US to face more shooting attacks if not reformed: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Abayomi Azikiwe, a political analyst in Detroit, to discuss the recent shootings in Dallas, Texas, which left five officers dead.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: How do you interpret the recent situation specifically in Dallas?

Azikiwe: Well it is not just in Dallas, it is all over the United States. Tension is extremely high. These are police killings that have been taking place now at an accelerated rate over the last three years. It has sparked mass demonstrations, urban rebellions. This is the third summer that we have seen these types of outbreaks. On 2014 it was around the death of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, last year Freddie Gray was killed by the police in Baltimore and this year during the trials of two of the officers, they have been acquitted on all charges.

Now we have another spike in police killings of African Americans as well as Latino men that have been taking place all across the United States, the ones in Minnesota and in Louisiana and also in Mississippi with the death of Mr. Steinberg there has drawn the most attention nationally but these killings are happening at such a rapid rate that it is very difficult to keep track of what is actually going on in terms of police killings and brutality of African Americans in the United States.                                    

Press TV: Well when we look at particularly the recent incidents in Dallas, it is hard to miss that because right now the police officers death toll stands at five. Do you think that this incident in Dallas is going to be used to paint over the entire Black Lives matter movement, all of those protesters who are out on the streets calling for reforms within the police and justice departments in the US?

Azikiwe: It should not be interpreted in that fashion but this has been happening now for the last two years. The corporate media as well as some forces within law enforcement agencies around the country have been attempting to say that the Black Lives Matter movement, the struggle against racism and police brutality is actually fueling police killings and I do not see any positive correlation between those two factors.

The reality is that life for African Americans inside the United States is very precarious and the prison industrial complex ... allowing police officers to go scot-free after being involved in these lethal force incidents merely brings about more turmoil and prompting more unrest around the country. You see it in New York all the way to the Bay Area in California throughout the south as well as the northern cities as well.

Press TV: And before I let you go, of course as you have also mentioned that we have seen this kind of anger pour out onto the streets of the US in different periods of time when it comes to the killing of unarmed African Americans at the hands of law enforcement. However, I am just wondering, what needs to be done to take it a step higher to the point where we do see concrete change?  

Azikiwe: Well that is up to the US Justice Department. They have failed on numerous occasions to take prosecutorial action against the police officers, against police agencies that have in a conspiratorial fashion set out to racially profile African Americans to bring about their harm and even their death and this was revealed last year on the release of the Ferguson report by the Justice Department. I think it documented all types of collusion and plot on the part of various law enforcement agencies as well as the courts, yet they found no charges against anyone involved in these activities.

So I think it is the responsibility of the White House, the US Congress and also the Judiciary and the law enforcement agencies themselves to reform because otherwise these incidents are going to escalate and I think we are just touching a tip of the iceberg that the level of frustration and hatred that is mounting now in the United States will magnify itself and actually materialize in a much more deadly and in a much more destructive fashion if these problems are not addressed systematically.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir