Is it a race problem?
Of course it's a race problem but frankly that' not going away for a really long time. With all the protests and even other stuff, that's not going to help much sorry. The being organized part, that will help. Too bad Malcom X was killed. He could have actually solved this problem now.
Is it a police problem?
The thing is because there are a lot of "good" cops, even victims, even black victims of police brutality still want to say, (at least on the radio) that they trust police. Part of the reason is that if you take away police completely something will fill that power vacuum. It will be gangs who are even worse than police. It will be lynch mobs who are even worse than police. So in that sense, no it is not a police problem it a police power problem. No matter how good of a person you are, power will corrupt you.
The power problem.
If you beat someone and people support you, you will continue to beat people. If you cavity search them and you believe you are helping them, you will continue to do this. If you kill and you get away with it and told you were right, you will continue to do it. You're very moral compass will be warped and tainted to the point where you can watch the same video everyone else watches and see something completely different.
The brainwash problem
There are plenty of white people who agree there is a problem. But why do so many people (probably there are some older black people too) who support the police whenever these things happen. Let's not talk about Eric Garner. Let's talk about Henry Louis Gates Jr. Why do so many black people, after hearing the whole story turn on the professor, saying he should have never acted in the way he did, even though he was in his own house and old and a professor with a cane? Why did they turn on him when any old man who is tired and feeble has the right by law to say whatever he wants on his own property?
The reason why there was protest over death but not over simply being arrested (especially arresting a professor) was because now everyone realizes they can die.
But the reason why nobody rallied for Henry Louis Gates was this, to rally for Henry Louis Gates would mean everyone, even whites, would have to admit that they aren't free in America. Even people who haven't had any problem with police, haven't had a problem because they are lucky. It is completely within the power of the person pulling you over. If Master is a good master like Benedict Cumberbatch in 12 years a slave, then you are lucky. But we change the story in our mind to say, "If you comply like a good citizen then the Master will be a good master like Cumberbatch. It is only people who are bad boys and girls who have these experiences with a bad master."
Or
It's not that I hate Masters, it's just some individual masters take it too far.
Even in the language of the good cops on NPR you can hear a problem. They ask members of the community if anything is going on and tell them to please call in so they can do something about stuff that happens in the Community, even if it's just drunks yelling. Having called the police many times for a many number of things as a teacher and someone who ran a martial arts school, what I learned was the best and most Moral Cop, Jesus in the form of a cop, cannot help the situation. The only thing he can do is catch a murderer after he murders. Catch a thief AFTER he steals.
The problem is people don't realize that what police are actually for what they should be for, is to work for the community. Members of the community should be able to go up and question police and see if THEY are doing there job. If not, then we are all under occupation. But to accept that is difficult, especially for a white man who follows the rules. How can he accept, that he, who might have even memorized the declaration of Independence and believes in the meta-narrative of the history of the United States, that even HE, the older white man, is not really free.
And even more so,
How can a GOOD cop, who also believes in this meta-narrative, who became a cop to end the tyranny of murderers and gangs accept that ultimately, his real job is actually to keep the people down. How can he accept that he doesn't really work for the people in his position, he works for the Law, which is not made by the people in reality, but by the highest lobby. The cop sees himself and herself as the Savior, the Hero. Con can he or she accept that it may be the system and the position that they hold, that feeds them that makes them defacto, a dog keeping sheep in line. Yes they protect from the wolves, but also they keep the sheep from going and becoming men. They makes sure the sheep are used (perhaps not always killed) but used. And Sheep that look rebellious or look like they are transforming are killed.
A good cop can never accept this. So they change the story. They didn't kill a sheep, they killed a wolf in sheep's clothing. It isn't the other cops fault, there must have been some other factor. As long as everyone follows the rules, things are as they should be. This is better than actually looking at the reality that things are not as they should be, that even they, the good dog, is being lied to by Master. That they are not even really part of the family and one day, like Old Yeller, they can be taken out to the barn and shot.
The system itself is a problem. We always explain this away by pointing at a third word country run by gangsters. But as Americans, we were founded to do better. We were founded to change the system even when we ourselves are hypocrites. We are supposed to have ingenuity. We can figure something out. If not steal ideas from those other developed countries that are actually working.
We can have the imagination to create a better society than the one we live in instead of leaving it up to THEM. Because even if you don't vote, THEM is us.
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