The US military has made a determined effort to co-opt sports in America as a recruiting tool by exploiting patriotism. As Howard Bryant details in his book The Heritage, teams started having military salutes, singing of ‘God Bless America’, flyovers, recognition of troops, ‘surprise’ family reunions of returning troops, troops in VIP seats, etc. during games. While spectators and viewers were given the impression that these were done by the sports teams of their own volition as showing their patriotism, the reality was that the military was actually paying teams for all this. It was really crass, paid-for marketing.
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If you need more evidence of how easily police in the US are provoked to violence, just watch this video. We have a man walking alongside the police with no problem but as soon as he accidentally bumps into one of them while changing directions, they suddenly treat him as if he were a violent criminal who had attacked them.

This is appalling: https://t.co/5otD45LHSo

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) June 14, 2020

While Trump is definitely not the brightest bulb on the chandelier, one area where he seemed to be sure-footed was in his ability to use racism to rally people to him. His denigration of immigrants, his labeling of certain nations as ‘shit hole countries’, and his macho rhetoric were all not-so-veiled appeals to the racist instincts of his supporters that have stood him well. But the current protests over police brutality seem to have caught him flat-footed and isolated. The things that worked for him before no longer seem to do the trick.
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Jordan Smith recounts another shocking story of police murder from back in 2013 that should be better known.

It was roughly 11:30 p.m. on March 13, 2013, when Officer Paul Lehman spotted [Wayne] Jones walking along Queen Street in downtown Martinsburg. He wasn’t on the sidewalk, as city ordinance would require, so Lehman followed Jones, a 50-year-old black man who was homeless and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. After about a minute, Lehman honked, pulled over, and asked Jones for identification. Jones didn’t have any. Lehman asked if he had any weapons; Jones wasn’t sure what that meant. “Anything,” Lehman responded. “Guns, knives, clubs.” Jones did have a small fixed-blade knife tucked inside his right shirt sleeve, but he didn’t say that specifically, only that he had “something on him.”

From there, the situation quickly escalated. Lehman demanded that Jones get up against the car. Jones wanted to know why — “What do you want?” he asked — but Lehman didn’t explain. Instead, Lehman called for backup and, as Jones moved away, drew his Taser and fired. A second cop, Daniel North, rolled up on scene and also fired a Taser at Jones. Jones fled, running into the alcove in front of a bookstore down the street.

Before long, three more cops — William Staubs, Eric Neely, and Erik Herb — would arrive. Jones was struck in the neck, kicked, and put into a chokehold — the 4th Circuit opinion notes that “choking and gurgling sounds” can be heard in dashcam video recordings of the incident — before one of the officers realized that Jones had the small knife. The cops pulled away, forming a semicircle around him with their weapons drawn. Jones was limp and lying on his right side. Even though he was not moving, the cops demanded that Jones drop his knife. When he didn’t respond, all five fired their guns — a total of 22 rounds in two seconds. A majority of the shots hit Jones in the back and buttocks. He died at the scene.

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