THE anger in the United States over recent police killings of black males appears to be growing into a major problem for a country that has wrestled with the touchy issue of race for an immeasureable number of years.

On Saturday, over 25,000 people stretching more than 20 blocks at times, we are told, marched through Manhattan in New York, ignoring wintry weather to register their protest.

People in other cities, namely Washington, DC; Boston in Massachusetts; Berkeley, San Francisco, and Oakland in California; participated in what has been termed the ‘Justice For All March’ triggered by the killing of Messrs Michael Brown and Eric Garner, as well as that of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

Readers will recall that an unarmed Mr Brown was shot dead by a policeman on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri; 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed last month by police in Cleveland while in possession of a toy gun; and Mr Garner died in a chokehold by a policeman in July this year.

Grand jury decisions not to charge the white police officers in both Mr Brown’s and Mr Garner’s deaths have sparked the anger that we are now seeing being played out on the streets in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The events are most unfortunate, but they suggest that there exists a deep lingering distrust for the police among the African-American community.

That, we believe, has been made worse by America’s history of segregation under which blacks were treated as less than human and, in many instances, were lynched for superficial offences.

To be fair, the US has, since the 1960s, made tremendous progress in the area of race relations, to the point where a black man – Mr Barack Obama – is now serving his second term as chief executive of that country.

Of course, there are still residue of racism in the US, but that, we believe, is not unique to America today.

The issue, though, is that it still exists and as such will continue to colour any perceived action of injustice. For that is implicit in three words, ‘Black lives matter’, which is among the slogans being chanted and displayed on placards by the protesters.

We had sensed a new dawn in America in November 2008 after Mr Obama was elected to the presidency. For indeed, with his victory, the American people had, as he so rightly said, sent a message to the world that they have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red and blue states; they are the United States of America.

The hope of change that came with his election has admittedly met the strong wind of resistance. But the resilience of the American people, we hold, will help them to overcome that challenge.

We acknowledge that it will not be easy, but in the current controversy sweeping that country lies the opportunity to implement the kinds of reforms that will renew public trust and confidence in the institutions established to serve people and ensure their well-being.