Over on Facebook I’ve been nattering on about horses and the World Science Fiction Convention because I truly cannot make sense of Dallas. Or perhaps it’s all painfully obvious and understandable, and I’m trying to avoid facing it.
We have a divided society with economic and social inequality. We have a fraught history as regards race in this country which we have never honestly faced. We have an increasingly militarized police force and minority populations who feel separated and disenfranchised from their country, government, society. Who feel that their lives don’t matter as they are denied decent housing, education, and protection.
And we have guns.
So many, many guns and people who have come to think that guns are how you solve disagreements. Or get yours. Or make a statement. Or prove you still have power.
We desperately need to learn to put away the guns. Pick up words again. Learn to talk. Learn to listen. Learn to hear. Learn to look past superficial differences and see the common humanity braided in our very DNA.
A long Comment. I have a friend who is a retired homicide detective. He said to me once, “30% of all police forces are made up of guys who just want to drive fast, shoot off guns and beat up people. They give the rest of us a bad name.” He was frequently called in to investigate suspicious deaths in police custody. He was a very fine peace officer.
So why can’t some conservatives accept that there are bad cops just like there are bad accountants, and bad lawyers and bad teachers? The difference is that bad cops have the power to deprive you of your liberty and your life. Research has indicated that people of color are 30% more likely to be stopped then whites, and all too often those stops become tragic.
The fact that we can mourn and question why Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner…. (I’ll stop listing) died does not mean that we are anti-cop. It means we are anti-_bad_ cops.
So stop blaming liberals or President Obama or Secretary Clinton, or black activists. Maybe we should take a look at a toxic environment where hate is being spoken and Tweeted everyday and where there are guns everywhere.
“The 1st man to raise a fist is the man who’s run out of ideas.”
H.G. Wells, “Time After Time”