After the first black female was elected mayor in the town of Parma, Missouri, white local police officers resigned from their positions, leaving the small town protected by only one police officer. The mass resignation indicates that racial bias among local police against black citizens is still persistent in the U.S.

Security has been provided by a small police force consisting of six officers in the American town. Directly after the black mayor, Tyrus Byrd, was sworn into her new position, five police officers, along with the city attorney and water treatment supervisor, announced their resignation.

"I think it was pretty dirty the way they all quit without giving her a chance, but I don't think they hurt the town with quitting, because who needs six police for 740 people?" Martha Miller, a Parma resident, said, as reported by Sputnik International. The resignation of the police officers points to rampant racism among local forces that systematically target black Americans.

Regarding racial discrimination in American society, the mistreatment and killing of black citizens by white police officers has a long history in the U.S. Americans have long witnessed the killing of black people and the injustice that comes with it. The U.S., a large multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multicultural country, has suffered from racial discrimination toward black Americans, as the recent cases of police shootings has laid bare. U.S. President Barack Obama said that racial bias against black Americans "is deeply rooted in American society and history," explaining that race relations in the U.S. has improved over the last 50 years, but is still in need of improvement.

In 2014, the U.S. was shaken by the violent police killings of young black Americans: Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, and the police's subsequent brutal intervention on protesters, which reveals the disparity between "respect for equal rights and law enforcement's treatment of racial minorities," as international human rights organization, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported in January. Despite all American citizens being protected from racial discrimination under the U.S. constitution and federal law, discrimination and inequality based on race has remained, HRW said.