Consider this — 58 per cent of American registered voters support “calling in the US military to supplement city police forces” in addressing the George Floyd protests across America. Only 30 per cent oppose.

That’s according to independent polling this week by Morning Consult.

Probably the most chilling thing about watching that video of George Floyd die — or for that matter, the video of that Indigenous Sydney teen — is the supreme confidence and surety with which the police acted. There’s not a moment’s hesitation or restraint.

In the Floyd case, even the passage of eight minutes, with time to realise the gravity of the situation, with bystanders pleading for the officer to stop, makes no difference. Nor does the fact of being filmed. There’s no sense of shame, contrition or even uncontrolled excess. It’s all done with a kind of moral lightness. There is only power, violence and a sense of entitlement to both. It is the conduct of the secure, the unquestioned. That only underscores the monumental task of these protests: to mount a blasphemous argument and win.

George Floyd protesters face a mountain of public opinion