It’s a sad fact that massive civilian protests turning into riots have become a common occurrence in the US today.
According to US analytical media source End Of The American Dream, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina has been plunged into chaos by widespread cases of civilian disobedience, in spite of desperate attempts by local authorities to restore order. The recent outbreak of violence erupted when local police officers shot a young African-American, Keith Lamont Scott, dead. The situation looks grim, since Charlotte is the largest city in the state. Riot police have reported at least 16 officers injured due to continuous clashes with the local population. Hundreds and hundreds of outraged protesters were burning cars, throwing stones at police, and destroying store windows in broad daylight. Riot police units responded with tear gas, but it was reported that North Carolina governor Patrick Lloyd McCrory demanded the National Guard be deployed in Charlotte as well. At least one protester was lethally wounded during the clashes.
It’s noteworthy that just two days before the outbreak of violence in Charlotte, police officials in Tulsa were forced into admitting that yet another African-American was short dead. He was unarmed. Local police department spokesman Chuck Jordan was compelled to release footage taken by a helicopter that was monitoring the incident, when two police officers stopped a car, demanded the driver to step out and raise his hands. When the latter complied, one officer shocked him with his taser, while the other shot him dead with their service pistol, all while announcing on the radio that the suspect was resisting arrest. It’s not clear how 40-year-old Terence Crutcher resisted anyone, while lying unconscious on the ground. The footage-release was immediately followed by protests in Oklahoma.
It’s clear that there’s a growing number of so-called hate crimes being committed in the US today as well. To avenge the deaths of innocent black victims, young African-Americans are often taking retaliatory violence to extreme levels. On July 7, Mika Javier Johnson shot five police officers dead and wounded over a dozen people during a demonstration in Dallas. Ten days later, Gavin Long, a former Marine, killed three police officers and wounded three more in Baton Rouge.
According to the Gallup Institute, the Obama administration has failed to address racial problems, since six in ten Americans say racism against blacks is widespread in the US. This number is similar to the percentage measured last year but higher than what Gallup registered in 2008-2009. Perceptions of racism against US blacks were already high before several deadly confrontations between police and black citizens in 2014 and 2016 led to increased concerns about race relations in America, but they have increased even more since then. At the same time, Americans’ belief in equality of opportunity for blacks in being able to find good jobs, a quality education, and any housing they can afford are the lowest they have been since at least the 1990s. These trends underscore that Americans perceive the situation for blacks as worse now than it has been in recent decades.
In turn, the Rasmussen Reports would note that most politicians are not raising racial issues to address them, in fact, three-out-of-four voters (73%) think they’re only raising them to get elected. Numerous analysts have already pointed out that the first black president in the US history has only aggravated existing racial problems, plunging the US in a de-facto racial war.
Martin Berger is a freelance journalist and geopolitical analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
