Just as an aside, I’d like to give some experience from growing up in Northern Ireland where we were, essentially, a lawless state for 25 years.
The RUC, the previous police force, were a provably bigoted force (off duty officers would baton charge Catholic marches, such as happened at Burntollet.
The peaceful marches combined with the global outrage forced the government to compromise, but then a combination of forces rejected the compromise.
What followed was 20 years of a brutal civil war. Daily bombings, cops and soldiers ambushed and murdered, reprisal murders by the cops and loyalist paramilitaries etc.
This culminated in extrajudicial internment without trial, I know several people who were interned due to something like having a fairly Irish last name etc.
The result of all that? The Sunningdale agreement, which was the same compromise the country rejected, except now with the addition of several thousand dead (many of which we have never found the remains of).
My father was searched and scrutinised at every airport for a decade because he was Northern Irish (especially when he was doing civil engineering work on army bases in Gibraltar).
So what did all the bloodshed net us? A few thousand dead, roving rival bands of brutal terrorists (many of whom are still in power and still ruling their corner of the country with an iron fist), and the same deal we had in the first place.
De-rail over, I just see a lot of the same malice and rage in the US that I saw at home for many years. I rather hope you avoid it, lads, I really do.
Edit: NI Catholics could (and often do) have a chip on their shoulder. But that chip never made anything an ounce better, and it never will either.
