Considering most people in America have a television or internet news access, it is doubtful that you have not read the sickening headlines of the last few days that have involved gun violence as in the case of the fatal police shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, and the fatal shootings of the five Dallas officers. And while there has been a massive outpouring of support for the families and victims of the gun violence that have so heart wrenchingly occurred in recent days, the question that has been left pinging across my frazzled brain has been whether or not the news media has played a role in creating a more trigger ready population?

Recent years have shown a steady increase in the number of lethal force incidents by police officers with the gut wrenching culmination of 2015 in a total of a reported 990 fatal shootings as 2016 launches headlong into a staggering 509 lethal force killings – and it is barely July. And while it is certainly true that not every single one of the slain men and women were innocent of posing an immediate threat to someone’s life, be it a bystander or an officer, some of them truly posed no rational or logical danger and were still fatally shot for whatever reason the officer deemed was an action that threatened their safety to the point that using lethal force was necessary - when it only led to unnecessary heartbreak and tragedy for the families of the innocent victims, and the pain of strangers around the country who mourned the innocent lives lost.

So my question is, if everyone has been reading about and watching these horrific killings for the last few years as more and more light has been shone on the issue of officers’ lethal force, is it subconsciously heightening people’s responses and actions in a situation they might perceive to be stressful or high stakes, so that when it comes to events like those that led to the death of Castile, officers are more likely to respond heatedly due to what they have perceived to be a threat even though Castile posed no danger to the safety of any person and was legally able to carry the weapon being transported in his vehicle? And on the flip side of the officer-average citizen coin, is the average person who interacts with a member of the police going to view their interaction as an event that could potentially turn ugly quickly and react differently than they would had the prevalence of reports of police violence not been extensively covered in the media? When citizens are constantly streamed violent reports involving officers and civilians, can it be said that many people are on a heightened alert system that does not bode well for either party involved in an officer-citizen interaction? And how does that change?

So where does America go from here? Of course the media cannot stop reporting these horrific events because everyone should and needs to know about them, but when the reports are inciting further violence like that of the two men who went on a killing spree against officers in Dallas following the murders of Castile and Sterling, it sometimes makes me question whether or not it is worth turning my TV on, or looking at the news on my phone when it seems that the reports of violence are only further festering the wounds of America.