I’m sick. I’m angry. I’m saddened. Last night in Wisconsin was the all too predictable, natural progression of where the protests for police reform were heading. In case you haven’t seen, because Facebook loves to push down news that paints white nationalists in a bad light, a 17 year old white supremacist shot and killed two Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. These protests were sparked when civilian Jacob Blake was shot 7 times in the back, in front of his own children, by police officers when they responded to a call about a domestic dispute that Blake was trying to break up as a good Samaritan. Thankfully, Mr. Blake is in stable condition and will survive this horrific ordeal, but is paralyzed from the waist down.
Sadly, until there is widespread police reforms, this is going to keep happening. The officers that shot Mr. Blake are on leave and an investigation is pending. Let’s hope they are actually held accountable for their excessive force. Enough is enough. Any other profession in America would not be able to get away with what police unions get away with. The example I like to give to people is around another public service profession that is unionized, teaching. Imagine the teachers’ union in your town being able to negotiate in their contracts absolute immunity from any type transgressions or harm that they may do to the people they serve, your children. That’s what the reality is for police unions. When they use excessive force to kill people, when they are supposed to be protecting them, qualified immunity keeps them from being liable, criminally or civilly, for any wrongdoing. When they are fired for these situations, often, they are able to get jobs in neighboring towns after a certain amount of time. It is absolute insanity that this is something able to be negotiated with towns when union contracts come up. Again, imagine for one second, if the teachers union negotiated contracts like this, you’d have teachers who abuse students able to continue to work in schools in neighboring districts. Absolutely insane. Pressure your town officials to make sure these types of contracts cannot be negotiated. Here is where you can find more info about this type of reform. This will go a long way into reform but it is not enough. We need to completely rethink how police officers do their job in America. This is where the right loves to decry the “de-fund the police” moniker that has become the slogan for this movement. It has made for a great straw man for the GOP to fear monger against. When activists talk about de-funding the police, the conversation is about reallocating funds to better serve the public needs like mental health, addiction, community investment, and education instead of buying military surplus and paying more overtime for traffic details. This movement is also about making the training much more rigorous for officers around deescalation tactics and racial bias. Right now, in MA, the police academy is essentially a military boot camp where cadets are made to shave their heads, do vigorous exercise, and spend time in the shooting range. That is the impression I have gotten from people who have been through it. What can’t be legislated against or trained out are the racist police offers that exists in departments. All these officers that have racial bias when dealing with people of color, must be fired. No professional, who works in a community service job, can be trusted if they have any type of racial bias, especially a field that gives you authority with a badge, and killing power with a gun. I don’t want this to be an indictment on all police officers. Obviously this isn’t. If you want to comment about “not all cops are bad,” you’re just going to make yourself look foolish. The problem is, the system in place has made it so all cops can act with impunity. In most places, they are not held accountable at all for excessive force. All cops are not bad. I know some and have worked in schools with some, that are great, from the perspective of a 29 year old white male, friend, and colleague. I’m smart enough to know that my perspective of these people is not universal, and people may have a different view of them. The entire system is what is bad and what has led to distrust. Once we reform how policing looks, how officers are trained, and how police union contracts are structured, the great people on police forces will be allowed to shine, trust from the public will increase, and the white supremacists will be thrown to the trash heap of history.
Note: I wrote on the problems with police brutality and the double standard applied to BLM protesters in a blog after the murder of George Floyd. Click here to read it.
That was a long, but necessary, digression from what I wanted to accomplish for this blog. The terrorist that shot and killed two BLM protesters last night was a 17 year old white supremacist who drove up from Illinois with an assault rifle. Today, he was charged and arrested for first degree murder. Let’s hope and pray the justice system gives him what he deserves.
Now, I said earlier that this was the natural progression of where the protesters were heading. What I meant by that is this. When you have a President in the white house, who has the support of the former grand wizard of the KKK (David Duke), calls Neo-Nazis “very fine people,” endorses a video of supporters chanting “white power,” decries “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” in regards to the protests, refuses to denounce the endorsement of the far-right, anti-Semitic, conspiracy group Q-anon, and dehumanizes members of congress who are of color and/or immigrants, it emboldens people like this 17 year old terrorist to commit these acts. That is why it was predictable. Trump is allowed to get away with racist rhetoric by his own party, who have completely thrown out any conservative “principles” that they claimed to have stood for, for years. Trump is a racist, his family is racist. His hate speech will keep legitimizing Neo-Nazis and his lack of empathy towards the lives taken by cops and the BLM protests will, embolden police officers to protect these white supremacists. We are already seeing it happen. Spare me your “whataboutisms” about other politicians or looters (seriously about the looters, it’s as if none of you have ever heard of insurance. goods can be replaced, lives cannot. officials have even come out and with evidence that it is right wing agitators doing the looting to insight the violence!). No modern politician has ever stoked as much hate, loud and out in the open, as Trump. As long as Trump is in office and the GOP controls the senate, America will never be able rid itself of the very real domestic terror threat that is white supremacy.
I went down to the BLM protest in my hometown to give out water and snacks because I was afraid of crowds during COVID. What’s going to happen next time I go, or If I ever decide to protest again? Do I have to worry about myself, my family, my students/players being gunned down by a white supremacist? It’s abhorrent, and deeply un-American, that Trump and the GOP and police forces around the country do nothing to stop this type of thing. Allegedly, this terrorist and the other far right militia groups there last night were being thanked by the police officers at the protest! He was also allowed to leave the scene after the shooting by the police officers. It’s time we took the the rhetoric from Trump and the silence from the GOP more seriously.
Trump is certainly the most divisive president of my lifetime. He has transcended party politics in the worst way possible. His racist rhetoric(see above or the link below) and policies(the Muslim immigration ban) should be something that unifies everyone against him. As Americans, we are born of or are currently, immigrants trying to create our American dream or live out the dream imagined by our own immigrant ancestors, Natives who have been treated as worse than second class citizens for centuries, or the descendants of slaves who have had to fight for the right to live since 1619. Trump should be offensive to all of us, not just liberals or people of color. Let’s fight for our fellow citizens who are being persecuted. Let’s demand more from our politicians around this topic, Democrats and Republicans alike. Even if Biden wins in November, the fight can’t stop. These type of things happened under wholly Democrat led administrations as well. Ensuring things like equal treatment under the law is the very bedrock of our nation, a nation that didn’t get it right initially, but responded when the people demanded it. Let’s keep demanding it. Keep protesting, keep calling campaign offices, and hold the powers at be accountable for dividing us. Voting is important but there needs to be continued public pressure in order for actual change and reform to happen. As long at Trump is in office, you can count on white supremacy to have a seat at the table.
Update: completely forgot to add to the laundry list of GOP white supremacy legitimization that the couple that pointed guns at BLM protestors in Missouri got an invite to speak at the RNC this week. Again, we should angered but not surprised that a white supremacist shot up a protest last night. This was the logical progression for how the GOP has handled these protests this year.
(Note: More examples of our racist/fascist commander in chief here)
Thank you for reading
PS
I would be remiss if I did not mention the obvious connection to gun rights in this story. A minor, with social media pages filled with white supremacist propaganda, was allowed to purchase a military grade firearm, which he then used to commit multiple murders. Let’s also fight for common sense gun laws like universal background checks and assault weapon bans so white supremacists like this guy and the El Paso terrorist, can’t keep committing these types of crimes. Both of those common sense reforms would gone a long way to stop those murders from happening as well as the attacks on the Synagogue in Pittsburgh and the Church in South Carolina. All motivated by White Supremacy.
She's Worth It 