America in Black and Blue

The United States celebrated its 240th birthday recently with fireworks, Pentagon-sponsored salutes to the troops at Major League Baseball games, and heightened security at public venues prompted by terrorist attacks in Orlando and Istanbul.  Land of the free, home of the secure.

Then the real fireworks began.

• In Baton Rouge, Louisiana and near St. Paul, Minnesota, police officers shot and killed two African-American men who they say were allegedly packing concealed weapons.  The Louisiana man was apparently doing nothing more than selling CDs out of his car, as far as we know.  The Minnesota man and his girlfriend were stopped by police for having a broken tail light.  The rest of what happened, from the girlfriend's perspective, was shown live on the internet.
• In Dallas, Texas, during an otherwise peaceful demonstration to protest the shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, five police officers were shot down by a man who supposedly said he wanted to kill as many white people as possible.  The suspect, who used to serve his military time in Afghanistan, got killed himself by way of a 'robot bomb'  that was used in the war.
• According to CNN, more than 300 people were arrested during a weekend of demonstrations across the country.  They took place on city streets, freeways, in front of the state governor's residences, etc.  Not all of them were peaceful, with some of the participants ending up in the hospital.

This is all part of the long-running saga that's been going on since the murder of Trayvon Martin and the disturbances in Ferguson, Missouri:  Misguided police officers who target African-Americans for even the most minor offenses.  No matter how much of a model citizen you are, if you take one step out of line, you're dead.  Or get sent to prison if you're lucky.

Not all police officers are trigger-happy racists, but there are enough of them to make everyone uncomfortable no matter who they are.  And using military-style weapons on Main Street, especially tanks and 'robot bombs', is not a good look.  This isn't Kandahar or Baghdad.

Just as law enforcement expects us to follow the rules put down by society, we expect them to treat everyone with the respect and dignity we deserve.  Having said that, how can they respect us if they know they're not going to be prosecuted for some of the reprehensible things that they do?

In 2016, we don't need al-Qaeda or the Islamic State to come over and kill Americans.  We can handle that job ourselves, thank you very much.  Every mass shooting, every racially motivated murder-by-cop, and every dollar sent to the National Rifle Association to make sure that Congress keeps the Second Amendment intact just adds to the perception that we never really left the Wild West.

As long as guns--its misuse by criminals and authority figures and racism remain facts of life, the potential for catastrophe remains high.  We need a real solution, and no more wasting time on prayers, flags at half staff, moments of silence and expressing condolences.  What's it going to take?

Happy birthday, America.  How many more?