It would be foolish to blame this fact alone for an increase in crime, but, as David French argues “it is difficult to see specific changes, aside from policing, that could have contributed to the spike.” And what a spike. August 2016 was the city’s deadliest month since June 1996. Some 90 were killed by guns and another 382 were shot but lived, creating an astonishing statistic of one shooting every 95 minutes. Even liberal mayor Rahm Emanuel complained that cops in his city were going “fetal”. And Chicago is not alone. According to National Review: “Last year saw homicide rates spike in cities with aggressive anti-police movements… As a local explained to the BBC: ‘It’s every man for himself. You better get you a motherf***ing gun before you get your a** shot.’”

So these are the truths. Police have shot unarmed black citizens, violating their constitutional and human rights. But citizens, black and white, are also shooting each other in a rising tide of lawlessness that seems to have been enabled by police timidity. There both is overreaction by the authorities and under-reaction, and both are shaped by the politics of race.

This is really when the politicians should step in. Isn’t it leadership to cross the line of partisanship and tell one’s own constituency that they might be wrong? When rioting broke out in Los Angeles in 1992, that’s exactly what candidate Bill Clinton did. He talked about police brutality as a cause, yes, but also joblessness, single parenthood and declining respect for authority. Civil Rights activists accused him of selling them out – and there’s no denying that the Clintons will do anything for a vote.