It is a tough problem. Not just because of racism but because of territorialism in law enforcement. They don't want to be second-guessed, told what to do. They bristle at the attacks. A few bad apples. Solidarity.
And they vote. So politicians tread lightly. In an election season, it seems practical not to insult the blue uniformed voting bloc by vocalizing the specific remedies they must be required to accept.
But there are definitely criminals, sociopaths and psychopaths among them. Some will say that it is inflamed, even made necessary, by the harsh conditions and malevolent circumstances within which they are routinely required to work. Others will say it is the result of fear and passions stoked by right-wing ideologues carefully nurtured and heavily funded in a right-wing echo chamber of hate.
In either case, there are definitely assaults, rapes and murders being performed under the cover of law enforcement. Authority. Militarism. A pervasive sense that might is right, it solves problems, it alone solves some problems. And therefore individual rights, the Bill of Rights, have been increasingly sacrificed. Especially against PoC, Americas vulnerable class of choice for centuries.
The terrorists cannot be allowed to hide in the crowd of blue uniforms.
And it's not just cops, of course. George Zimmermans across the country, standing their ground. Itching to stand their ground. Jumping in front of people just so they can stand their ground.
The terrorists cannot be allowed to hide behind false claims of self-defense and an unconscionable insistence upon the right to be unyielding to the point of attacking.
And there's the NRA, the Second Amendment, the RTKBA's. Invulnerable now for so long. Wraped in the flag of a bullshit, destructive, revisionist Second Amendment interpretation twisted around an immoral money-making scheme, asserted unbounded and untethered from any common sense and decency whatsoever.
My lord, the obstacles are enormous. The roadblocks unthinkably massive. The terms of the struggle so impossible to meet.
And it is no mistake. Not only is it a money-making scheme. It is a political scheme, a wedge issue meant to divide and conquer. First between the parties. Now within them. It is misdirection from economic high crimes and misdemeanors, economic violence, social treason.
And so we are pitted against each other within our own community because we only have each other. But there are many more white each others than black each others.
And of course it is an issue of fear and hate.
"It was acceptable until we stopped accepting it," said Al Sharpton, referring to Civil Rights.
That movement and the abolition movement took so long because of the inert, immovable, cowardly broad middle, many, many of whom supported the causes long long before results were achieved. And those results were imperfect, incomplete, inconclusive. The current issues broadly encompassed by the overlapping Moral Monday and Black Lives Matter--which also extend to educational apartheid and the school to prison pipeline, incarceration racism--suffer from the same imbalance between sympathy and moral compassion and commensurate, resolute action that scale to the size of the problems.
The economic struggle of the Class War need not be seen in contrast to Racial Justice. Martin Luther King, Jr., saw the connection. We simply need to connect the dots, link arms and confront them in a unified, balanced, way. A way that scales. A way that does not waver. A way in which one Bree Newsome is followed by two, those two by four, the four by eight. Millions.
We need to elevate the urgency. It does take a political revolution. The obstacles demand confrontation with the entrenched power structure. With law enforcement, the racist right, hate talk radio, the NRA, the private prison complex, the drug war, the whole system designed, maintained and protected by and for an establishment which clings to the security, familiarity, predictability, "manipulabilty" of an implacable status quo, including the tolerance of unconscionably incremental approaches to systemic racism and of course, the racists. It's time to drive the racists back into the deepest recesses of the caves where they belong. (While we're at it the remaining homophobes, on the run but not to be forgotten.)
Throughout this spate of atrocities I have invoked Sharpton's words and said we need to stop accepting it. Millions of us must peacefully invade our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., a city of 659,000. We must go there with a carefully considered and constructed set of reforms. We must be organized to maintain and sustain our numbers, to stand vigil and peacefully bring the capital to a halt until serious attention is giving to the reforms, until serious action is taken. 2,3,4 people per resident on the Mall, on the sidewalks, in the shops, in the Metro, all wearing the same shirt, is all it will take. And, oh yes, the cooperation of those progressives who object to the impractical inconvenience of demonstrations in their cities. Suck it up. Sacrifice. Solidarity. If you want it to end quicker, get out of your damn car and march.
It means setting aside your hobbies, your other interests. It means postponing vacations. It means taking a semester off from night school. It means abstaining from your tv programs. It means skipping a soccer season and taking your child to learn the value and civic and social duty of the pursuit of justice. It means donating to the people and organizations in the struggle, on the front lines, especially if you have means and find yourself incapable of putting your own boots on the ground. It means directing discretionary funds not to toys and entertainment and eating out but to the struggle. Making it a priority. Every day.
