NO PLACE FOR VIOLENCE
The killing of five police officers gunned down in the streets of Dallas Thursday is heartbreaking. So are the shocking deaths of black men at the hands of police officers earlier this week in two other American cities. All decent people understand that the lives of each of these individuals matter.
Even Donald Trump managed to strike a conciliatory tone Friday, acknowledging in a statement the tragic deaths of the African-American men in Louisiana and Minnesota and expressing sympathy for those killed and injured in Dallas.
Where these violent episodes blend together, of course, is in the long and deepening schism in America over race. It is hard for many Canadians — who recently watched in delight a viral YouTube video of a white, female cop dancing in Ottawa on Canada Day with a black videographer — to understand the anger and fear minorities in the U.S. have for police, some of whose members play a part in the oppression of black Americans. Thursday night’s sniper killings of police officers do not negate these legitimate concerns about policing.
Based on early evidence, it appears the Dallas sniper was driven by hatred of police, fuelled by a belief that violence can solve problems. Here, the third American narrative blends in: easy access to firearms. The sniper had the weaponry he needed.
“Americans across the county are feeling a sense of helplessness, of uncertainty and of fear. These feelings are understandable and they are justified. But the answer must not be violence. The answer is never violence,” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch reminded citizens.
What, then, is the answer? Certainly it is not to blame groups of people. Black Lives Matter protesters had been marching peacefully through Dallas, as in many other American cities, to protest the earlier killings of the two black men. This group is not at fault.
Nor, as President Barack Obama noted, are the thousands of police officers who do their jobs responsibly and professionally. “Today is a wrenching reminder of the sacrifices that they make for us,” he said.
And nor are the millions of ordinary Americans — white, black, Hispanic, gays, Muslims, others — who live their lives peaceably and deal daily with their fellow citizens as equals. Yet, blameless though they are, they are the only ones who can begin to stanch the insanity of a few.
In Orlando recently, after an equally senseless tragedy, people of all backgrounds rallied to reclaim their community. Now all their countrymen must come together and grieve — for minorities violently targeted by authority and for cops who lose their lives while doing their duty. Americans are bound together by these tragedies, they must not be torn apart by them.