Outrage

We've all seen it. Four police officers slowly tortured a man to death, for no reason other than sadistic enjoyment, in front of a crowd of onlookers, while being videotaped. Obviously they thought they were entitled to do that, and would face no repercussions. It's understandable Minneapolis erupted in protest. Obviously something is profoundly wrong with the police culture there. The head of the police union is a white supremacist who spoke at a Trump rally, so yeah.

But, you may ask, why are protests breaking out all over the country? After all, this was just one incident in a Midwestern city, what does it have to do with New York or Boston or San Francisco? That should be easy. Police have had a license to murder black people and they do it, a lot. That is a manifestation of a deeper and wider moral disease in our national culture, the continuing legacy of one of the two great original sins of the nation. The important difference today between the expropriation and genocide of the indigenous people of the country, and slavery, is that there aren't enough indigenous people around any more to even make their complaint heard, but it's of the same essence, white supremacy.

It's the first of the month so you should be able to read Charles M. Blow's column, and I suggest you do. Here's my pull quote but do read the whole thing.

The protests are not necessarily about Floyd’s killing in particular, but about the savagery and carnage that his death represents: The nearly unchecked ability of the state to act with impunity in the oppression of black bodies and the taking of black life.

It is an anger over feeling powerless, stalked and hunted, degraded and dehumanized. It is an anger that the scenes keep repeating themselves until one feels exhausted and wrung out. It is an anger over feeling that people in power on every level — individual officers as well as local, state and federal government — are utterly unresponsive to people’s calls for fundamental change and equal justice under the law and equal treatment by it.

Now, is there a danger that these protest will ignite Covid-19 outbreaks? Sadly, there is. But read Ranu Dillhon's twitter feed on this. (He's a Harvard M.D. and a community health advocate and innovator.) He notes that Black Americans are 3 times as likely to be killed by police as white Americans; and also more than 3 times as likely to die of Covid-19. These are poisonous fruit of the same tree. If lives are already in danger, if you're already in constant fear, you might as well take risks to save people. There is a time to rise up and take power over your fate.