America may have been the land of the free, but recently, it seems more like the land of the freedom to kill. Blood stains the flag.
It seems that the Wild Wild West went away for a while, but now it is back.
Five Dallas police officers died when a lone sniper targeted them during a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest march.
The actions of the sniper, Micah Xavier Johnson, appeared to be a misguided retaliation for the actions of police in other states that resulted in the deaths of innocent black men, earlier in the week.
In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Alton Sterling was killed by a police officer while he was down on the ground. The U.S. Department of Justice has been asked to conduct the investigation, rather than local or state authorities.
Without getting a warrant, the police on the scene seized footage from the convenience store surveillance cameras. The store owner objected, but the police didn’t listen. What the police didn’t know is that the store owner and another person videoed the incident on cell phones.
Then, in Minnesota, Philando Castile was killed by police while he was in his car with his girlfriend and her daughter. The police officer outside the vehicle asked for his ID and as he was retrieving it from his back pocket, the officer shot him. Castile’s girlfriend then livestreamed video from her phone, showing what happened next.
The two incidents appear to be police overreacting because neither man appeared to be threatening them. Both of the dead men were black.
The deaths of the five police in Dallas were unwarranted. The snipers were condemned by many, including Black Lives Matter activists and the NAACP. Dallas police protected the marchers and residents.
The Dallas Police Chief, who is black, said they thought there might have been more than one sniper, but it turned out there was only one. The sniper apparently said he had planted bombs in the area, but none were found.
It is another sad day in America.
