This death was an unlikely spark for public outrage

of anger inimical to any hope of racial reconciliation in Milwaukee — and cities far beyond.

A certain amount of anger in the face of injustice is not necessarily a bad thing. Such anger — defined as a passionate impatience with unfair status quo — is often a necessary catalyst for progress. But when there is no progress after long years, anger can intermix with despair and become something much less constructive.

It can become something that doesn’t listen, doesn’t reason. Something that simply explodes.

Blacks in Wisconsin’s largest city say Smith’s death was the last straw after years of racially stratified policing. It is hardly immaterial that an officer was not charged just two years ago in the controversial shooting death of a mentally ill black man. Or that the department is under Justice Department review which, to its credit, it requested.

Who will be shocked if that probe finds what other probes have found in cop shops around the country: patterns of institutionalized racism that corrode public trust and impinge the ability of police to do their jobs.

Unfortunately, there is a tendency, when such probes are done, to treat the affected department as unique. Think of the person who sees a drop of water here, a drop of water there, yet somehow never perceives the storm. It’s worth noting, too, that Mike Crivello, president of the Milwaukee police union, issued a statement after the shooting to “denounce” the idea of racism in the department’s ranks. Of course, no institution of any size can credibly make a blanket claim of freedom from bias, but that didn’t stop him. That should tell you something.

You get tired of being treated as an unreliable witness to your own experience. Black Milwaukee has complained for years about biased policing. Yet the police chief pronounced himself “surprised” by this uprising. Apparently, he hasn’t been listening.

The rest of us would do well to avoid that mistake. If this unrest is an omen, it is also an opportunity — for civic self-examination, for giving the people a voice. For making change.

This violence, following what might well have been a justified shooting, was tragic and troubling. But it also made one thing starkly clear. Blacks have been demanding justice a long time. And they’re getting tired of asking nicely.

Conservatives need their own media. But the rise of Trump shows something has gone horribly wrong.

I used to be one of those conservatives who brushed aside complaints about Fox News. Sure, Glenn Beck had his excesses and Sean Hannity sounded like a Speak & Spell, but they weren’t responsible for crashing the economy or wrecking the Middle East. Rather than commit fratricide over disagreements of style, the right should focus on the Obama administration and overhauling the failed GOP.

The rise of Donald Trump has made that position untenable. We conservatives were so occupied sniping from the windows that we never looked back and noticed the flames engulfing our own house.

That’s a mistake we can no longer make. Following this election, the first order of business must be