Don't fuck the police, ostracize them.

Cops… Cops are a hot button issue right now. A plethora of stories have bombarded many of our news feeds of police violence. There are two common comments on these stories, “not all cops are bad,” and “why don’t the good cops say something?” Let’s take a look at these. After I tell you what I think about these comments I want to share what I think is the only viable solution to the police violence pandemic.

“Not all cops are bad.” No shit. This sentiment is exactly the same that led to pejorative #NotAllMen campaign.  Of course not all cops are “bad cops” but the fact remains that the bad cops share that same blue uniform with the good cops. There is no way for you and I to know if the cop who just pulled us over is of the “shoot them in the back” persuasion, just like there is no way for a woman to know if that guy at the bar is the “rape her in the alley” type of guy. Saying that “not all cops are bad” is a useless sentiment, not all cops are good and the bad ones get the press.

When we hear about these “bad cops” the response to public scrutiny is always the same. When we hear about a child being tazed, it was justified, a homeless man being shot after surrendering? Justified. A man choked to death after helping break up a fight? Justified. Protestors, peaceful ones at that get tear gassed and pepper sprayed? Justified. This is because of the “thin blue line,” the “us versus them” attitude that is perpetuated by police departments and their advocates. We are told that we cannot understand the pressures and stressors of this job, and so we must just accept it when we are told that the heinous actions were “justified.” This leads us to the “why don’t the good cops say something?” comment. It is simple really; the “thin blue line” is a zero tolerance policy. If a cop speaks out about other cops, even the “bad cops” they risk being treated as a pariah among their department, trust gets tossed out the window. Speaking out against another cop could jeopardize your career, so you tow the party line.

That was my analyses of those two sentiments, here is my solution: Ostracism. We know which side of the “thin blue line” cops will always stand on, and we are not on that side; we are their “them” in the “us versus them” attitude. If they are going to treat us as beneath them, as though we have no right to question their authority, then we should ostracize them. Cops should be refused service in our coffee shops, our restaurants, our local farmers markets. When a uniformed police officer enters a business we are visiting, we should leave. I am not advocating for violence, or passionate confrontation, I am advocating the dispassionate disassociation from a group of people who have demonstrated that they do not have the best interest of the public at heart. A badge should be a road block, until the police rectify the situation that they are responsible for. As long as cops can shoot homeless people without recrimination, no cop will share my table. I will not stand in line with a uniformed police officer, because the pervasive attitude in that community makes me feel unsafe. I will not call the cops, the risk of being an accessory to murder (or the victim) is too great. When the police are more likely to kill an innocent than a terrorist there is an imbalance, by ostracizing the police perhaps we can help make our streets safer.   

Why Ferguson Missouri has changed me.

I grew up in a very conservative house. My step dad is a neo-con, my mom is a “liberal Christian”, and we went to church every Sunday. We were patriotic to a tee, I grew up with my sole aspiration to be a United States Marine and defend people against the evil “over there”. I would get upset when people didn’t respect the pledge of allegiance, or when they would make punk songs out of gospel music.

I was raised with that idealized version of America. We were a country where it was the merits of a man’s actions that made him worth respect, I still hold this ideal only for me it is the merits of a person’s action that make them worthy of respect. We were a country that had defeated racism, it was in the past. We were a country that stood against the evils of the night, we ended colonialism. We were the protectors of the world, from the Nazis and the commies alike. We didn’t have a police state, our constitution protected us from the evils of man, much like Jesus protected us from the evils of Lucifer.

It was the Bush presidency that started to change me, I was in high school and I knew gay kids, I knew hippies and drug users (I even did some of that to horrific result). I still justified my dislike of them using the political and religious language I had grown up with, but the seeds of doubt had been planted by real life experience. I became a Libertarian, I toyed with alternate spiritualities (Buddhism especially). I became incredibly depressed over this departure from “normal”, I attempted suicide over the guilt I felt. I didn’t talk about it much, really only when I thought my personal experience could help someone who was struggling.

I mention this past because it gives context. I grew up with the typical attitude of “that doesn’t happen here.” That attitude sneaks up on me, when there were police putting down protestors in Egypt I smugly forgot how the local PD had put down Occupy. When Pussy Riot was abused and locked up, I forgot the stories of activists getting locked up in the states.

I watched a video recently of footage from the Ferguson MO protests, and it crushed this small innocent core I had. This video, shot in night vision by a journalist, could have come from the streets of turkey, or perhaps even gaza. This forced me to internalize what I had safely intellectualized, I have talked about the police state, and racism, and all of these issues previously, but they had never touched my heart, never impacted that inner sanctum of false superiority. Even though I have never been to Missouri, hearing the shells and the crack of rifles on the streets in what amounts to my political back yard has fucked me up.  

I can’t get this out of my head, to know that I had allowed myself to be so deceived after proclaiming my own knowledge of the issues in this country. To harbor this delusion, to hide it even from myself, has injured me and my efforts. I am now confronted with my own delusion, and the issue of correcting my error. I have no solutions, yet I am convinced that now is the time to take action to stop the current hostilities, and to prevent future hostilities.