“The key element of social control is the strategy of distraction that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information.” - Noam Chomsky
It means sacrifice, the kinds of sacrifice too few people are willing to make.
It IS difficult, of course, so we forgive each other for our lack of devotion and continue to accept the consequences, us masses of "progressive," "compassionate" white people. The people are pulled over, the people are beaten, the people are raped, the people are murdered. The black people. And the churches burn. The black churches.
Across the Democratic Party, there is nearly a universal willingness to accept it all, because the sacrifice it would take to definitively end it is still too inconvenient; the alternative longer, less demanding avenues of recourse more acceptable. We hide behind token gestures. Endurance is made a virtue not by necessity, but by choice.
As for the specific reforms, I'm no policy wonk. Entertaining a question to the audience last night, here's what I had to say, imperfect and incomplete as it is.
Maybe you figure it out in one place, make an example of it, then roll it out across the country.
I think police officers need a year's training, including extensive anger management and conflict resolution, and routine screening throughout the process. Probably 50% flush out. Maybe more. And the graduates are paid more.
Probably continuing education, every three years. Again, some may be flushed out, the victors get a handsome raise.
De-militarize the police.
Body cameras.
Federal law supporting the filming of police officers.
Training, sunlight, monitoring, evaluation.
Crime has not increased. There is no justification for the militarization and brutality of police. Police need to be trained to assume the courage of their forebears, innocence must be assumed before guilt is established, minor "crimes" must not result in lethal consequences, subdued persons must not be shot to death, and so forth.
Along with that, of course, sensible gun control. The NRA must be confronted, unimaginably difficult as that is. Not first by our leaders but by us, beginning with us white people. The NRA must be put into some perspective in this country. Guns must take their place beneath people. Gun profit must be placed beneath people. Ultimately that will take a codified re-interpretation of the Second Amendment, but it can't start there. It has to start with a political revolution against the ideas and arguments underpinning the existing concept of the RTKBAs. It needs to be put in perspective. Human perspective. Social perspective. Black perspective.
And there's more to it than that, but I'll leave the prescriptive policies there. I invite discussion, ideas and comments, where others no doubt have more experience and better insight on the subject.
Personally, as you know, I am a Sanders fan. I am directly involved in organizing the grassroots here in the bright red bastion of conservatism of Utah. It actually is not entirely so bleak as it might seem. The progressives we have here simply need to be identified, mobilized and organized.
I was defensive of Sanders last night. I hate to see such a good person besieged and maligned. I wondered what good could come from attacking supporters. But upon reflection, finally, at the prompting of a comment by Dallasdoc, I had a coming to Jesus moment when he acknowledged, as a fellow Sanders supporter, "Bernie needs to get on the case."
I have said a couple of times during this period, beginning with St. Louis, and I reiterated last night that these are times "when all the Democratic candidates should set the campaign aside and stand on one stage at one time and address the nation in unison. They need to commit, everyone of them, to drawing a line in the sand, to making this a priority of their administration." And I would add the President, the Speaker, and the Senate Minority Leader to that cast. They need to make a unified stand and let the world know that this is the Party of social and racial justice, that this is the Party that will make change now, in this generation, in the immediate future.
But no doubt that is a pony ride too far.
So instead here is what I plan to do. I'm not going to worry about the other candidates. I have to focus my energy. I have to leave it to supporters of the other candidates to apply pressure on them. As an insider on an independent grassroots organization for Bernie Sanders I am going to lobby for and insist upon incorporating a growing Moral Monday campaign here in Salt Lake City. And I am going to ask our group to assert the issue not only with local leaders but with the Sanders campaign, as difficult as it is to reach them at this time. We will be relentless. As Bernie says, economic inequality IS a moral issue. And so is the unmitigated, vicious, deliberate assault on black lives. So is Stand Your Ground. So is unchecked gun violence. So is the evil of the NRA. We will pressure him to add these concerns to the 12-point agenda for America. We will make it a clearly visible component of our grassroots political revolution. With the rest of the revolution, not just Bernie's but of all progressives willing to act, we will dare to corral the pony and show people that there is nothing irreversible or inevitable about gun culture and systemic racism until they are small enough to drown in Norquist's bathtub. We are bigger than this. We have the numbers. We have the moral high ground. We just need to unify, organize and screw on the courage of our convictions, turn compassion into action.
That much I for one can and will do.
And I'm open to suggestions. :)
