Here is why I think many white people who act like this about cops feel this way. Thread (1/n) https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1381775209582190597

Not every white American descends from slaveowners. A lot of racists will love to remind you that they didn’t. But one of the intangible perks of whiteness is whether rich or poor, you could mistreat Black people at will and bring them to heel due to having a system to back you

There is a feeling that you can’t do that anymore. It was one of the major perks of being white, a birthright even. Something fundamental that racists feel they’ve lost and that they blame white liberals, Jewish people, Black activists, feminists, you name it, for

But the glory days where one of the perks of whiteness was that you could talk to a black person any way without repercussions, order them around and they were forced to listen, kill them in cold blood for perceived uppityness and face no legal punishment...those are gone...

...except for cops. Cops still retain that privilege and birthright, especially the white ones. They are an emblem or totem for those lost glory days for many white racists to live vicariously through. A time when Black ppl knew to obey whites and got killed when they didn’t

In their mind white cops are the last holders of a long gone tradition that once belonged to all decent white men. Something they regret being born too late to ever experience firsthand: automatic boss as well as judge jury and executioner of all Black people they dislike...

This is why they think and talk like this when discussing these matters. They believe it’s the cops duty not just his right to annihilate any Black person who doesn’t bow and scrape to a white man, for all the white men who no longer feel free to annihilate them at will anymore

Cops do it for all those who can’t anymore. They are the last holders of this American tradition. They are vested with these rights for all white people forced to relinquish it. Once even they can’t execute for uppitiness any longer that sacred tradition is dead once and for all