Imagine that Mormon missionaries were killed and abused by police on a regular basis.

These young Mormons are tazed to death while handcuffed, shot multiple times in the back, choked to death, etc. Whenever this happens, we Mormons turn to law enforcement and the political system, and we're essentially told that maybe our young people wouldn't be facing these abuses if they weren't causing so much trouble.

Then, imagine that we reach a tipping point, that an unarmed Mormon missionary is killed on the street under very suspicious circumstances. And then another. And then another. And not only are those responsible not charged, they aren't even brought to trial. I can imagine Mormons being quite bothered, perhaps even resorting to nonviolent protests. Or maybe even violent protest.

I can imagine this because that's exactly what we did under abuses not that long ago. We Mormons had our own problems with law enforcement in Missouri, and we responded with seriously violent protests.

Now, I'm not saying at all that historical persecution of Mormons in America is anywhere near the generations upon generations of violent, bigoted, and/or racist persecution of people of color in America.

What I am saying is that I can understand the frustration in Ferguson, and Utah, and New York, and Cleveland, and Phoenix, and across the country, and that the frustration might not really depend on the specific details of one individual case. It will be difficult for a privileged white male to comprehend this frustration, because I've never had to live with anything even remotely similar. But that's not going to keep me from trying.