#CrimingWhileWhite: White Twitter uses confess to crimes to highlight police racial bias

Social media campaign comes after months of racial tension in the US

White people have taken to Twitter to expose US police prejudice, confessing they have got away with crimes that African Americans probably would not.

Posting using the hashtag #WhitePeopleCriming, some people are recounting serious crimes they have committed such as grand theft auto, others are referring to smaller driving violations, and some are describing incidents in which black friends were disproportionately scrutinised or punished.

This social media campaign comes following three high-profile incidents of police violence against black men — Eric Garner who was killed by a chokehold by New York City police officer in July, Michael Brown who was shot 6 times by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri in August, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed in Cleveland late last month.

Garner was caught illegally selling cigarettes, 18-year-old Brown had robbed $50 cigarellos from a shop, and Rice had been playing with a pellet gun — all crimes (or, in Rice's case, not a crime) that white people would not likely be killed over, the Twittersphere has argued.

This campaign stands in contrast to the findings from a Pew Research poll in which twice as many black Americans than white Americans think the Michael Brown shooting says something about larger racial issues in American.

70 per cent of black respondents said police do not treat people of different races the same, whereas the majority of white respondents say police are 'good' about race.

Here are some of the best #WhitePeopleCriming:

Drunk driving speed demon

Boyfriend swears at cops

Tween carjacker

'Illegal alien' gets the blame

Stop and search profiling

How the police will respond to #CrimingWhileWhite