We live in a country where a lot of people have a lot of guns. The argument by gun advocates that wide ownership of guns make us safer. The logic is that if you know everyone has a gun you will be reluctant to use yours.
In reality it just means you have to shoot first.
It is reasonable for the police to believe that a lot of the people they encounter are armed and at least potentially dangerous. So they shoot first, understandably.
Its not acceptable and because of inbred cultural issues, the people they are most suspicious of are often black.
We tend to attribute this to racism but our gun culture has to take some of the blame.
Statistics show us that the violence is not all directed at black people but clearly more young black men are victims than others. They are viewed with the most suspicion.
We have seen some atrocious videos that are unjustifiable. Those police need to answer for their actions.
We also need to improve the way police interact with black citizens. Both sides consider the other dangerous and as a result the interactions escalate quickly.
Changing this is not going to be easy and previous efforts have not been successful. Partly because in a perfectly reasonable conclusion police would rather be judged by twelve than be carried by six.
Of course ideally no one ends up in a coffin.
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