Cops

Given what's happened in Memphis and Alabama recently, it's worth reflecting on my relationship with cops.  Which is to say, it's non-existent.  As a white driver I don't get pulled over unless I want to -- if I speed or don't keep my tags up to date.  As a twenty-something I was pulled over a total of three times, all for speeding tickets that were completely my fault.  The point is, my relationship with cops has always been, in the truest sense, consensual.

I think what cops are risking now though is both cultural and permanent.  It's becoming obvious that cops exist to serve other cops, not you or me.  If you do happen to be in a situation where you acted lawfully and a cop didn't, and it's your word against his or hers, you're the one who will pay the consequences.  Even now you'd have to be stupid or ignorant not to realize, deep down, this is already the truth regardless of skin color.

To try and put it another way, "post-racial" policing in America does not mean what it should -- a justice system where people are treated equally under the law.  What it means is that even white citizen are waking up to realize that every police department in America is a racket, a private operation, a conspiracy of silence, where cops will always do their damndest to protect each other, their pay, and their benefits.  They will always act to ensure that this self-protecting and self-enriching machine keeps running.

Our health and safety and rights?  Eh, they'll be protected when it's convenient, but certainly not if we in any way challenge or threaten that machine.

The essential question becomes, why are we paying so much for this shit?  Why do we continue to subsidize what are essentially modular cartels in every American state, city, and county?