After what we've been seeing in recent weeks, we can only hope the new year brings more peace to our streets. The nation is in need of a transfusion of goodwill and a healing from within.

Our inner cities remind us of prior decades when racial divides ran deep and respect for authority, especially police, was missing. Today, the protesters are using cases from Ferguson, Cleveland, and New York City for their rally cries.The gap widened with the execution of Brooklyn officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu five days before Christmas. Police departments and unions are warning their officers to be on the alert. The president of the New York City detectives union told members in a letter to work in threes when out on the street, wear bulletproof vests and keep aware of their surroundings.The black gunman who killed the officers, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, had numerous run-ins with law enforcement, having been arrested 15 times in Georgia and four in Ohio for assorted crimes. Before assassinating the two officers, he railed online about authority figures and expressed self-despair and anger about where his life was.In an Instagram post, he vowed to put "wings on pigs" as retaliation for the slayings of black men at the hands of white police.Last weekend, 25,000 officers from around the country attended the funeral of officer Ramos, the 40-year-old married father of two who was studying to become a pastor.Among those who eulogized him as a devoted family man and hero was police Commissioner William Bratton. Speaking to the Ramos children, he said: "We are here because your dad was assassinated. It's a different word than 'murdered.' It makes the crime intentional and symbolic. Your dad was assassinated because he represented something."Lucy Ramos, his aunt, asked for a "peaceful coexistence" and hopes that the community can move forward from the shooting.Those words ushered back memories of a quarter century ago when Rodney King became nationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers following a high-speed car chase.Appearing on television, he posed the famous question that we are still grappling with as a nation: "Can we all get along?"By JIM ZBICKtneditor@tnonline.com