Violence escalates in US
Tensions are running high in the US after the killing of five policemen in Dallas. A sniper shot the officers on Thursday from a parking garage during a demonstration against racist police violence. The rally was organised to protest the deaths of two Afro-Americans in Minnesota and Louisiana who were shot by police officers. Is the US facing a new wave of racial violence?
Martin Luther King's dream has been shattered
Martin Luther King's dream still hasn't become reality 50 years after he made his famous speech, De Volkskrant observes with bitterness:
“The rift between black and white seems to have become even deeper. Justice is still an asset the black population can't always rely on. This is highlighted by the series of cases involving extreme policy violence. The anger this generates threatens to plunge America into a vicious circle of violence. ... The peaceful protests still prevail, even though certain right-wing commentators are now accusing the 'Black Lives Matter' movement of having triggered the attack on the police officers. This accusation is unjust. ... But 'Black Lives Matter' must also accept that police are attacked by blacks with disproportionate frequency. The police often have to operate in neighbourhoods where blacks have been neglected by politicians. A dangerous cocktail of lacking prospects for the future and a surplus of weapons.”
An explosive situation
The attack in Dallas presages a new wave of racial unrest in the US, Jutarnji list believes:
“Just as a relatively small number of racists in police uniform are enough to convey the impression that police officers can get away with shooting black Americans like clay pigeons and spread racism under the cloak of the state, in the same way a few extremists are enough to give the impression (because it still hasn't been proven) that the other side is using the same logic. They answer what they see as terror with terror, and start shooting police officers like clay pigeons themselves. That gets the ball of racial terrorism rolling, and it's a short step from here to race riots.”
Police must integrate in society
The events in Dallas, Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights show how dysfunctional relations are between Afro-Americans and the police in the US, writes American columnist Al Sharpton in the Guardian:
“Cops must live in the cities and neighbourhoods that they patrol. By doing so, they are not policing strangers, but rather neighbours who they see at the grocery store, whose kids go to school with their kids and who want the same things for their community. … It used to be that parents taught their children about the birds and the bees; now parents in black homes are teaching their kids how to act if police stop them so they won’t be killed before the encounter is over. The longer these flaws and injustices in the police remain unaddressed, the longer they fester away. This poses a danger to us all. The unprecedented events in Dallas remind us that it just takes one disturbed individual to commit a gross, tragic act that derails attempts at peaceful change and sows further division and strife.”
Trump could benefit from violence
A resurgence of violence between blacks and whites in the US could help Donald Trump's bid for the presidency, Le Soir fears:
“Dallas in 2016 recalls the basic contradiction in the US - a country that offers the best but also the worst, with one foot in modernity and the other in underdevelopment. ... Of course in this electoral year you have to ask who can appease America, reconcile it with itself and put it on the road to progress. Certainly not the ridiculous oaf who has done nothing but diligently fan the flames - all flames - since the start of his campaign! But if reason disqualifies Donald Trump, any flare-up of racial violence could unfortunately open the doors to the White House for him.”
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