Overcoming the Inertia of Inaction

The Massachusetts police reform bills have spent the month of August languishing behind closed doors in the negotiating committee between the two chambers of the legislature. Meanwhile, another black man, Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times by a white policeman in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Two nights later, a teenager, openly armed with some kind of assault rifle and wandering the streets in a misguided fantasy of imposing order, shot three more people, killing two.

The young man was an ardent supporter of Blue Lives Matter. “Part of my job also is to protect people,” he said. “If someone is hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle; I’ve got to protect myself obviously. But I also have my med kit.” A noble and misguided fantasy that was fueled by our President who inflames hatred to solidify his power and justify his own control fantasies. The young man, now arrested for murder, also had photos on his social media postings of standing in the front row at a Trump rally. How ironic that Trump is now running for re-election based on portraying himself as the only one who can save the country from the violence he has ardently encouraged.

The police unions are also mobilizing against the reform efforts here in Massachusetts and elsewhere. Their mission is to protect the status quo. Incremental change would be fine with them, but any real change will be fought with all the significant resources of money and political power they command.

A neighbor of mine here in Worcester just put up a ‘Friend of the Police’ sign in their lawn. I think the men and women who have taken the job of being police are, for the most part, decent and often devoted people. But the issue with systemic problems is that they are not a matter of individual morality, but of a structure that rewards and protects immoral behavior.

Without a profound shift in the training, oversight and accountability, the systemic racism and inhumanity of the police will continue, despite well-intentioned efforts of some or even many individuals. We must support our legislators to overcome the barriers and enact significant reform now. It won’t be perfect, but we must move forward to address the glaring and cruel pattern of police racial violence.

If the essential idea of the police is to keep ordinary citizens safe, it seems the unions should all be enthusiastically supporting these changes that they are so vociferously fighting.