I cannot stop thinking about police officers … or their loved ones.

Two incidents of police-related violence erupted in Louisiana and then in Minnesota. Two men were shot to death by cops. They were African-American; the officers are white. The events made me think, “Oh, no. Not again!”

Those events are horrible on their face. The officers involved directly on those events need to held accountable for what happened — if it turns out that they reacted badly. My hunch is that they did, but there’s more to learn about what actually happened.

Then came the event last night in Dallas during a peaceful march that protested those earlier shootings. A sniper opened fire on police officers and killed five of them. The cops cornered the suspect, tried to talk him into surrendering. He refused. Then the police deployed a bomb-loaded robot and detonated it near the suspect. He died on the spot.

Did the first two events justify the third? Did the monster who assassinated those police officers have cause to do what he did? Of course not.

My heart breaks for the families of the two men who died at officers’ hands in Louisiana and Minnesota.

It also breaks for the families of those men who died last night in Dallas.

I am reminded of a brutal truth about police work: It is that there is nothing “routine” about that profession. Indeed, I keep hearing the term “routine traffic stop” used to describe the Minnesota event that led to the death of the African-American man. Every cop on the beat will tell you: There is no such thing as a “routine traffic stop.”

The men who went to work Thursday fully expected to go home at the end of their shift. Their loved ones expected them to walk through the door. They didn’t. Those loved ones’ lives are shattered forever.

I’ve had a long-standing respect and admiration for the men and women who take the oath to protect and serve our community. The carnage that erupted in Dallas just reaffirms it.

Every day potentially could be their last day on Earth.

I’m not yet ready to buy into the notion that America is coming apart. I want to hang on to the faith I have in the basic good will of our people. We’ve been through paroxysms of violence before. I think of 1968: war protests turning violent; the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and then Robert F. Kennedy. And oh yes, this all occurred during a presidential election year.

We had that election. And over time, the nation pulled itself out of its emotional quagmire.

I will hope that in this case history will repeat itself.

Until then, though, I am going to pray for all the families of the violence that has erupted.

What’s more, I offer a word of thanks to police officers for all they do to keep my family safe.