Day 67

I'm a geologist.  To be a geologist, I went to school for four years and then another two for grad school.  I had to write a thesis and have it reviewed and approved by an academic panel.  I had to study chemistry and physics and take courses in the Humanities.  I had to learn fucking French.  Here in Georgia, I have to register with the Secretary of State for a Professional Geologist licence, which also requires me to pass a written exam and pay an annual licence fee.  All this so I can tell you if a rock is mica schist (protip: half the rock in Georgia is mica schist).

To be a cop, I would have to finish high school, pass a physical, and take an eight-week training course.  Once I cross that threshold, I'm given a gun and a badge and can make life-or-death on the fly, and should I err and kill an innocent civilian, my brother and sister cops will rally around me to see that I'm protected from discipline.

At this point, urban police are just another street gang, albeit one operating legally (but then again, they're the ones enforcing the laws).  Like a gang, they wear their own distinctive colors.  Like a gang, they watch out for each other, and are often more interested in protecting their own ranks than the citizens they were hired to protect.  If one is criticized or attacked, in the media or to their face, they band together and will deny any and all allegations and even defend the murderers and rapists among them rather than let one of their own face judgement.

I understand that many cops, most cops even, do good for the community on a daily basis.  That's their job.  An urban police force might have 1,000 good cops and only 10 bad apples.  But if those 1,000 good cops don't turn in and report the 10 bad apples, then we have a police force of 1,010 bad apples.

Today, they finally arrested the cop who murdered George Floyd, but only after a crowd of angry Minneapolis protesters set a precinct station on fire (by the way, kudos to the Minneapolis protesters - setting a precinct on fire is pretty fucking metal).  And Georgia finally arrested the ex-cops who lynched Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick - after two months had passed and a video of the lynching went viral.  It's a start, but too little, too late, and doesn't address the underlying issue of racist police brutality.

As if we didn't have enough problems, Mike Pence returned to Atlanta today for the second Friday in a row, this time for the funeral of some megachurch pastor.  Meanwhile, in Washington, our so-called "president" called the Minneapolis protesters "thugs" in all capital letters in a tweet, and then went on to say "when they start lootin', we start shootin'" or some similar threat.  Great, a president threatening to kill his own citizens if the police and the Umbrella Man can provoke the protesters into violence.  

To paraphrase Ibram X. Kendi for a moment, in this context, "thug" is a racist word and another way of calling the demonstrators the N-word (even though live news coverage I watched last night showed both black and white protesters).  "Riot" is a racist word in this context in that it smears the demonstrators as wild and out of control, and ignores the cause of the protest.  The term "senseless violence" comes from the perspective of white privilege - it's only "senseless" to those not affected by the root cause of the protest.