We have to change the frame. Fighting over who is more committed to “law and order” reproduces a way of thinking that undergirds a problematic view of policing in this country.
All too often the phrase, “law and order,” has been used to shift the blame and focus from police violence directed at Black people to the response of Black people to that violence. @BreeNewsome 2/
We see this, for example, in how “law and order” was invoked in response to the nonviolent marches of the civil rights movement. The marches were the problem. The likes of Martin Luther King, Jr and John Lewis were the criminals not the defenders of the Jim Crow South. 3/
The phrase even distorts relatively good faith efforts to confront the reality behind urban unrest. Read The Kerner Commission Report and look at the recommendations around policing in response to the riots (one of the few recommendations actually implemented from the report) 4/
Invocations of “law and order” reveal that we cling to an old frame that has devastated black and brown communities. Denounce the violence and looting, if you want, but don’t do it in the name of law and order. Perhaps a more fundamental value like justice should motivate us. 5/
A focus on justice would turn attention back to the form of violence that sparked what we are seeing in the streets. And, by foregrounding justice, maybe the country might finally do something about it and we can end this damn cycle once and for all. 6/
