To reflect on something broader. I lost a child, not to police violence but to the scourge of serious mental illness. The pain is enduring and indescribable. It made me even more sensitive to the pain of African-American families who lose children in encounters with police. 1
When my kids began to drive, I worried every night that they would drink, speed or do something reckless. I did not have to worry that they could behave impeccably but still die, get arrested, jailed or tased for no reason other than their skin color. But every black parent does.
And not just teens. If I drove with a broken tail light, I was not concerned that I would be stopped and potentially shot-- or stuck with a huge fine just to provide revenue to a city. 3
I did not worry that if I did get arrested for something, I would languish in jail for months without trial because I was too poor to make bail, and would probably lose my job along the way. So we ALL should listen to Black Lives Matter, should understand the pain and outrage. 4
And we need to focus on action. We need a wholesale evaluation of every police department, to see where there is institutional racism, whether there are cops with long records of complaints or white supremacist sympathy, and make sure they are removed. 5
We need to get every police department to implement Crisis Intervention Team Policing, a week long intensive program that institutionalizes deescalating conflict instead of escalating it, something that reduces shootings and arrests across the board. 6
We need to get governors and other officials-- including Andrew Cuomo-- to release those in prison awaiting trial for non-violent offenses because they could not make bail, esp now when the risk is COVID and death. And we need BAIL REFORM! 7
And we need to get police departments as well to stop using trivial traffic stops to shake down poor people as a substitute for taxes the elected officials are too cowardly to levy. 8
