Ernie, What Camden, NJ, did might be a step in the right direction.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-04/how-camden-new-jersey-reformed-its-police-department?utm_source=url_link // Lennart > On Jun 13, 2020, at 10:24 AM, Centroids <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Very sobering. Rings true I think he goes too far (or not far enough) in a > few places, but this is spot on: > > "Armed, indoctrinated (and dare I say, traumatized) cops do not make you > safer; community mutual aid networks who can unite other people with the > resources they need to stay fed, clothed, and housed make you safer." > > This failure mode also appears with doctors, teachers — even pastors! > > We need to reintegrate society around the actual needs of people to flourish, > rather than force them to fit into a system based on what we like to supply. > E > > > > Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop > https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759 > (via Instapaper) > > > Officer A. Cab > Jun 6 · 22 min read > > I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard. We all were. > > This essay has been kicking around in my head for years now and I’ve never > felt confident enough to write it. It’s a time in my life I’m ashamed of. > It’s a time that I hurt people and, through inaction, allowed others to be > hurt. It’s a time that I acted as a violent agent of capitalism and white > supremacy. Under the guise of public safety, I personally ruined people’s > lives but in so doing, made the public no safer… so did the family members > and close friends of mine who also bore the badge alongside me. > > But enough is enough. > > The reforms aren’t working. Incrementalism isn’t happening. Unarmed Black, > indigenous, and people of color are being killed by cops in the streets and > the police are savagely attacking the people protesting these murders. > > American policing is a thick blue tumor strangling the life from our > communities and if you don’t believe it when the poor and the marginalized > say it, if you don’t believe it when you see cops across the country shooting > journalists with less-lethal bullets and caustic chemicals, maybe you’ll > believe it when you hear it straight from the pig’s mouth. > > WHY AM I WRITING THIS > > As someone who went through the training, hiring, and socialization of a > career in law enforcement, I wanted to give a first-hand account of why I > believe police officers are the way they are. Not to excuse their behavior, > but to explain it and to indict the structures that perpetuate it. > > I believe that if everyone understood how we’re trained and brought up in the > profession, it would inform the demands our communities should be making of a > new way of community safety. If I tell you how we were made, I hope it will > empower you to unmake us. > > One of the other reasons I’ve struggled to write this essay is that I don’t > want to center the conversation on myself and my big salty boo-hoo feelings > about my bad choices. It’s a toxic white impulse to see atrocities and think > “How can I make this about me?” So, I hope you’ll take me at my word that > this account isn’t meant to highlight me, but rather the hundred thousand of > me in every city in the country. It’s about the structure that made me (that > I chose to pollute myself with) and it’s my meager contribution to the cause > of radical justice. > > YES, ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS > > I was a police officer in a major metropolitan area in California with a > predominantly poor, non-white population (with a large proportion of > first-generation immigrants). One night during briefing, our watch commander > told us that the city council had requested a new zero tolerance policy. > Against murderers, drug dealers, or child predators? > > No, against homeless people collecting cans from recycling bins. > > See, the city had some kickback deal with the waste management company where > waste management got paid by the government for our expected tonnage of > recycling. When homeless people “stole” that recycling from the waste > management company, they were putting that cheaper contract in peril. So, we > were to arrest as many recyclers as we could find. > > Even for me, this was a stupid policy and I promptly blew Sarge off. But a > few hours later, Sarge called me over to assist him. He was detaining a 70 > year old immigrant who spoke no English, who he’d seen picking a coke can out > of a trash bin. He ordered me to arrest her for stealing trash. I said, > “Sarge, c’mon, she’s an old lady.” He said, “I don’t give a shit. Hook her > up, that’s an order.” And… I did. She cried the entire way to the station and > all through the booking process. I couldn’t even comfort her because I didn’t > speak Spanish. I felt disgusting but I was ordered to make this arrest and I > wasn’t willing to lose my job for her. > > If you’re tempted to feel sympathy for me, don’t. I used to happily hassle > the homeless under other circumstances. I researched obscure penal codes so I > could arrest people in homeless encampments for lesser known crimes like > “remaining too close to railroad property” (369i of the California Penal > Code). I used to call it “planting warrant seeds” since I knew they wouldn’t > make their court dates and we could arrest them again and again for warrant > violations. > > We used to have informal contests for who could cite or arrest someone for > the weirdest law. DUI on a bicycle, non-regulation number of brooms on your > tow truck (27700(a)(1) of the