The heinous Dallas attack is part of a cycle. A cycle goes round and round. Unfortunately those capable of breaking the cycle, the police of every city in the nation, fail to act rationally, fail to act with restraint. fail to look for other means of altercation resolution aside from pulling their weapon and killing their victim. Until the police cease (or at least reduce) the incident of unjustified murder, the cycle will remain. A cycle that feeds on escalating racial tension.
There is no black.
There is no white.
There is no brown.
There is only red.
The red of our blood.
We are all joined by the red of our blood.
In response to:
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 
What is your first emotion when you see a police officer? Gratitude. Thankfulness. Relief? A sense of security?
Probably not.
How many of us, during a traffic stop, feel like we should exit our vehicle slowly, with our hands up, begging, “please don’t shoot me!”?
“Law abiding citizens should have nothing to fear from our law enforcement establishment.”
Yeah, if it were only that simple. The raw truth of the matter is that the presence of cops elicits fear. And why shouldn’t it? Police wear fascist style uniforms; represent risk to your way of life and well-being and Saunter around with loaded weapons, tasers, batons, handcuffs. They arrive on a scene with instant distrust of everyone around them as if we were back in the Napoleonic age of guilty until proven innocent. Is this an unfair description. Of course it is. Yet this is how we view cops in this day and age. And it appears that this is how many officers view themselves.
So, if as the original post states the police are the agents who can break the cycle — how should they go about it?
• Lose the Nazi uniforms.
• Lose the “every one is guilty” assumption.
• Hire older officers, who, although slower and more likely to lose a chase, are more likely to engender trust and act wisely in critical situations.
• In racially diverse cities send out pairs of cops, of alternating race.
• Replace ALL the first clip ammunition with non-lethal birdshot or rubber bullets. If a cop has to go through a full clip and that doesn’t stop a the attacker, then then secondary clips can contain lethal ammo. If shots are exchange, then dropping the first clip would be acceptable.
• Insist that all police wear high tech kevlar.
• In critical situations, resort to stun grenades, flashbombs, nets, bolas, before.
Clearly efforts to alleviate the escalation of traffic stops, pull overs, street-beat arrests into life threatening situations have not been exhausted. Without genuine police force procedure changes, with the status quo continuing, the cycle will remain and unfortunately, I predict, only get worse.
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