国际英语新闻:Spotlight: Police-related violence unveils hard-healing wounds of U.S. society

BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The recent police-related violence in the United States has unveiled the hard-healing wounds of American society -- racial inequality and violent policing.

VIOLENCE MET BY VIOLENCE

In Baton Rouge, the capital city of the southern state of Louisiana, an ex-Marine dressed in black and carrying extra ammunition killed three police officers and injured another three on Sunday morning, less than two weeks after a black man was killed by the city's police.

The suspect, identified as Gavin Long of Kansas City, 29, was shot dead at the scene.

Long was confirmed to be the lone gunman, who attacked the policemen at a gas station along a highway near the local police headquarters after they allegedly acted upon a 911 call, according to the local police.

Police are still investigating the motive of the shooting. It is not known whether the shooting is linked to anger at the police killings of two black men -- Alton Sterling, 37, in Baton Rouge on July 5, and Philando Castile, 32, near St. Paul, Minnesota, on July 6.

Thousands of people have protested Sterling's death, and Baton Rouge police arrested more than 200 demonstrators.

Sunday's shooting is also the second serious shooting incident that killed police officers after a black former U.S. soldier killed five police officers in a peaceful protest on July 7 in Dallas denouncing the Sterling and Castile slayings.

In a speech delivered from the White House on the shooting in Baton Rouge, U.S. President Barack Obama said that, though divisions exist in the country, everyone should now "focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further."

Mayor of Baton Rouge, Kip Holden, described the shooting as "a nightmare" all over again in the city.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards also condemned the shooting, saying in a statement that the shooting was "an unspeakable and unjustified attack on all of us at a time when we need unity and healing."

HARD-HEALING SOCIAL WOUNDS

The shootings have escalated the tensions between the black community and police in the United States, where nationwide protests have mounted since a black teenager was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014.

In Baton Rouge, where more than half of the residents are black and racial problems date back to decades ago, tensions between police and the community especially the black community have long existed before Sterling's death.

Minorities are "very wary of police and often afraid of them," Michele Fournet, a Baton Rouge criminal defense lawyer, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

In recent years, local activists have urged law enforcement to spend more time in neighborhoods as part of "community policing." Many would also like the city to hire more black officers.

Local residents said law enforcement officers would have known that Sterling, who had peddled CDs for years, was not a threat if they were more familiar with the area.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown told reporters that community policing was the best way to deter crime and protect officers.

UPCOMING CONVENTIONS

Amid national tensions over racial inequality and gun violence, security concerns have heightened across the country, notably in Cleveland and Philadelphia, hosts to this week's Republican National Convention and next week's Democratic National Convention.

The conventions are expected to formally nominate Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton for the Nov. 8 election.

A Cleveland police officer, in an interview with Reuters, called on Ohio Governor John Kasich to declare a state of emergency and suspend laws allowing for the open carry of firearms during the Republican convention.

A spokesperson for Kasich said the governor did not have the power to suspend the open-carry law.

Gun control and racial tensions are expected to become one of the major debate points in this year's U.S. presidential race.

"We demand law and order," Trump said in a Facebook posting on Sunday afternoon.

Clinton, in a statement, urged Americans to "stand together to reject violence and strengthen our communities."

With mind on the upcoming national conventions, Obama said in his speech on the Baton Rouge shooting that the "political rhetoric tends to be more overheated than usual."

"We don't need inflammatory rhetoric. We don't need careless accusations thrown around to score political points or to advance the agenda," Obama said.