It’s not a coincidence that policing is a racist, sexist, and whole hearted xenophobic expression of “civility.” Once the slaves were set free there had to be another way to legally shaft blacks (and anyone else that wanted to pull themselves out of the dirt).
The cops are a gang supported by government funds. They are defending a turf which as far as they are concerned has been invaded by human scum. Cops’ policies and institutions don’t change because they were created to stop change and to defeat inclusion.
I am synthesizing, but Howard Zinn once wrote that he realized while standing in a line of demonstrators being assaulted by the blue line that that cops were not objective defenders of law and order but defenders of a specific class of human beings.
Cops haven’t been brought to heel because police forces are supposed to be filled with men who can legally beat anyone they don’t like.
And despite the decades of study which says that if you support health, education and the general welfare of citizens surviving in a system that intentionally makes their lives nasty you can reduce the need for a police force we have chosen instead to buy guns, tanks and to train cops to police as if they were Stasi troops rolling across Europe. It’s intentional not a coincidence.
My prayer for these days: Let’s not let this moment pass. While we are angry and out there. Let’s not waste this moment.
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