The public's concerns about crime seem to be somewhat independent of the actual crime rate, a phenomenon that may discourage law enforcement professionals but underscores how frightening this issue is for most people. Much of recent opinion research on police bias and brutality has focused on the trial of four Los Angeles police officers in the beating of Rodney King and the role of retired Los Angeles detective Mark Fuhrman in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson. For many white Americans, these kinds of incidents were mainly viewed as regrettable exceptions to the rule. However, 53 percent of African-Americans thought that the racism and falsification of evidence described in the Fuhrman episode is common among the local police. There was substantial agreement among black and white Americans about what constitutes appropriate police behavior. However, while 76 percent of whites could "imagine" a situation in which they would approve of a policeman striking an adult male citizen, only 45 percent of blacks gave the police that kind of benefit of the doubt. Figures, notes