At the highest level, the Kenosha Polices' aggressive treatment of Jacob Blake ending in deadly force and the same police departments' kindness towards Kyle Rittenhouse prior to the shooting shows how poor police are at their stated mission: protecting the public from violence.1/

It reminds me of another recent moment in the uprising: when a camera crew recorded police being flagged down by store owners for help, followed by police trying to arrest the store owners. They enter the situation and make it worse. 2/ https://twitter.com/FOXLA/status/1267637185508806656

Police apologists will point out that people make mistakes and we can't expect police to be perfect, but I think this actually supports the abolitionist position.

I think it's totally possible that humans cannot make the kinds of judgements Police say is their job to make. 3/

If police are justified in using deadly force *because* they need it to prevent violence, but are so blinded by circumstance that they are unable to discern who is dangerous or what the appropriate reaction is, then the system doesn't logically hold together. 4/

This also neatly sidesteps the question of "good" or "bad" apples. Clearly there are many bad people in police departments, but we can address them later if we can agree that the job police say they do is actually impossible for humans to do. 5/

We need another system, not because police are bad people (though it seems many are), but because of our human limits. Our policing system comes from a racist past, whatever its present state. We should found a new system on preventing violence. 6/6 https://theconversation.com/the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-from-slave-patrols-to-traffic-stops-112816

I wrote this thread before reading that Rittenhouse appeared to possibly try to surrender to police after the shooting, but was ignored. However, I think that report just underlines what I've said above. https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1298683748276461568