Another police shooting of a black man. Another city ripped by unrest, protests and, the media says, “riots.”

This time it’s Charlotte. This time Charlotte is in the news for something other than bathrooms.

Carter’s blog on this, by the way, is thoughtful and insightful. I commend it to you.

So often in cases like this, the people we know take the positions we can predict. But there are two sides here.

As a white man, I can see it through the eyes of a police officer who is trying to enforce the law and is constantly alert to threats.

I also can see it as if I were a black man with a young son. I’d worry every day about what would happen if he encounters a police officer. Or if I did.

I have enormous respect for the difficult jobs – and the dangers – that police officers face every day. I have a brother and sister-in-law who were officers.

But we give police officers enormous powers. They carry guns. They are empowered to shoot to kill.

That’s a power that demands tight oversight. Because police officers aren’t perfect, and they aren’t free from bias and prejudice.

This inevitably becomes political: What will be the impact on the elections?

I don’t know. But I do know that our state, our nation and our society need leaders who build bridges, not walls. Leaders who bring us together, not drive us farther apart.