California Vehicle Code)… shit like that. For > me, police work was a logic puzzle for arresting people, regardless of their > actual threat to the community. As ashamed as I am to admit it, it needs to > be said: stripping people of their freedom felt like a game to me for many > years. > > I know what you’re going to ask: did I ever plant drugs? Did I ever plant a > gun on someone? Did I ever make a false arrest or file a false report? > Believe it or not, the answer is no. Cheating was no fun, I liked to get my > stats the “legitimate” way. But I knew officers who kept a little baggie of > whatever or maybe a pocket knife that was a little too big in their war bags > (yeah, we called our dufflebags “war bags”…). Did I ever tell anybody about > it? No I did not. Did I ever confess my suspicions when cocaine suddenly > showed up in a gang member’s jacket? No I did not. > > In fact, let me tell you about an extremely formative experience: in my > police academy class, we had a clique of around six trainees who routinely > bullied and harassed other students: intentionally scuffing another trainee’s > shoes to get them in trouble during inspection, sexually harassing female > trainees, cracking racist jokes, and so on. Every quarter, we were to write > anonymous evaluations of our squadmates. I wrote scathing accounts of their > behavior, thinking I was helping keep bad apples out of law enforcement and > believing I would be protected. Instead, the academy staff read my complaints > to them out loud and outed me to them and never punished them, causing me to > get harassed for the rest of my academy class. That’s how I learned that even > police leadership hates rats. That’s why no one is “changing things from the > inside.” They can’t, the structure won’t allow it. > > And that’s the point of what I’m telling you. Whether you were my sergeant, > legally harassing an old woman, me, legally harassing our residents, my > fellow trainees bullying the rest of us, or “the bad apples” illegally > harassing “shitbags”, we were all in it together. I knew cops that pulled > women over to flirt with them. I knew cops who would pepper spray sleeping > bags so that homeless people would have to throw them away. I knew cops that > intentionally provoked anger in suspects so they could claim they were > assaulted. I was particularly good at winding people up verbally until they > lashed out so I could fight them. Nobody spoke out. Nobody stood up. Nobody > betrayed the code. > > None of us protected the people (you) from bad cops. > > This is why “All cops are bastards.” Even your uncle, even your cousin, even > your mom, even your brother, even your best friend, even your spouse, even > me. Because even if they wouldn’t Do The Thing themselves, they will almost > never rat out another officer who Does The Thing, much less stop it from > happening. > > BASTARD 101 > > I could write an entire book of the awful things I’ve done, seen done, and > heard others bragging about doing. But, to me, the bigger question is “How > did it get this way?”. While I was a police officer in a city 30 miles from > where I lived, many of my fellow officers were from the community and treated > their neighbors just as badly as I did. While every cop’s individual biases > come into play, it’s the profession itself that is toxic, and it starts from > day 1 of training. > > Every police academy is different but all of them share certain features: > taught by old cops, run like a paramilitary bootcamp, strong emphasis on > protecting yourself more than anyone else. The majority of my time in the > academy was spent doing aggressive physical training and watching video after > video after video of police officers being murdered on duty. > > I want to highlight this: nearly everyone coming into law enforcement is > bombarded with dash cam footage of police officers being ambushed and killed. > Over and over and over. Colorless VHS mortality plays, cops screaming for > help over their radios, their bodies going limp as a pair of tail lights > speed away into a grainy black horizon. In my case, with commentary from an > old racist cop who used to brag about assaulting Black Panthers. > > To understand why all cops are bastards, you need to understand one of the > things almost every training officer told me when it came to using force: > > “I’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6.” > > Meaning, “I’ll take my chances in court rather than risk getting hurt”. We’re > able to think that way because police unions are extremely overpowered and > because of the generous concept of Qualified Immunity, a legal theory which > says a cop generally can’t be held personally liable for mistakes they make > doing their job in an official capacity. > > When you look at the actions of the officers who killed George Floyd, Breonna > Taylor, David McAtee, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, > or Freddie Gray, remember that they, like me, were trained to recite “I’d > rather be judged by 12” as a mantra. Even if Mistakes Were Made™, the city > (meaning the taxpayers, meaning you) pays the settlement, not the officer. > > Once police training has - through repetition, indoctrination, and violent > spectacle - promised officers that everyone in the world is out to kill them, > the next lesson is that your partners are the only people protecting you. > Occasionally, this is even true: I’ve had encounters turn on me rapidly to > the point I legitimately thought I was going to die, only to have other > officers come and turn the tables. > > One of the most important thought