The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, "No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
That's a direct statement, admitting no exception.
It doesn't say, "unless a police officer feels threatened." It doesn't say, "unless he flees or resists." It most definitely doesn't say, "unless he's black."
And yet we allow police officers to sidestep due process entirely, delivering both verdict and sentence at gunpoint, if they believe -- or claim to believe -- that a situation warrants it. And the same people who yowl that Obama is trampling on the Constitution cheer for this trampling of the Constitution.
Beyond simple racism (although racism is an inextricable part of it), this is the fundamental problem behind the epidemic of white-cop-on-black-civilian violence: that we've created this loophole allowing the police to administer extrajudicial penalties up to and including execution and are unwilling to face it, let alone close it.
It doesn't matter what color one is. It doesn't matter whether one acts like a jerk or a bully or a thug. It doesn't even matter whether one has a criminal record.
Every person who is suspected of a crime, no matter who he is or what he does, deserves to have his guilt or innocence decided by jurors in court, not by bullets in the street.
And if a police officer can't apprehend a suspect and obey the supreme law of the land at the same time, you know what? He's just gotta let that suspect go. That's what the Fifth Amendment says. That chafes, but there it is.
You say you revere the Constitution, conservative white America? Well, there's a chapter and verse you forgot about. Go back and read it again.