We don't really know what "the real problem" is. Something big is going on, and I agree it's not simply about racism. I am seeing similar things in my city, and it's white and wealthy.

As with most things, I think it has to do with money. Police are paid to enforce the law, but no-one is paid to keep the police in check. As the article says, there's ~20k cities in America and it's doubtful that Ferguson is the only one, or even the worst one.

>I am not sure how this article has anything to do with HN

There's a market for justice, which means opportunity. I've wanted to build an app that helps citizens document every interaction they have with government, from parking tickets to DMV to small claims court, and then aggregate the data and then fund "corrective action" whatever that means, from a lawsuit to just filing a complaint. (The app would also make this action much easier to file.)

EDIT: wow, the parent deleted while I wrote this response. Weird.