Police Brutality, Gun Violence (4/18/21)

We are caught an endless tragic loop of two stories that seem to repeat in the news every week: police brutality against black Americans and mass shootings at places of work, worship, education, shopping, and entertainment.

This week, we await the verdict in Derek Chauvin's trial for the murder of George Floyd, watch the coverage of Daunte Wright's death by a police officer after a traffic stop a short distance away from the Chauvin trial in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and review the body cam footage of the shooting in Chicago of Adam Toledo, a 13-year-old boy who had his hands raised in the air. We have the terrible sense that we are watching "installments in a serial American tragedy that no one wishes to see but is set to be replayed for the foreseeable future." In the same news cycle we are reeling from one report after another about mass shootings. The U.S. has reported at least 45 mass shootings in the last month. The details that are emerging about the latest carnage at a Federal Express facility in Indiana are a reminder of our country's broken and ineffectual gun laws. As the New York Times reported, the gunman legally bought two semiautomatic rifles months after a gun was seized from him when his mother warned police about his mental state.

We have a systemic problem of horrific police violence against black Americans and we have a gun problem that President Biden correctly described as an "international embarrassment." America’s gun violence epidemic is inextricably linked to police violence. Police violence is a leading cause of death for young men in the United States. One in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by police. Excessive use of police force is a violation of our civil rights and it is a public health issue.

Dr. Florian Krammer, a leading biologist researching COVID, tweeted: "If guns were vaccines we would now have a pause on gun sales until we understand the risks better." Think on that for a bit. We cannot change policing if we do not enact sensible gun laws. We cannot sit by and continue the status quo. There is much that needs to be done and to start, Congress must pass The George Floyd Policing Act, and given that the majority of Americans support sensible gun laws, we need Congress to pass the gun legislation we have been waiting for far too long.