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A third night of protests erupted in Louisville over the police shooting of Breonna Taylor, an African American who was unarmed when police executed a "no-knock" search warrant at her apartment Louisville Courier Journal

I have lived in Atlanta and remain ahomeowner in Georgia, where Ahmaud Arbery was killed by a former police detective. I have lived in Dallas, where a police officer killed Botham Jean in his own apartment. I have lived in Charlotte, where former Florida A&M Universityfootball player Jonathan Ferrell sought help after a car accident and ended up being killed by a police officer. I've lived in Minneapolis, where life was choked out of George Floyd by a police officer, and in nearby St. Paul, where Philando Castile was gunned down by an officer during a traffic stop.

I'm from Sanford, Florida, where vigilante George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. I now live in Louisville,where Breonna Taylor was shot eight times and killed by police in March after they entered her residence on a no-knock warrantat 12:40 a.m.

I am exhausted. I am enraged. I'm fed up and I'm hurting. I am afraid for black men and women. I am afraid for this country.

Our view: George Floyd protests: Dont deploy active duty American troops to battleAmericans

Opposing view: American carnage: These aren't protests they're riots. Someone must end the lawlessness.

I am disturbed and disappointed by the burning buildings and destroyed communities.

But I am not distracted. These fires weren't sparked out of thin air.

The anguish of racism, the pain of inequity and the absence of justice are the agents of outrage.

Shattered storefronts representshattered communities. Looting is inexcusable. So, too, is the theft of hopes and dreams and futures of peoplesnuffed out by police brutality.

Rana Cash, sports director(Photo: Courier Journal)

Burning down buildings solves absolutely nothing. Instead, set aflame the systems that set the stage for economic imbalance, health disparities exasperated by COVID-19, educational gaps and a criminal justice structure that has a stranglehold on black and brown people.

Buildings will be restored, but jobs will be lostandlives will be changed beyond the damage already dealt by the coronavirus. And while violence has too often been the answer for police, it is not the answer for those demanding justice reform and an overhaul ofpractices and policiesthat have disenfranchised black lives.

Time to face up: America's overdue reckoning with white supremacy: 'We have allowed evil to flourish'

The work of eradicating 400 years of racism is harder. The work of eliminating police brutality is harder. The path to healing from trauma induced by videos on a loop of murdered black bodies is treacherous.

It's much easier to condemn violent riots and call for peace than it is to fix a system that isn't broken, but is doing exactly what it was built to do. Alas, this is the work of creating from the ground up a new, fair andjust system for all.

Rana L. Cash is the editor of the Savannah Morning News and Georgia state director for the USA TODAY Network. This column originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal. Follow her onTwitter:@rana_cash

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Looting is inexcusable. So is the ongoing police brutality that steals hopes and dreams. - USA TODAY