One possible metric of society's progress could be claimed that if a white man's money has the power to exonerate him in the face of obvious guilt, so too should a black man's. I think this is what people celebrated when OJ was acquitted. One is reminded of the trial of Henry Thaw who shot Standford White to death in front of hundreds of witnesses. Thaw, like Simpson, had already had multiple contacts with the authorities over his propensity towards violence, against women in particular. Nevertheless he was acquitted by reason of temporary insanity.

Not the most positive indicator, but an indicator all the same.

Hamas put the bodies of the people for whom it putatively struggles in the firing line, knowing as they must how this particular Israeli administration would respond, & to what extent. It did so without their foreknowledge or consent. Their victory, as such, comes at the expense of their women & children & noncombatants. Here I'm reminded of the Tuskagee experiments, though perhaps without the racial dimension.