What We the People talk about when we talk about Police Reform

Welcome back Dear Readers, and a happy [Solstice Holiday] to you all.  

In case you haven't read the op-ed "Blue Lives Matter" featured in the Atlantic yesterday.  Do yourself a favor and read it.  Ta-Nehisi Coates is a skilled wordsmith and handles the underlying issues that dog police reform and racial reconciliation with incredible compassion for the victims and for Police Officers.  In a time when people are shouting on both sides that such a view is impossible, Coates reveals why compassion for victims and police is inseparable.  

A lot of what Coates discusses reminded me of a conversation I had with my dad just a few weeks ago.  "My dad told me to be careful about making laws – any law.  Because as soon as you pass a law, you've told someone with a gun to go enforce that law.  If you're not comfortable with the real possibility that someone might be killed for that law, then maybe it's not such a good law."  

And that premise is what Coates calls out: police are in fact public servants.  They are bound to the will of the majority, and it is their burden to enforce all the laws that our representatives pass at the behest of their constituents (that's us).  Police brutality and other abuses of power happen as an outcropping of the beliefs that we as a majority have put into law.  I've known several officers – all good, honorable men and women – and there are laws that they are bound to enforce which they completely disagree with.  Police officers aren't free to enforce according to their consciences, but according to the conscience we created through legislation.  

So what we need to accept when we call for "Police Reform" what we're really calling for is a hard look in the mirror.  We need to change ourselves and our laws, and if we can do that, then the servants of that law will change.  If they don't, then we can say that the police need reform.

As always, thanks for reading.  

A little laugh

You all may have read about the Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. using a Mexican Drug Cartel assassin, who may or may not have been a CIA operative.

Here's how I imagine the information changed hands:

CIA Assassin: So an Iranian intelligence officer and an assassin walk into a Mexican bar looking to assassinate the Suadi Ambassador.
FBI Agent: What’s the punch line?
CIA Assassin: I’m the f***ing punchline!

Combating Idiocy one post at a time

Now and again I come across an article that someone posts on the old Facebook. In the recent year or so, opinion articles bashing women have become increasingly common. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is an impending election year, which for God alone knows what reason, brings out the unfortunately misguided opinions of some particularly vocal right-wingers. Another factor is the constant fear of change that is intrinsic in human nature. Jealousy could also be a factor, since women have fared better in this stormy economy than men. (Only 8.5% of women are unemployed as of June 2011 versus 9.5% of men, although the tables may be turning).

Whatever the reason, many of these articles have a handful of non-sourced statistics concerning women's voting habits/rearing goals/why they should be in the kitchen demmit et cetera, et cetera. The fact of the matter is that the working woman is here to stay, and if you can't handle it, then scoot over because she CAN do your job and given the opportunity she will. No amount of internet chatter to repeal the 19th amendment or bring us back to the morally "upright" 1950s will change the times.

As for the lament of the man-boys running around in society, maybe we should take a better look at how we're doing as father figures rather than blaming an "increasingly" socialist nation for coddling them.