SR,

Once again you have demonstrated your moral virtue signalling. While nothing justifies the shooting of an innocent man, the prevelance of guns in the US society and the propensity of criminals to use them to shoot police means that the behaviour of the victims plays a huge part in the outcome. Secondly that the majority of victims are white blows a major hole in the rhetoric of the BLM claims. In 2019 8 unarmed black men were killed by police nearly all of them were criminals, whereas 38 policemen were shot and killed in the line of duty.

The law and order issue comes in when mobs deviate from peaceful protesting and go on rampages burning and looting, and democratic controlled cities do little to nothing to protect the lives and property of their citizens. And even take measures to prevent federal police from getting involved.

This may not be the defining factor in the elections, as Trump's buffoonery may yet bring him down, but for the "silent majority" their safety matters.

Dear shadowminister,

You wrote: “2019 8 unarmed black men were killed by police”

You really have to stop putting out statistics you have gleaned from far-right tweeters. This has figure has already been debunked.

Leaving aside the utterly woeful rules around police reporting around a thousand people were shot and killed by police in 2019. Of those 13 were unarmed black men and one unarmed black woman.

However this does not include other unarmed people who like Floyd George who were killed by lethal physical restraint or by taser or any other form besides shooting.

Nor does it includes those like 12 year old Tamir Rice, who was playing with a BB gun in a park when shot by Cleveland police within seconds of them attending the playground.

As to your 38 police shot in the line of duty this is indeed a tragedy, but 228 died by their own hands over the same period, several after being involved in fatal police shootings.

SR

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/in-pivotal-battleground-kenosha-residents-consider-changing-sides-20200901-p55r4v.html

Whether it is 8 or 14 unarmed blacks shot by police, (most of those killed were armed) it is a rounding error when compared to the nearly 3000 blacks killed by other blacks.

"In 2018, where the homicide victim was black, the suspected killer also was 88 percent of the time. And this is not an exceptional situation. From 1976 to 2005, 94 percent of black victims were killed by other African Americans. "

This is the Democrats Achilles heel. (SMH)

"With tens of millions of Americans out of work and 180,000 dead after contracting COVID-19, Trump has leapt upon law and order as a potential game-changer that could deliver him four more years in the White House.

Unlike the violence playing out in other American cities, Kenosha sits inside a pivotal battleground state, giving the unrest here added political potency.

Robert Nelson, a former president of the Danish Brotherhood Lodge, says the destruction over recent days has caused a lot of locals who planned to vote against Trump to think again.

"The Democrats are losing ground," Nelson says. "A lot of Democrats aren't really denouncing this or trying to prevent violence from flaring up."

Considering that there are nearly 700 000 police officers in the US answering millions of calls every day, facing people that are frequently armed, the chances of error are magnified.