It's hard to ascribe free will to actions of a group that has been historically abused, either as slaves or as the majority of poor people in any of the globe's populations.

The psychology, repressed memories, biology, biological embedding, all aspects of child abuse play a DETERMINING hand in their sometimes horrific reaction to what has been done to them

Not just blacks, of course, but notably blacks. Even some white policemen

I'll never forget one time I came home on leave during the Korean Conflict: My step granddad, who had owned a store across the street from Harry Truman and exchanged Christmas cards each year with the former President was recounting his days a a successful businessman in Missouri.

The conversation got around to African Americans. He said: son, they're just animals. I walked down the stairs from the attic apartment he lived in at my mother and his son'e house in Olympia Washington, not saying what would have been a useless word.

I had pretty much gotten over the shock of "whites only" signs I saw in San Antonio Texas during basic training But that phrase was most unsettling

How much of that mentality is still being ingrained in the minds of whites in Missouri and other states today all these years later? How many are still being shot like dogs?

I know that the vast majority of police do their jobs well--I have a nephew who has been one in Lakewood, Wa for many years.

But, unfortunately, a very few of them, reflect the moral degeneration I heard that day on leave.

And their amygdala rules.

They are no more possessing of free will than the "dog" they shot.

Your thoughts are well said, Eric. Thank you for a moment's reflection.