Meanwhile, on the Left Coast...

With all of the nonsense emanating from Chaos Central at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we haven't heard nearly enough about the latest cold-blooded murder of yet another black man by the police. The officers of Sacramento's finest who murdered him, first claimed that Stephon Clark had a gun, then they said he had some sort of tool, until they finally admitted that all he was just carrying his iPhone. And that admission came how many days after they shot him dead, firing more than 20 bullets at him while he was trying to take shelter in his grandmother's backyard?

The more I read about police and policing in this country's history, the more I am ashamed to realize what I never understood to be true. The systematic murder of black people in particular and people of color in general has been no accident. It is intentional and baked into the institutional design of our police forces, which were set up with the explicit purpose of safeguarding slaveowners' "property." They were charged with tracking down runaway slaves and snuffing out any attempt at rebellion. They killed first and asked questions later. The only difference, 150 years later, is that now they occasionally have to answer for their actions when questions are asked of them.

Still, real accountability is probably generations away from eve becoming a reality. With few exceptions, most police officers who have killed children, youth and adults of color continue their careers if not in the same police force than another one somewhere else with little or no punishment. The families and friends of victims may or may not receive damages for their loss, and how can that amount ever be enough to replace the loss of a loved one? This is impunity, pure and simple, which in this country is just another way of saying white privilege.

Today children of all races and ethnicities are protesting against gun violence in the "March for Our Lives," ostensibly against domestic terrorists and other criminals who commit mass murder. But where is the protest and outcry against the terrorists and criminals who wear a uniform and are protected by the "legitimacy" of state-sanctioned violence? We'll certainly hear nothing from the Trump Administration, from President Donald "Orange Menace" Trump or his lackey, Attorney General Jeff "Deputy Dog" Sessions. Both have made it their mission to roll back whatever attempts at police reform the Obama administration initiated. I guess, as with many social issues in America, one small step forward has been buried by several leaps backward.