WHITE MAKES RIGHT

After weeks and weeks of national protest, marches, demonstrations and civil disobedience, the response of the good citizens of Manhattan Beach is a resounding display of backslapping, self-satisfied, smug, aloofness.

“Our police are different.” “We are blessed.” “We are so lucky.” “We need more police.”

Did any of these writers ask a Black person what they thought of MBPD? After all, that is what this conversation is all about: police brutality directed toward people of color. That is what the murder of George Floyd is about: police abuse of Black people. That is what the murder of Tamir Rice is about; Elijah McLain; Rashard Brooks; and many more. This conversation is about the abuse of power which police exert over minorities.

Yet I am absolutely certain not one of these writers is a person of color , nor do they have a single Black friend, and I doubt if they have even had a serious conversation with a Black acquaintance about the Black experience with police.

Let’s dispense with the Defund The Police excuse. I find it inconceivable that there aren’t at least ten realtors on any NextDoor Manhattan Beach thread. Yet when it comes to ‘defund MBPD,’ every contributing realtor pretends they never learned rule #1 in negotiating tactics: Always ask for more than you expect to get.

No one presumes or even wants to defund the police. They are a necessary part of a well-functioning society. Police are needed; they just need to be reorganized, retrained, reviewed, reexamined and replaced. These are serious times and they call for serious discussions, not excuses by people who complain that every ‘i’ wasn’t dotted and every ‘t’ wasn’t crossed.

No one was talking about the one million interactions Ted Bundy had with other people. They were talking about the 30+ people he murdered. We are not talking about the one million traffic stops and routine confrontations police engage in. We are talking about the countless murders, beatings and brutality they have committed against Black and Brown people.

If the present movement to change relations between the police and people of color serves any purpose it should at minimum encourage dialogue between those benefitting from white privilege and those people of color unfortunate enough to be victims of mistreatment. Yet it is obvious from the complacent and carefree sense of advantage exhibited by the contributors to these posts that no such conversation has taken place.

Now is the time to have that conversation. It will take an effort. It will take some work. It will take some courage. But our country is worth the effort. Millions have died in foreign wars so that we could enjoy the fruits of freedom. Sitting at your computer and spouting platitudes about our great country, while watching the suffering and humiliation of fellow citizens on television is a lazy and shameful way to honor the great Americans who have sacrificed for your privilege.