A CRITIQUE OF POLICE KILLINGS OF BLACK PEOPLE RECENTLY IN AMERICA

	Peter Goselin July 21 at 11:53am
Every department of local government may engage in "policing itself," but when it does not do so to the satisfaction of the taxpayers, it hears from us and is under pressure to change. For that matter, even police departments feel the heat when white suburbanites ("the taxpayers") complain about how they conduct themselves. But when it comes to black communities, there is some magical inversion. Instead of the community dictating how the police do their job, the police have the power to dictate the lives of the people in the community. Suddenly it seems outrageous to say "the police should do their jobs the way we tell them." In fact, it becomes controversial to say "The community demands that the police stop beating, shooting, and killing us." Is there really any other explanation for this phenomenon than the simple fact that police departments are the modern incarnation of the slave patrols that, pre-Civil War, hunted down runaway slaves and helped wealthy whites regain their "property"? And if that's so is there really any other demand that can address the problem of rampant, racist police violence than to demilitarize and disarm the police and make them accountable to the community? Peter Goselin is an activist and fighter for social justice in Greater Hartford, CT area. He posted this on Face Book after a series of police shootings involving the deaths of black people recently.