The obvious must be stated here. The existential debate we are having right now is about power. We watched those buffalo officers push that 75-year-old man on the ground. We heard his body thud on the pavement and we saw blood ooze from his head as he lay motionless.

We observed officer after officer walk by and fail to administer any aid. We then read that the officers involved claimed that he merely “tripped and fell” before the video of the incident went viral and contradicted those claims. The “bad apples” theory.  

Swift Public Condemnation

Thanks to swift public condemnation, those officers were suspended without pay (as they should have been). But y’all, the entire buffalo police emergency response team has resigned from their special unit positions today. To PROTEST that someone dared to hold fellow officers accountable. Herein lies the problem with that stupid “bad apples” theory.

Herein lies the problem with caricaturing any particular officer as good or bad. I’m sure we all have an LEO friend or family member that is, from all accounts, a good person. The problem is systemic and what we are talking about is power. All police departments had to do this week was to undermine how the protesters were behaving. They knew they were being watched. They knew they were being scrutinized. But they brutalized protesters anyway.

The Concern Is Around Power

Again, the problem is about power, they knew that bad optics would mean nothing in a system that will not hold them accountable.  

So while the current uprising is rightfully centered around black lives and coalesces around the way brown, black, and indigenous people bear the brunt of police violence, it is also worth noting that this is about race and also about more than race and what we are asking for is NOT equality, as Trump just riffed about.

We don’t just want the police to be equally violent to everyone. You cannot implicit bias training or diverse hire this away. No, too easy. We have seen the awful Daniel shaver, Tony Tampa, and Kelly Thomas videos and understand that a toxic system designed to pummel brown and black folks will in the end spill over and also hurt white folks. We are revolting against unchecked power and asking for the system to be thoroughly re-envisioned. What rises up from the ashes must be anti-racist, but like most demands of black politics, will also help push towards a better world period.

Black politics is beautifully imaginative and generative so you’re marching not just for us but for you.