leaders in law enforcement is Col. Dave > Grossman, a “killologist” who wrote an essay called “Sheep, Wolves, and > Sheepdogs”. Cops are the sheepdogs, bad guys are the wolves, and the citizens > are the sheep (!). Col. Grossman makes sure to mention that to a stupid > sheep, sheepdogs look more like wolves than sheep, and that’s why they > dislike you. > > This “they hate you for protecting them and only I love you, only I can > protect you” tactic is familiar to students of abuse. It’s what abusers do to > coerce their victims into isolation, pulling them away from friends and > family and ensnaring them in the abuser’s toxic web. Law enforcement does > this too, pitting the officer against civilians. “They don’t understand what > you do, they don’t respect your sacrifice, they just want to get away with > crimes. You’re only safe with us.” > > I think the Wolves vs. Sheepdogs dynamic is one of the most important > elements as to why officers behave the way they do. Every single second of my > training, I was told that criminals were not a legitimate part of their > community, that they were individual bad actors, and that their bad actions > were solely the result of their inherent criminality. Any concept of systemic > trauma, generational poverty, or white supremacist oppression was either > never mentioned or simply dismissed. After all, most people don’t steal, so > anyone who does isn’t “most people,” right? To us, anyone committing a crime > deserved anything that happened to them because they broke the “social > contract.” And yet, it was never even a question as to whether the power > structure above them was honoring any sort of contract back. > > Understand: Police officers are part of the state monopoly on violence and > all police training reinforces this monopoly as a cornerstone of police work, > a source of honor and pride. Many cops fantasize about getting to kill > someone in the line of duty, egged on by others that have. One of my training > officers told me about the time he shot and killed a mentally ill homeless > man wielding a big stick. He bragged that he “slept like a baby” that night. > Official training teaches you how to be violent effectively and when you’re > legally allowed to deploy that violence, but “unofficial training” teaches > you to desire violence, to expand the breadth of your violence without > getting caught, and to erode your own compassion for desperate people so you > can justify punitive violence against them. > > HOW TO BE A BASTARD > > I have participated in some of these activities personally, others are ones I > either witnessed personally or heard officers brag about openly. Very, very > occasionally, I knew an officer who was disciplined or fired for one of these > things. > > Police officers will lie about the law, about what’s illegal, or about what > they can legally do to you in order to manipulate you into doing what they > want. > Police officers will lie about feeling afraid for their life to justify a use > of force after the fact. > Police officers will lie and tell you they’ll file a police report just to > get you off their back. > Police officers will lie that your cooperation will “look good for you” in > court, or that they will “put in a good word for you with the DA.” The police > will never help you look good in court. > Police officers will lie about what they see and hear to access private > property to conduct unlawful searches. > Police officers will lie and say your friend already ratted you out, so you > might as well rat them back out. This is almost never true. > Police officers will lie and say you’re not in trouble in order to get you to > exit a location or otherwise make an arrest more convenient for them. > Police officers will lie and say that they won’t arrest you if you’ll just > “be honest with them” so they know what really happened. > Police officers will lie about their ability to seize the property of friends > and family members to coerce a confession. > Police officers will write obviously bullshit tickets so that they get > time-and-a-half overtime fighting them in court. > Police officers will search places and containers you didn’t consent to and > later claim they were open or “smelled like marijuana”. > Police officers will threaten you with a more serious crime they can’t prove > in order to convince you to confess to the lesser crime they really want you > for. > Police officers will employ zero tolerance on races and ethnicities they > dislike and show favor and lenience to members of their own group. > Police officers will use intentionally extra-painful maneuvers and holds > during an arrest to provoke “resistance” so they can further assault the > suspect. > Some police officers will plant drugs and weapons on you, sometimes to teach > you a lesson, sometimes if they kill you somewhere away from public view. > Some police officers will assault you to intimidate you and threaten to > arrest you if you tell anyone. > A non-trivial number of police officers will steal from your house or vehicle > during a search. > A non-trivial number of police officers commit intimate partner violence and > use their status to get away with it. > A non-trivial number of police officers use their position to entice, coerce, > or force sexual favors from vulnerable people. > If you take nothing else away from this essay, I want you to tattoo this onto > your brain forever: if a police officer is telling you something, it is > probably a lie designed to gain your compliance. > > Do not talk to cops and never, ever believe them. Do not “try to be helpful” > with