Following the senseless deaths of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks and perhaps many more that media chose not to name I feel like I can't hold back any longer I must say my piece.
Before I delve into race, violence or anything of that nature I want to address something that may evoke some resentment from many progressives: good cops. And I know that it wouldn't go over well because being sympathetic to and humanizing the police and wanting to fight racism, brutality and social injustice are considered mutually exclusive: to care about one cause betrays the other but I disagree with that whole heartedly. Even in a country that is still plagued with systemic racism with a law enforcement hierarchy that reflects that there still lies good and decent police officers with hopes, dreams, families, fears, cultures, faiths and their stories have gotten lost amidst the turmoil of this terrible time . And the constant demonization of them I fear is bad not just for their safety but our civil discourse.
They are human beings, they make mistakes, perhaps they could call out their colleagues more when they witness something that's not right, but until you've been in their position, until you've risked your life day in day out with an increasingly hostile public and experienced the pervasiveness of the police brotherhood first hand you cannot judge all of them. The fact of the matter is many of them have lost their lives and live in fear as well.
Look at it another way, the prison industrial complex that is predicated on mass incarceration is a heinous reality born of white supremacy but does that mean every correctional officer or other prison employees are racists who exploit people of color? Of course not, It is the system that is intertwined with the profit motive that is evil but not necessarily all of the workers.
Another issue that I don't think is addressed enough and when it is talked about it isn't talked about in an effective way is mental health. The media talks about mental health issues in abstract, sensationalized ways that don't really do anyone any favors. We need to talk about mental health in a way that treats mental illness much in the same fashion as a physical illness and once we (society/law enforcement) do that we have to tie it back to the conversation about properly vetting potential police officers.
I have learned recently that once accepted into the police academy psychological evaluations as among the last two steps prior to being sworn in and we owe it to the most vulnerable among us to rethink that. Along with deescalation training, making sure these men and women are of sound mind is the most important of all steps. But there is a piece of the conversation that is missing: Anti-social personality disorder. I talked about this in my post about mass shootings but it is who most people would refer to as psychopaths and sociopaths, in essence they are people inclined to harm others and are incapable of guilt, remorse, empathy and in some cases even love. When I watched the video of Derek Chauvin crushing the kneck of George Floyd, his inability to empathize with him as he is begging for his life, repeatedly saying "I can't breath", and calling for his dead mother I realized then that it wasn't just anti-black racism and police brutality. Chauvin is sick, he needs help. There are plenty of anti-black racists in the police force and in our society but most of them would never do anything that extreme.
I wouldn't be surprised if psychopaths and sociopaths are joining the police force simply to brutalize people and not be held responsible for it. So we need to radically rethink the psychological evaluations that are used, and the Department of Justice needs to mandate that every police department must have a psychologist that has studied anti-social personality disorder to be an active part of the vetting process.
Also we need to hold police accountable for the little things so it doesn't build up to earth shattering, tragic things that result in entire cities burning down. For example, body cams became an almost universally agreed upon, common sense solution but many police officers have turned them off for long stretches of the day. This new practice is has proven to be a matter of life and death and they, for the most part, are never punished for not complying. Also, Chauvin had 17 or 18 blemishes in behavioral record that again he was never really disciplined for prior to him murdering Floyd, which I'm sure holds true for unnamed police officers all over the country.
To be honest I would think that American law enforcement systems would have learned their lesson after the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles in 1992, they witnessed the wrath of scorned people after the acquittal of several police office who beat an unarmed black man almost to death.
However, I am against rioting to my core. What does it solve? What does it change? History shows us that we are much better off when we channel that anger into positive, productive things like peacefully protesting or voting initiatives. 63 people died during the Rodney King riots, was that going to erase what happened to him? Did that help heal him? I get that it wasn't just about him, that his case was representative of a system that was never for us but still it isn't effective. The truth is the best way forward is to do what the mainstream civil rights movement did brilliantly which is stay peaceful and appear sympathetic. Peaceful protesters were being hosed, having dogs siced on them, being sprayed with tear gas, being beaten with clubs and baseball bats covered with barbed wire and yet they never retaliated with violence. Moderate whites then began to see the humanity in blacks and opened their minds to what they were really asking.
I also don't like that many on the left (I myself am a left leaning person that identifies as a Democratic Socialist) are making excuses and trying to justify rioting, looting and other illegal acts. One of my favorite comedian thinkers Trevor Noah used the analogy of a social contract when referring to this issue on his show, he talked about how we all are in a contract with each other to be peaceful and obey laws and that police officers have consistently violated this contract therefore the public shouldn't be held to that same code of conduct. But the thing is, I don't want to be like them, the more I am forced to witness their disgusting behavior the only thing I want to do is rise above.
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