Data for: Public opinion on police misconduct

High-profile cases of police violence have given rise to contentious debate across the globe, which has often erupted into protest and unrest. These debates hinge on disagreements about whether police use of force is wielded appropriately. Yet scholars know little about why individuals interpret violent police encounters differently. To address this gap, we fielded a survey experiment in Germany which is designed to probe whether the victim's identity matters to public opinion (N=15,941). Our novel design mimics the way news events unfold sequentially over time, allowing us to measure whether eventual discriminatory beliefs persist even in the face of mounting evidence. We show that respondents are less likely to consider the actions of the police officers to constitute misconduct when the victim has an immigrant name compared to a traditionally German name. Importantly, these discriminatory beliefs remain even when respondents are informed about various forms of evidence confirming that misconduct