We...

We are stupid and feckless and scared and, worst of all, to hopeful when it comes to policing.

We fall for the core lie linking police and public safety, when it’s just the opposite, every election cycle.

We try to outsmart our own impossible beliefs about what threatens us, trusting that we can sort all the bad ones into the bad box and the good ones into the good box.

We convene symposiums and town halls and neighborhood watches and workshops.

We make excuses and call them reasons, because what else can we do?

We love police or we hate them or we act like we can tell the good ones from the bad.

We act innocent.

We pay taxes.

We put our hands on the steering wheel when pulled over, and act nice like little children afraid - because we are.

We foreground race and then forget that, too.

We forget, we get wobbly, we get arrogant, we get cute.

-Tony De Velasco

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