Why? The Underlying Element of Fear

My small dogs bark at strange noises, movements and under it all and in us all is the element of FEAR.  In most ways this element of fear is all about survival. You have fear today if you are a woman facing sexual harassment, black anywhere, choir boy(ok, maybe not a choirboy?), police man or woman, as an airplane passenger, or facing identity theft, flooding, wild fire, on and on.  Partly terrorism, certainly racism, the sex drive, the rich, the poor. Wow you name it, fear is everywhere. That is why some pray, or arm themselves, or march, or take pain killers or think "will I lose my job?"
This line of thinking stems from an incident a few days ago when I went to the mall to do my daily walk. Of course early before the stores opened.  I walked toward the mall door and a woman whom I have seen many times while walking said "the doors are locked"   The mall opens two hours before stores open and has done so like clock work for years, but not that day.
We finally got in and in talking to a mall security guard found opening time staff confusion because of a hospital walking program that was timed to start one hour before stores opened.
But it was the woman's discussion of why she walked in the mall, of being fearful of walking outside and saying she had actually been accosted and harassed in the mall by men, that really got my attention.  I had thought it strange that she always walked against the grain in the mall. I always walk with the flow of people on the right, counterclockwise.  I suddenly realized she was fearful of being approached from behind. She had reported her incidents to mall authorities and the security guard said such people were banned from the mall. Sad to say, but the advice for women who want to walk for exercise is "do not walk alone, very your routes and if you walk alone in a "safe" mall, Walk Against The Grain.
This all leads to the fear of blacks being shot by police and the fear of police being shot by anyone.  If police stop a suspect? and he or she says"I have a gun". What are the police to think? Is that a threatening statement or and an admission so conflict will not occur?  Sorry to say, the answer may be determined by FEAR.  Why must it remain so? Why?