Guns in the news everywhere. Innocent black men killed by police officers that are absolutely horrible at their jobs. Police officers killed by angry people with guns achieving the opposite of making their point, that the violence must stop. An eye for an eye just makes for more dead people and more paranoia.
Let's try to see a bright side in these tragedies. The ongoing unacceptable 'mishaps" are finally being exposed. The black human beings we have seen killed by police are hardly a new trend. This has been going on through the entire history of the United States. The only new development is the video cameras everyone has in their phones (and body cameras etc.) to document these injustices.
Let us take a minute to consider and mourn all of the innocent black people killed for hundreds of years by law enforcement without the benefit of someone documenting their death on video.
There are also police that are quite capable at their position. Men and women that could never possibly shoot someone over a broken tail light and a wrong assumption. But now, we are witnessing evidence of officers capable of doing just that and the police department's "wall of silence" only exacerbates the situation. Yes, police need to trust other police and have each other's back. But the public would feel better and safer if more police distinguished themselves from the murdering police that put their own work at greater risk.
Let's just hope that as hard as it is to witness these videos and process this information, we begin to understand that we are finally bringing an ugly truth about America to the surface. There are of course many other down sides to a world of people staring at their phones so often. But hopefully, we can use this opportunity of near perpetual video exposure to make the country we live in a safer place for all colors of police and civilians. Americans existing with less fear of death by ignorance or misunderstanding would be a solid development for the 21st century.
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