We're well started. Now we just have to press on.
This Baltimore thing, and Ferguson, and Cleveland, and all the others, are corrections in action. In many cases, at least the cop was charged. That didn't used to happen. Bad cops behave the way they do because they know they can get away with it. As the risk to them of going to prison increases, their bad conduct will decrease.
Here's the ironic part: police shooting of all people, guilty, innocent, armed, unarmed, are at historic lows. Just as violent crime in all categories is down 50% from the early 90s. The reforms we have put in place over the last 50 years ARE working.
The key is in the Preamble to the Constitution: "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union. . ." Not "a perfect Union," a "more perfect Union. . ."
It will never end. There will always be overreaction, the pendulum swinging too far, thoughtless, overbroad laws and policies, anger and fear driving policy as much as rationality and basic sense.
It ain't pretty. It ain't supposed to be pretty. And I envy Canadians. Y'all somehow manage, on a regular basis, to deal with these issues more rationally, less emotionally, than Americans. Not that you're perfect by any stretch, just that you manage to find answers everybody can more-or-less live with in an easier, less dramatic way.
I've made some effort in this thread to show the power and influence of Ray Lewis and the Ravens. I think that is currently the most effective single technique. Get these huge, utterly macho, rich, famous men out there to say to the kids "Stay in school. That's where the power is. It ain't fair, it's probably never gonna be fair. But the more you know, the more you can do." Coming from the Ravens, many of whom were poor themselves, and some of whom were homeless as teenagers, or had criminal problems, this message is powerful.
I've done the same myself. When I speak to kids, my constant theme is "I'm a lawyer. I will let you know how to beat the cops. For $400 an hour. Or, you can get the same knowledge for free from your teachers. All you have to do is show up and pay attention."
Once you have full legal equality, and we do, at least as regards race, then you get to the messy problems of dealing with attitudes and prejudices, on all sides.
And that, m'dear, is why I am a liberal in my recognition of the problems, and a conservative in my notions of solutions.