city with people from all over the world... what I've noticed is that almost everywhere I've been it seems like Chinese people will have strong families, educated kids, careful with money and not make a lot of trouble.. black people, to be real, if theres prostitution around or drugs for sale, even in say Japan or Thailand where you don't find many black people... theres will be more than a fair share of black guys involved in the business end. And most the families don't have much in the way of a father.
I had a black guy work for me for 4 years, he was from Jamaica and he really good guy.
At one time we worked across from a college and we could see through the windows of it. My worker guy said its all whites and Asians in there, and he thought it was racist.... I said to him, how.... its Canada, anyone can go to college...
Next day on a break outside, was near a park where lots of crackheads hang out... my worker used to sell drugs (maybe still does) so he has an eye for spotting who is doing what.... as he pointed out 3 of the half dozen people selling stuff were black...
I didn't say a lot as didn't want to fall out with him, but did think it sort of summed things up.
The other thing is the guns you have down there, I mean to most of the rest of the world it looks fvckin nuts! People driving around with a legal concealed weapon? It seems mind boggling that its allowed.
I can imagine back in soccer hooligan days of the 70's and 80's Manchester united v Liverpool and everyone packing a gun, including the cops... would have been mayhem.
Saw this story... Norway's cops haven't killed a single person in nearly 10 years!
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/norways-police-havent-killed-a-single-person-in-nearly-10-years/