cops. Do not assume they are trying to catch someone else instead of > you. Do not assume what they are doing is “important” or even legal. Under no > circumstances assume any police officer is acting in good faith. > > Also, and this is important, do not talk to cops. > > I just remembered something, do not talk to cops. > > Checking my notes real quick, something jumped out at me: > > Do > > not > > fucking > > talk > > to > > cops. > > Ever. > > Say, “I don’t answer questions,” and ask if you’re free to leave; if so, > leave. If not, tell them you want your lawyer and that, per the Supreme > Court, they must terminate questioning. If they don’t, file a complaint and > collect some badges for your mantle. > > > Police shoot a homeless man in a wheelchair > DO THE BASTARDS EVER HELP? > > Reading the above, you may be tempted to ask whether cops ever do anything > good. And the answer is, sure, sometimes. In fact, most officers I worked > with thought they were usually helping the helpless and protecting the safety > of innocent people. > > During my tenure in law enforcement, I protected women from domestic abusers, > arrested cold-blooded murderers and child molesters, and comforted families > who lost children to car accidents and other tragedies. I helped connect > struggling people in my community with local resources for food, shelter, and > counseling. I deescalated situations that could have turned violent and > talked a lot of people down from making the biggest mistake of their lives. I > worked with plenty of officers who were individually kind, bought food for > homeless residents, or otherwise showed care for their community. > > The question is this: did I need a gun and sweeping police powers to help the > average person on the average night? The answer is no. When I was doing my > best work as a cop, I was doing mediocre work as a therapist or a social > worker. My good deeds were listening to people failed by the system and > trying to unite them with any crumbs of resources the structure was currently > denying them. > > It’s also important to note that well over 90% of the calls for service I > handled were reactive, showing up well after a crime had taken place. We > would arrive, take a statement, collect evidence (if any), file the report, > and onto the next caper. Most “active” crimes we stopped were someone > harmless possessing or selling a small amount of drugs. Very, very rarely > would we stop something dangerous in progress or stop something from > happening entirely. The closest we could usually get was seeing someone > running away from the scene of a crime, but the damage was still done. > > And consider this: my job as a police officer required me to be a marriage > counselor, a mental health crisis professional, a conflict negotiator, a > social worker, a child advocate, a traffic safety expert, a sexual assault > specialist, and, every once in awhile, a public safety officer authorized to > use force, all after only a 1000 hours of training at a police academy. Does > the person we send to catch a robber also need to be the person we send to > interview a rape victim or document a fender bender? Should one profession be > expected to do all that important community care (with very little training) > all at the same time? > > To put this another way: I made double the salary most social workers made to > do a fraction of what they could do to mitigate the causes of crimes and > desperation. I can count very few times my monopoly on state violence > actually made our citizens safer, and even then, it’s hard to say > better-funded social safety nets and dozens of other community care > specialists wouldn’t have prevented a problem before it started. > > Armed, indoctrinated (and dare I say, traumatized) cops do not make you > safer; community mutual aid networks who can unite other people with the > resources they need to stay fed, clothed, and housed make you safer. I really > want to hammer this home: every cop in your neighborhood is damaged by their > training, emboldened by their immunity, and they have a gun and the ability > to take your life with near-impunity. This does not make you safer, even if > you’re white. > > HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE A BASTARD? > > So what do we do about it? Even though I’m an expert on bastardism, I am not > a public policy expert nor an expert in organizing a post-police society. So, > before I give some suggestions, let me tell you what probably won’t solve the > problem of bastard cops: > > Increased “bias” training. A quarterly or even monthly training session is > not capable of covering over years of trauma-based camaraderie in police > forces. I can tell you from experience, we don’t take it seriously, the > proctors let us cheat on whatever “tests” there are, and we all made fun of > it later over coffee. > Tougher laws. I hope you understand by now, cops do not follow the law and > will not hold each other accountable to the law. Tougher laws are all the > more reason to circle the wagons and protect your brothers and sisters. > More community policing programs. Yes, there is a marginal effect when a few > cops get to know members of the community, but look at the protests of 2020: > many of the cops pepper-spraying journalists were probably the nice school > cop a month ago. > Police officers do not protect and serve people, they protect and serve the > status quo, “polite society”, and private property. Using the incremental > mechanisms of the status quo will never reform the police because the status > quo relies on police