There is a place where the police apologize when they kill an armed man.

And that place is Iceland. On December 2 the police in Iceland shot and killed a man for the first time since it became an independent republic in 1944.

I first learned about this story while following closely a then-developing story near my childhood home. Last week, a man died during a shootout with a SWAT team on a street I have traveled many times. This is not the only time police have shot someone or been shot at in the place I called home for many years. Every time I drive to my in-laws’ home I pass a coffee shop where, just a few years ago, several policeman were killed by a man who was eventually killed by police in Seattle. In fact, if the running list on Wikipedia of people killed by police in the US this year is any indication, roughly one person is killed by police per day in the U.S.

I have known too much violence in my life as a citizen of the United States. How do I know? My only reaction while following last week's developing story was, “Again?”