“There are some people who never make it out of that puffed up adolescent phase. And some of those people go on to be police officers. So, when it comes time for them to throw their weight around, there’s no way you’re going to fight teenage egos with teenage egos. They’re wearing body armor and they have several weapons.”
-Ben contemplates the police
I was just thinking about the police riot we’re experiencing right now. There’s a feeling that years of lawless law enforcement may be coming to an end, or at least to a major reduction.
I used to wonder what it would take for police power to be curbed. It’s this. It’s an untenable situation. It’s businesses burning and schools closing, and finally a reality where it costs a lot of money to murder an unarmed black man.
We’re losing revenue. This is a national crisis… now.
Used to be, you could beat a homeless man to death, you could shoot a Black or Hispanic child in cold blood. You could harass and beat, and fuck marginalized groups just as much as you wanted… if you wore a badge.
And you still can.
And maybe you will forever.
Every time something like this happens, I wonder if this will be the tipping point at which the heinous reality of our stunning inequality will finally break from obscurity and into the dazzling light of common knowledge.
And every time things just go back to the way they are.
I’ve been waiting on this realization to dawn on America since I was a child getting police harassed with my dad.
I don’t want to wait 30 more years. But I will. If that’s what it takes, I will.