Good Humor
There’s no reforming this.
There’s no sensitivity training or community outreach or listening sessions or picnics or backpack giveaways that’s fixing this.
Every single day for weeks we’ve had protests, discussions, civil unrest, articles, songs, videos, interviews demanding justice, police accountability and the recognition of our basic humanity. They responded by shooting a man in his back, without hesitation, 8 times in front of his children.
The specifics don’t matter. They don’t. We’ve done this for months. We’ve done this for years. You know the details. You know the stats. You know the anecdotes. You know the names.
I’m tired of this. I’m tired of having to cross my fingers in the hopes that this widespread viewing of black pain will be the one that makes a difference. Hoping that a family watching their child get shot over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over again on social media might save another child somewhere else.
And I’m impressed by how quickly that message was pivoted. That work was efficient.
We said, “Reform police. Defund them. Break up the union. Stop killing us in the streets.”
We got a new state flag in Mississippi, fewer confederate statues and a new song on the ice cream truck.
We demand change to systems. We get change to symbols. Symbols matter. It’s not Southern charm to see people who fought to the death for my black ass to be in chains exalted and held high. That’s not quaint. Removing those models to white supremacy put up in the 50s and 60s to scare civil rights activists is a good thing. Not playing racist minstrel tunes to sell ice cream is good too.
But changing that flag in Mississippi or that statue in Richmond doesn’t save one life. Putting a police officer in prison that commits a crime just might. Making real consequences for bad behavior just might.
As an institution policing has always existed to uphold order. That order is based upon the subjugation and exploitation of a class of people. That class of people in the North used to be Irish immigrants. Then it was Italian immigrants. Then it was German immigrants. Then it was Black people migrating from the South. In the South it is a direct result of slave catchers. Those same patrols became officers immediately upon the end of slavery.
Policing isn’t broken. It’s working exactly as designed.
