US police waited too long to charge their own over the death of George Floyd

Illustration: Johannes Leak

One mug policeman kneeling on the neck of a black man until he died has caused a massive reaction which will undoubtedly cost millions of dollars to fix. US President Donald Trump has pledged to crack down on violent, ongoing protests with the help of the National Guard, and some of then have already been deployed.

What will it take, you may well ask, for this violence to be brought to an end? For a start, the delay in laying charges over this incident was incendiary. The officer concerned should have been charged immediately. America needs to stop mostly white police forces shooting young black men. Black Americans are over represented in prison populations and it would seem pure common sense to recruit more of them, men in particular, into America’s thin blue line.

Looters emerge with merchandise from an Urban Outfitters store in Seattle, Washington. Picture: AFP

We have not been able to do this successfully in Australia either. The more put upon minorities feel, the more their sullen resentment can turn into something far more dangerous, even lethal.

One mystery I have not yet heard a satisfactory answer to is why these rioters burn down their own neighbourhoods as a protest. As this ably demonstrates, the ascension of Trump to the Presidency has meant nothing to those on the bottom end of the socio-economic scale. Being poor in Trump’s America often means being without hope of a better life.

A demonstrator holds a sign in front of the police in Los Angeles.

The $64,000 question is whether Americans will vote for Joe Biden as he approaches his 80th year. Trump is in his early 70s and I have no doubt Australians would demand a younger choice. Our Prime Minister and our Opposition Leader are both in their early 50s and we don’t seem to want elderly men in the top job, and neither do we give women much of a chance in politics. Labor’s affirmative action rules have so far delivered many new fresh female faces, but many of them know little of Labor’s history and have little experience of politics.

This may well turn out well for the party and make it more attractive to women voters. Labor manages to win a majority of male voters at most elections but too often trails in the female vote. The only Labor Leader who did well with the female vote in my life time was Bob Hawke.

He was a phenomenon and they, sadly, are few and far between.