Tom Regan on race, guns, and militarized death in America

Armed and dangerous, in the right circumstances, these members of the San Francisco Police Department were photographed in 2012. Wikimedia Commons

Facts and Opinions’ Seeking Orenda  columnist Tom Regan writes today on Why the United States is a perilous country for a young man, black or white. An excerpt of his new column:

There’s a deadly virus in the United States. Much more deadly than Ebola. (Two people have died of Ebola in this country.) The virus I’m talking about kills thousands of people every year. It’s a poisonous concoction of racism, police departments unaccountable to anybody but themselves and a tsunami of guns, guns, guns.

Alone, each of these problems is serious. But put all three of them together and you end up on a street in Ferguson, Mo., or in a playground in Cleveland, or a stairwell in Brooklyn. These are but a few locations where these three factors came together and someone was killed by a police officer as a result.

The racial problem is an obvious one. The whole idea of a post-racial America that resulted from the election of Barack Obama to the presidency is a joke. While it is significant that millions of Americans voted for a black man, the reality is that millions of others voted against him for the same reason. The ongoing racial attacks on President Obama by Republican and Tea Party members and legislators since his election in 2008 is well documented … click here to continue reading Why the United States is a perilous country for a young man, black or white.*

Tom Regan’s columnist page is here

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