Between The World and Me

Americans deify democracy in a way that allows for a dim awareness that they have, from time to time, stood in defiance of their God. But democracy is a forgiving God and America’s heresies—torture, theft, enslavement—are so common among individuals and nations that none can declare themselves immune. Better to have been shot in Baltimore, where there was the justice of the streets and someone might call the killer to account. Should assaulting an officer of the state be a capital offense, rendered without trial, with the officer as judge and executioner?