Dallas unity

The murder of police officers during a Black Lives Matter protest threatens a catastrophic break in society; we can’t let that happen

The shots that killed five police officers and wounded several others reverberate far beyond Dallas. They strike fear in the hearts of police everywhere. They upend the Black Lives Matter movement, an overwhelmingly peaceful response to years of dehumanization of some communities by the criminal justice system. And they terrify all of us who are now forced to wonder whether we have just witnessed an irrevocable break in the fabric of society, one that leaves us all less safe.

Police say Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, of Mesquite, Texas, took up a position in a parking garage and fired with deadly precision at the police officers watching over the crowd near Dallas’ city hall Thursday night in an act that can only be described as domestic terrorism. He was killed by a police robot bomb, but not before telling police he was angry about the recent police shootings and “wanted to kill white people,” specifically police officers. Police believe others may have been involved.

It would be difficult to conceive an attack with greater potential to drive police and communities apart. People gathered in Dallas and other cities Thursday night to protest the killings of two more black men — Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile near St. Paul, Minn. — both shot by police who made snap judgments that they posed mortal threats. Now police cannot help but feel more threatened, more embattled — and more justified in using force rather than seeking to de-escalate conflicts. We now face a real risk of deepening a cycle of fear and mistrust.

We cannot allow that to happen. Instead, we all must acknowledge the truth that police face real danger every day in what is an extraordinarily difficult job. We also must not allow the malicious acts of madmen to discredit the very real grievances that have animated the Black Lives Matter movement. We all must be horrified both by the killings of Sterling and Castile and those of the police officers in Dallas. This is a time when it would be easy to retreat in fear, but it is also an opportunity to build mutual understanding. We have to take it.