We comfort ourselves with a fantasy, that America only recently lost its way, that this administration is an aberration, that America was once a beacon of democracy and freedom that has somehow gone astray.<\/p>\n
But is any of that true?<\/p>\n
I arrived in California<\/a> in the early 1990s. My first boss in San Francisco was an old hippie. He spent the late 60s and early 70s on a goat farm in the Rockies. Long hair. Longer stories. \u201cThis is America,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing changes.\u201d<\/p>\n We were chatting about the Rodney King beating and I remember saying: \u201cThings are going to change now\u201d. I was young and naive. But he just shook his head. \u201cNothing changes,\u201d he said. \u201cNot here. Not ever.\u201d<\/p>\n That was 1994. Three years earlier, King<\/a> was brutally beaten by the Los Angeles Police Department. A local resident filmed the whole thing and sent the footage to a TV station. Riots erupted across Los Angeles. Sixty-three people died. The fear and anger were still palpable. Things had to change. Things would change. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s lawsuit against Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch dismissedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n But my old time hippie boss was right. This is America. Nothing changes.<\/p>\n Everyone knows Rodney King. They know George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Renee Good. And Alex Pretti. We know the big ones. The ones that make the news. The ones that spark protests and hashtags and corporate statements about Black Lives Matter.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s a question. How many people do you think were killed by US police since Rodney King? Five hundred? Five thousand? <\/p>\n The estimated number is closer to 30,000 people. That\u2019s the entire population of Tralee. Gone. Wiped out by the police.<\/p>\n No one even knows the exact number, there\u2019s no official count. The country that can tell you how many Big Macs were sold yesterday, can\u2019t tell you how many people its police kill. There is no centralised database. <\/p>\n Independent compilers do their best to keep track. Best guess suggests more than 1,000 people are killed by police every year. That\u2019s one every eight hours.<\/p>\n It never stops. While you\u2019re eating breakfast, someone\u2019s getting shot. While you\u2019re watching Fair City, a cop somewhere is pulling a trigger. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Who was Alex Pretti, the man shot dead in Minneapolis by federal agents?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Americans have this trick. They focus on the special cases, the ones caught on video, or the ones that go viral. Then they have a moment of outrage. They have protests, candlelit vigils, think pieces. They have corporate statements and hashtags.<\/p>\n And then they go right back to ignoring the daily slaughter.<\/p>\n That\u2019s Soprano levels of sociopathy. Obsessing over the one or two atrocities on CNN, and happily ignoring tens of thousands of others. The vast majority never make a dent in the national psyche, never get a mural. The most they can hope for is a little column on page seven in the local newspaper.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Tony is such a wonderful analogy. When Tony had done something terrible, he\u2019d go to therapy. Talk about his mother, about his panic attacks. Get some insight. Feel a little better. Then he\u2019d go home, kiss the wife and hug the kids. Genuinely believe he was a good man.<\/p>\n America does the same thing. Does something terrible. Has a national conversation. Does some soul-searching. Makes a few promises. Tells some wonderful stories, maybe makes a movie or two. Then goes right back to business as usual.<\/p>\n Americans can tell you all about Alex Pretti. They\u2019ve seen the footage. But ask them about the man shot by police last Tuesday on page seven. Nothing.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/OT75QSVGE7TDKFVL7TVVZSN744.jpg\")
A picture of Renee Nicole Good is displayed near a makeshift memorial for her. Photograph: Charly Triballeau\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n