A Brief Post Concerning the State of Things in the US · 5:50pm Jun 5th, 2020
Those of you who are in the US most likely know what I’m talking about today. Those of you outside the US have most likely picked up tidbits, given the amount of non-US news crews covering everything (and finding themselves assaulted for it), so I don’t need to rehash the events surrounding the death of George Floyd or the subsequent protests and then riots sweeping across the US here. If you somehow haven’t gathered much on what happened (another cop killing someone on camera in cold blood with no repercussions) … well that parenthetical is likely all you need to decipher, along with a decent imagination of “Well, how would people react to that?”
Now, I’m not going to go into a lot of depth on this today. Be aware that that depth does exist. If you wish to find records of police brutality, videos of Australian news crews being clubbed with batons, or old men beat up by police until they’re lying bleeding on the pavement for the “crime” of trying to get to their home or waiting for a bus.
So what am I going to say on this? A few things.
First, the murder of George Floyd was wrong. As is any of the racial profiling that still sticks with a lot of people in the US. I think I’ve made it pretty clear over the course of seven books that I think judging someone based on the color of their skin is an utterly asinine practice that no one should engage in. Positive or negative (yes, it’s just as bad to assume someone is “good” because of a skin color as it is to assume something bad about them).
People. Are. People. We’re all human beings on this little rock we call Earth. Blue, green, purple, whatever. Judging someone based on the color of their skin is wrong.
You want to make a judgement on someone, do it by something that matters, like the content of their character.
salam
These words are how I feel.
An addendum to the last part: ... If you are a good cop (which I firmly believe the majority of officers is) and you notice someone breaking the law (vandalism, violence, etc.) then I expect of you that you intervene. Even if (or rather especially if) the perpetrator is an officer too. Your job is to uphold the law, and if you only uphold it for certain groups of people while others get a pass... then you are not really a good officer, but rather part of the problem.
5277955
Their job is to uphold the law and therein lies one of the major contradictions: Our system of law and order is built upon the twin beasts of white supremacy and capitalism.
If you have one bad cop and nineteen who stand idly by, you have twenty bad cops. I read that it only takes ~20 weeks on average to become a cop in the US, is that true? Because jeesh.
It is good, in times like these, to see people I respect stand for what's right. Thanks for posting this, and I hope things are going okay for you personally.
5277997
Where is U.S law built on white supremacy? If I kill someone, black or white, it's still murder. If i steal something, no matter my race, it's still theft under the law. We don't have different rules for different races.
George Floyd's situation is a tragedy. Everyone, black and white, agreed on that. Can we stay on the actual problem of police brutality against citizens. Every group gets beat the hell out of in pretty much the same proportion they have altercations with cops anyway. And capitalism has nothing to do with anything here. The reality here is we have some shit cops, especially in these bigger cities. We need to come together, as people, and fix the issues.
5278404
There's a whole fuckton to unpack here, but honestly, I'm over it. Believe what you want to believe.