Slaughter in Dallas: What Next?

In this calendar year, police throughout America have killed 506 citizens. The proportion of blacks amongst the dead is more than double their percentage of the population. Is it any wonder that America’s black citizens continue to feel they are not treated the same as whites?  This week’s killings in Baton Rouge and St. Paul appear evidence of racism, as blacks were killed by white police over-reacting to perceived black danger. But what of Dallas? Five policemen were gunned down by a black, Micah Johnson, who expressed retaliatory anger in the desire to kill whites. None of these killings can be justified on any reasonable test.

The question arises, what will the President do about this glut of killings? Next week, the President will visit Dallas to support police officers and communities and “to try to bring people together to support police officers and communities in an effort to seek common ground by discussing racial disparities in the criminal justice system.” Mr Obama’s decision was announced as a Black Lives Matter peaceful demonstrations took place, objecting to the use of excessive force by police, in cities including Baltimore, Atlanta and Philadelphia. Mr Obama said all Americans should be concerned about frequent killings of black men by police. “The Dallas police feel the losses to core and we grieve with them,” he said though he offered neither solutions nor remedies.

Conservatives were quick to accuse the President of having blood on his hands when he urged white Americans to take seriously the Black Lives Matter grievances over racism in the criminal justice system. He was sharply criticised by Heather MacDonald, a right wing author. She is a proponent of the Ferguson effect, which holds that crime has spiked since the unrest in Missouri because frontline police officers have been pushed into a retreat.

In my view, Mr Obama has struck a balance, stressing that despite legitimate concerns, American should have an “extraordinary appreciation and respect for the vast majority of police officers”, describing their job as dangerous and difficult, while characterising the Dallas shootings as “vicious, calculated and despicable.” Is this all he offers?

The President is often called “the most powerful man in the world” but it’s a fallacy. Clearly, there is a serious racial problem amongst some of America’s city police forces. Killings by police have been perpetrated in the main by city or town police forces, whose authority derives from charters given by its state. “Home Rule” for police forces is the norm, so the state can wash its hands of responsibility. Furthermore, the federal government has no right to “police” any police force or any state, city or town unless the President declares a state of emergency or a governor asks for help. I am not aware of the latter ever happening.

The President’s powers to declare an emergency are governed and restricted by The National Emergencies Act, 1976. Should the Chief Executive decide to send the National Guard to police a city, he or she would likely face massive protests from that city’s mayor, the state’s governor and in all probability the state and U.S Congress. There would be screams about breaches of separation of powers, infringement of state’s rights under the 10^th Amendment and breach of an Act of Congress. In no time, the administration would be mired in litigation. I suspect the idea of sending in the National Guard when Ferguson, Missouri was in flames tempted the President but the problems outweighed the advantages.

What of the Second Amendment rights? Unlike the Orlando outrage, citing the ridiculous “militia” argument of the Second Amendment in relation to trigger-happy policemen does not work. The police forces of America are undoubtedly part of the militia. So the National Riflemen’s Association can sleep easy. They dodged the bullet this time!

The real issue here is race. Despite an Emancipation Proclamation, numerous amendments to the Constitution, Civil Rights Acts and the like, blacks still feel they are regarded and treated as inferior by white men in police uniforms. How this problem is resolved in the short term is anyone’s guess but a few town meetings chaired by a President won’t do much.

Instead, all policemen need to be told in the clearest way that firing a gun at a civilian is the last resort and that other strategies need to be used first. If a policeman kills a civilian in circumstances where other options were available, he will be prosecuted for murder. Police officers need reminding they are the servants of all the people. Perhaps some successful prosecutions for murder will make policemen think twice before pulling a trigger. Here, the federal government can intervene by mounting the prosecutions through the federal criminal justice system.

Resolution in the medium and long term will depend on improved education, training and management in the police forces. Senior managers in every police force should be obliged by law to ensure any officer who demonstrates racism is fired on the spot. Policemen need better training in how to resolve difficult situations without resort to a gun. Maybe if the Second Amendment was interpreted as it should be, so that right of access to guns was truly restricted to “the militia” alone and not the general public, perhaps America might cease to be the gun-happy capital of the world.

Finally, there should be no such thing as a second class citizen in any modern society. I readily accept this is a difficult, deep-seated problem in America which may take generations to solve but you have to start somewhere. One day the world has to turning.