violence to exist. Capitalism requires a permanent > underclass to exploit for cheap labor and it requires the cops to bring that > underclass to heel. > > Instead of wasting time with minor tweaks, I recommend exploring the > following ideas: > > No more qualified immunity. Police officers should be personally liable for > all decisions they make in the line of duty. > No more civil asset forfeiture. Did you know that every year, citizens like > you lose more cash and property to unaccountable civil asset forfeiture than > to all burglaries combined? The police can steal your stuff without charging > you with a crime and it makes some police departments very rich. > Break the power of police unions. Police unions make it nearly impossible to > fire bad cops and incentivize protecting them to protect the power of the > union. A police union is not a labor union; police officers are powerful > state agents, not exploited workers. > Require malpractice insurance. Doctors must pay for insurance in case they > botch a surgery, police officers should do the same for botching a police > raid or other use of force. If human decency won’t motivate police to respect > human life, perhaps hitting their wallet might. > Defund, demilitarize, and disarm cops. Thousands of police departments own > assault rifles, armored personnel carriers, and stuff you’d see in a warzone. > Police officers have grants and huge budgets to spend on guns, ammo, body > armor, and combat training. 99% of calls for service require no armed > response, yet when all you have is a gun, every problem feels like target > practice. Cities are not safer when unaccountable bullies have a monopoly on > state violence and the equipment to execute that monopoly. > One final idea: consider abolishing the police. > > I know what you’re thinking, “What? We need the police! They protect us!” As > someone who did it for nearly a decade, I need you to understand that by and > large, police protection is marginal, incidental. It’s an illusion created by > decades of copaganda designed to fool you into thinking these brave men and > women are holding back the barbarians at the gates. > > I alluded to this above: the vast majority of calls for service I handled > were theft reports, burglary reports, domestic arguments that hadn’t > escalated into violence, loud parties, (houseless) people loitering, traffic > collisions, very minor drug possession, and arguments between neighbors. > Mostly the mundane ups and downs of life in the community, with little > inherent danger. And, like I mentioned, the vast majority of crimes I > responded to (even violent ones) had already happened; my unaccountable > license to kill was irrelevant. > > What I mainly provided was an “objective” third party with the authority to > document property damage, ask people to chill out or disperse, or counsel > people not to beat each other up. A trained counselor or conflict resolution > specialist would be ten times more effective than someone with a gun strapped > to his hip wondering if anyone would try to kill him when he showed up. There > are many models for community safety that can be explored if we get away from > the idea that the only way to be safe is to have a man with a M4 rifle > prowling your neighborhood ready at a moment’s notice to write down your name > and birthday after you’ve been robbed and beaten. > > You might be asking, “What about the armed robbers, the gangsters, the drug > dealers, the serial killers?” And yes, in the city I worked, I regularly > broke up gang parties, found gang members carrying guns, and handled > homicides. I’ve seen some tragic things, from a reformed gangster shot in the > head with his brains oozing out to a fifteen year old boy taking his last > breath in his screaming mother’s arms thanks to a gang member’s bullet. I > know the wages of violence. > > This is where we have to have the courage to ask: why do people rob? Why do > they join gangs? Why do they get addicted to drugs or sell them? It’s not > because they are inherently evil. I submit to you that these are the results > of living in a capitalist system that grinds people down and denies them > housing, medical care, human dignity, and a say in their government. These > are the results of white supremacy pushing people to the margins, excluding > them, disrespecting them, and treating their bodies as disposable. > > Equally important to remember: disabled and mentally ill people are > frequently killed by police officers not trained to recognize and react to > disabilities or mental health crises. Some of the people we picture as > “violent offenders” are often people struggling with untreated mental > illness, often due to economic hardships. Very frequently, the officers sent > to “protect the community” escalate this crisis and ultimately wound or kill > the person. Your community was not made safer by police violence; a sick > member of your community was killed because it was cheaper than treating > them. Are you extremely confident you’ll never get sick one day too? > > Wrestle with this for a minute: if all of someone’s material needs were met > and all the members of their community were fed, clothed, housed, and > dignified, why would they need to join a gang? Why would they need to risk > their lives selling drugs or breaking into buildings? If mental healthcare > was free and was not stigmatized, how many lives would that save? > > Would there still be a few bad actors in the world? Sure, probably. What’s my > solution for them, you’re no doubt asking. I’ll tell you what: generational > poverty, food