The Economist Police violence, race and protests in America

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From: The Economist this week - Thursday Jun 04, 2020 06:44 pm
   
June 4th 2020 Read in browser
   
  The Economist this week  
 
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  Our cover this week looks at police violence and protest in America. More than 350 cities nationwide erupted after George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, was killed by a white police officer. For nearly nine agonising minutes, deaf to Mr Floyd’s pleas and the growing alarm of the crowd, the officer choked the life out of him. The spark ignited a bundle of kindling lying nearby, as it has so often in the past. Many African-Americans still live in places with the worst schools, the worst health care and the worst jobs. The rules apply differently to black people. Covid-19 rammed home the fact that, whenever America suffers misfortune, black America suffers most. The police often seem to exist to keep a lid on a city’s poor, even as they protect its wealthy suburbs. And there is the sheer intoxication that comes from belonging to a crowd that has suddenly found its voice, and which demands to be heard. The cycle of injustice and protest that descends into riot and conservative reaction has come round many times in recent decades. So many, that it would be easy to conclude that police violence and racial inequality in America are just too hard a problem to fix. Such pessimism, our cover leader argues, is unwarranted.

 
 
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