As America narrows its presidential hopefuls down to just two, the expectation on whoever is sitting in the Oval Office come the end of the year is intensifying.
American President Barack Obama, who is now about to reach the culmination of his administration, remains largely unable to quell tensions that some say are as high as they were since the countercultural movement of the 1960s.
Racial tensions have reached breaking point, shown by the numerous Americans who have taken the law into their own hands, killing who they claim are the enemy of minorities—‘the police.’
Most recently, Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old army reservist who had served in Afghanistan, killed five police officers and injured seven others with a sniper rifle during a peaceful protest against the deaths of black people in the hands of law enforcement. Lengthy negotiations revealed he “wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.” Johnson’s murders come just days after another three police officers were killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in another response to the treatment of blacks by police.
A Guardian investigation, named ‘The Counted’, revealed that 1134 people were killed by police officers in 2015, with young black men nine times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police officers in 2015. African American males comprise just two percent of the total US population, yet made up 15 percent of police deaths.
It is not difficult to anyone looking, to see some particularly influential causative factors at play. GOP nominee Donald Trump’s own rhetoric alongside the actions of supporters at his political rallies presents a racial divisiveness that will surely only exacerbated the racial tensions were he to assume the presidency come November.
Obama, who faces a tumultuous last five months of his administration, has strongly condemned all attacks on American law enforcement. Stamping out this seemingly institutionalised racism present with the police force has been an ongoing struggle, and one which will undoubtedly play a sizeable part in defining the success of his tenure.