A few things I want to address here. First, the police are not your friends, and what I mean by that statement. Second, a brief recap of what I think change with the police really means, especially if you're new to following me.

When I say the police are not your friends, I'm not talking about individual officers, per se, whether they be your spouses, partners, actual friends, family members, etc. I have family who are police too.

What I mean is that the police, despite their half-century, incredible propaganda machine on TV, movies, etc, are not loyal, in aggregate, to you as citizenry. They've increasingly positioned themselves in an adversarial relationship w/ the general public, but...

Black folks in America are generally perceived in combatant terms by the police. So, that character, who's a cop on that cop show you love that exists to brainwash you into thinking any cop is just like you and me, is not the same as a random cop that you call on...

...or who approaches you. So, the short way of saying that is "The police are not your friends." This leads me to my key point: the inherent structure of how cops function in the US has to change. I'm not talking about wearing body cams. I said that wouldn't work 7 years ago.

Diversity training won't work. More citizen review boards won't work. Protesting our grief and anger won't work. It requires protest and active change to THEIR VERY MUNICIPAL CHARTERS. How the police function in your city and have the powers that they have.

This means that we insist on the right to elect police chiefs rather than have them appointed by mayors. That we have direct ways to hold police accountable in the places where they serve. And yes that they change their training from an urban combat model to service one.

As it stands now, the police function at the level of their own shadow civilization to ours, with the idea that they are separate from the general government and branches of the law. Many DAs & judges across the nation cower before cops & the Fraternal Order of Police.

This has international implications since there has been a growing cop culture and replicating itself in many countries around the world. Giuliani and co were doing this some 20 years ago.

I'm giving the abbreviated version of tweets that I've been intermittently making on here for 10 YEARS. If you want to inform yourself more about the true implications of the police in the US, read @radleybalko's Rise of the Warrior Cop: https://amzn.to/3grXZcd 

He summarizes salient points that I've also pulled together in my own research. If #ISAR2020 happens, I'll be talking about the Astrology of Policing there.

One last thing. Black lives, principally, are at stake with an uncontrolled police state. But White lives will increasingly be so as well. I saw that happening in 2009.

In 2012, when largely White conservatives would push back against the "putative" racism of the police with #BlackLivesMatter , I would have a very simple retort: Okay, show me three examples of unarmed White folks who've been gunned down by police in the last decade.

They couldn't do it. Now, I couldn't do that. They would be able to do that. That doesn't mean that it's proportionate btwn Black murders by cops and White. It's not, by a long shot. But I think what's happening with cops has been STARTING with Black folks & will morph.

Just like what happens with drug abuse and gun control. These issues were largely ignored when they were just in the Black community. But now it's exploded as a mainstream issue. Also, gun control should be a thing with cops too.