Justice for George Floyd and Black America

If you have to wonder how I feel- or how you feel- about the killing of George Floyd- you really shouldn't. This particular instance is emblematic of outrageous overreach in the name of the law. I grieve with you who grieve, and speak back with you who believe in Truth. Our establishment's mission should only be to serve and protect the interest of all, not only well-to-do Whites. Do good or disband. Execute the law, not citizens. Be honorable or be done. Demand wisdom of your laws. Point to the corruption and inequality in their formulation wherever you see it. Prejudiced creation of the laws is one serious, wide-sweeping problem. Prejudiced practices of officers is its complement in mocking justice.

Let me be clear: I've suffered personally, directly, from the police 'obligation' to defend their own from charges of lies and abuse of power. It destroyed my friendly, useful livelihood in San Diego, and my peace of mind and sense of freedom and safety, doing it. It should not, however, take such direct suffering for you to empathize with the need to re-draw the line at what our society enables.

I have friends with firsthand accounts worse than what happened to me, who were no more criminals than I, an innocent person caught in their brutality. There can be no protests of 'fear for my life,' in this particular instigation of violence.

So long as they defend and lie for the bullies, liars and abusers in their midst, the good that anyone in law enforcement wants to do remains painted over with mistrust and loathing. I do not paint those in uniform with one wide brush of my own bigotry, but question the nature of executing the law (not citizens!).

Despite their beginnings as union suppressors and slave patrols, law officers are meant to be the responsible, answerable party, in heated disputes, or in the casual discharge of their services. The dishonorable deployment of the 'thin blue line' makes reform difficult, at great cost to society, and segregates officers from the communities they're sworn to protect.