The flags are flying at half-mast in the United States. Again. As two days of peaceful protests against police brutality culminated in deadly violence in Texas on Friday, President Barack Obama said he spoke for all Americans in saying he was horrified. "We stand united with the people and the police department in Dallas ... Let's be clear: there is no possible justification for these kinds of attacks or any violence against law enforcement."
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There may well be no justification. But there is little surprise that the US is grieving after yet another spree of gun violence.
The now-dead army veteran behind the Dallas massacre, 25-year-old Micah Johnson, was driven by hatred. He apparently assassinated at least five police officers, firing at them from a hidden position with a high-powered assault rifle. His actions were horrific and inexcusable. He told a negotiator during the attack he wanted to kill white people, "especially white officers". He was spurred by the "black lives matter" movement, which protested against the police slaying of black, often innocent, Americans.
Johnson deserves no sympathy. Yet the causes of his rage were real and the US must confront them. Black Americans are 30 per cent more likely than whites to be pulled over by police. After being pulled over, minorities are three times more likely to be searched, and police are twice as likely to shoot them. Most police in black neighbourhoods are white.
American society is built on migration and is mostly welcoming. Yet it appears riven by institutional racism that is dividing it ever further. This, combined with its pervasive gun culture, paints a frightening scenario.
Consider these norms of US life. Just before a Minnesota policeman shot Philando Castile on Thursday, killing him, Castile told the officer he was carrying a concealed handgun. During the hunt for Johnson a day later, Texas police scrambled to arrest a man seen walking through along a Dallas street carrying an assault rifle. That man is no longer a suspect – his conduct was perfectly legal.
The US's grim Groundhog Day will happen again and again, until Americans are ready to let go of this deadly "freedom".
