A white teenager with a long gun shot and killed two people and wounded another last night in Kenosha. A crowd of everyday, unarmed citizens chased him down trying to stop and apprehend him, while three police cars rolled right by and did nothing.

He was apprehended today. (1/)

Per CBSNews: “His posts indicate he is extremely pro-police & appears to have been a former police explorer, a career-oriented program for youth considering a career in law enforcement. Many of his social media posts use the phrase ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ according to the ADL.” (2/)

Did they know him? Is that why when he walked toward police vehicles, sometimes even with his hands up in the air, no one stopped or arrested him? Is that why the police did nothing even as the crowd told them that he had shot multiple people right in front of them? (3/)

Or was it just that an armed white kid reads as “protector” instead of “danger?” Were the officers happy to see him after alleged internet posts urging vigilantes and militias to go to Kenosha to take on protestors & “protect the city?” (4/)

Per ABCNews: “In other widely circulating video, police can be heard thanking & tossing bottled water from an armored vehicle to what appear to be armed civilians walking the streets.

‘We appreciate you being here,’ an officer is heard saying over a loudspeaker.” (5/)

We don’t have all the facts about last night. Those will come. But we don’t need to see any more than what we’ve seen over the last few days & months (centuries) to know that we have a massive, dangerous, inexcusable problem of racism in our country and our policing. (6/)

Continuing to blindly defend both will change nothing. It’s scary to admit that our police system is broken (or more accurately working just as designed, since its roots are in policing people of color). It’s scary to admit that something deeply unfair is happening — armed (7/)

white killers walking free in front of police while unarmed innocent people of color are murdered—but not admitting it doesn’t change reality.

That fear you’re feeling about admitting something is wrong, admitting something is unfair—it can’t touch the fear people of color (8/)

have felt for centuries in this country. A country they helped build and have not yet ever been given the same right to enjoy. Stop protecting your idea of what this country is and starting fighting to actually make it that idea. (9/)

Stop believing what you’ve been told about “serve and protect” & open your eyes. Stop making excuses for a complete and utter abandonment of training & de-escalation tactics & acknowledge that far too many people are being given a job they are not capable of doing or (10/)

deserving of having. We need reform. We need a massive reimagining of what a police force is meant to do. We need a majority of white people to stop protecting their power and start acknowledging the truth. (11/)

How much clearer does it need to be than an armed, white, teenaged murderer walking right past the police after killing two people in cold blood?