While the issue regarding racial disharmony fracturing the relationships between communities and their big city police departments was ongoing, with trials from previous altercations serving as a sustaining reminder of the work needing to be done, it all spectacularly unraveled over the span of just a few days, with two dramatically troubling police shootings and then the one-man assault on the Dallas police department on Thursday night.
President Obama, in Europe for a NATO summit while all this was going on, addressed the developments with carefully composed statements, and cut short his trip as the issue exploded into crisis stage, announcing he will head to Dallas on Tuesday. He is tasked with trying to calm a nation, while acknowledging a problem exists, all as a campaign season, and a sharply divided Washington, add to a politically volatile atmosphere.
