"America Is Broken" - The Week Anger Boiled Over

Despite the fact a somewhat deluded President Barack Obama contends that racial relations have improved during his presidency - calling this week's black, former military Dallas shooter a "demented individual who's not representative of Americans," an atmosphere of crisis is enveloping the U.S. after a traumatic week; and as TheHill.com's Niall Stanage explains so 'fair-and-balanced'ly, it has left politicians, academic experts and private citizens searching for an explanation for the anger roiling the nation.

The killing of five police officers in Dallas in a Thursday evening ambush followed hard on the heels of two instances where black men were killed in deeply contentious circumstances by law enforcement: Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minn.

As the nation was reeling from those events, there were also reports that a shooter in Tennessee who had killed one person earlier Thursday appeared to have been motivated by anger against police officers. There was panic at another rally in Portland, Ore., Thursday evening when an onlooker apparently antagonistic to protestors marching against police violence drew a weapon.

The series of events has created a sense that the social fabric is torn — one point upon which people in a deeply polarized country agree.

“America is broken,” movie director Spike Lee tweeted on Friday...

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