insecurity, houselessness, and for-profit medical care are all > problems that can be solved in our lifetimes by rejecting the dehumanizing > meat grinder of capitalism and white supremacy. Once that’s done, we can work > on the edge cases together, with clearer hearts not clouded by a corrupt > system. > > Police abolition is closely related to the idea of prison abolition and the > entire concept of banishing the carceral state, meaning, creating a society > focused on reconciliation and restorative justice instead of punishment, > pain, and suffering — a system that sees people in crisis as humans, not > monsters. People who want to abolish the police typically also want to > abolish prisons, and the same questions get asked: “What about the bad guys? > Where do we put them?” I bring this up because abolitionists don’t want to > simply replace cops with armed social workers or prisons with casual > detention centers full of puffy leather couches and Playstations. We imagine > a world not divided into good guys and bad guys, but rather a world where > people’s needs are met and those in crisis receive care, not dehumanization. > > Here’s legendary activist and thinker Angela Y. Davis putting it better than > I ever could: > > “An abolitionist approach that seeks to answer questions such as these would > require us to imagine a constellation of alternative strategies and > institutions, with the ultimate aim of removing the prison from the social > and ideological landscapes of our society. In other words, we would not be > looking for prisonlike substitutes for the prison, such as house arrest > safeguarded by electronic surveillance bracelets. Rather, positing > decarceration as our overarching strategy, we would try to envision a > continuum of alternatives to imprisonment-demilitarization of schools, > revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free > physical and mental care to all, and a justice system based on reparation and > reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance.” > > (Are Prisons Obsolete, pg. 107) > > I’m not telling you I have the blueprint for a beautiful new world. What I’m > telling you is that the system we have right now is broken beyond repair and > that it’s time to consider new ways of doing community together. Those new > ways need to be negotiated by members of those communities, particularly > Black, indigenous, disabled, houseless, and citizens of color historically > shoved into the margins of society. Instead of letting Fox News fill your > head with nightmares about Hispanic gangs, ask the Hispanic community what > they need to thrive. Instead of letting racist politicians scaremonger about > pro-Black demonstrators, ask the Black community what they need to meet the > needs of the most vulnerable. If you truly desire safety, ask not what your > most vulnerable can do for the community, ask what the community can do for > the most vulnerable. > > A WORLD WITH FEWER BASTARDS IS POSSIBLE > > If you take only one thing away from this essay, I hope it’s this: do not > talk to cops. But if you only take two things away, I hope the second one is > that it’s possible to imagine a different world where unarmed black people, > indigenous people, poor people, disabled people, and people of color are not > routinely gunned down by unaccountable police officers. It doesn’t have to be > this way. Yes, this requires a leap of faith into community models that might > feel unfamiliar, but I ask you: > > When you see a man dying in the street begging for breath, don’t you want to > leap away from that world? > > When you see a mother or a daughter shot to death sleeping in their beds, > don’t you want to leap away from that world? > > When you see a twelve year old boy executed in a public park for the crime of > playing with a toy, jesus fucking christ, can you really just stand there and > think “This is normal”? > > And to any cops who made it this far down, is this really the world you want > to live in? Aren’t you tired of the trauma? Aren’t you tired of the soul > sickness inherent to the badge? Aren’t you tired of looking the other way > when your partners break the law? Are you really willing to kill the next > George Floyd, the next Breonna Taylor, the next Tamir Rice? How confident are > you that your next use of force will be something you’re proud of? I’m > writing this for you too: it’s wrong what our training did to us, it’s wrong > that they hardened our hearts to our communities, and it’s wrong to pretend > this is normal. > > Look, I wouldn’t have been able to hear any of this for much of my life. You > reading this now may not be able to hear this yet either. But do me this one > favor: just think about it. Just turn it over in your mind for a couple > minutes. “Yes, And” me for a minute. Look around you and think about the kind > of world you want to live in. Is it one where an all-powerful stranger with a > gun keeps you and your neighbors in line with the fear of death, or can you > picture a world where, as a community, we embrace our most vulnerable, meet > their needs, heal their wounds, honor their dignity, and make them family > instead of desperate outsiders? > > If you take only three things away from this essay, I hope the third is this: > you and your community don’t need bastards to thrive. > > > > > Sent from my iPhone > -- > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/RadicalCentrism/D40CD824-E8CA-4201-8585-71E9E9DA4A62%40radicalcentrism.org. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. 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