Chi osserva i guardiani?
What an awful week
This week, I did something I do rarely. I drew on my combat experiences, nearly two decades removed, to write about how badly American police forces were dealing with the massive ongoing protests over George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
Read it. I’m blunt, and spare no blushes. But if you don’t want to click over, here’s the summary: they’re fucking up because they lack discipline and care, and they treat the people they’re supposed to serve and protect like they’re an occupation army.
I’m done. I’m out of patience.
Police departments are extremely fond of referring to themselves as a city’s “finest”, as “elite”, as “the best”.
Is this how “elite” departments act?
Is this how a city’s “finest” should perform their duties — arresting legal observers at a protest? The “special observer” is a role America has long championed, especially around the globe through coalitions and international bodies. Clear identification is part of their protected status. Nothing speaks to the breakdown of democracy more than a blasphemous scene like this.
Arresting innocent Americans petitioning their government for a redress of their grievances?
How about this? Is this how an elite force should behave?
Is there anything about this that evokes professionalism, let alone serving and protecting?
But probably the most shocking image — and the one that tells me that speaks the loudest to where we are is this one:
Your eyes do not deceive you. That is a New York City police officer’s knee resting on the head of a woman he’s arresting. Here’s the description by the photographer, Natalie Keyssar.
New York City isn’t some exception to the norm; it’s just the biggest stage for the brutality on display, it’s a city I love, and a place I’ve finally learned to call a home. Just tonight, in a video that you definitely should brace yourself for if you choose to see it, Buffalo police shoved someone’s grandfather roughly to the ground, saw him crack his skull on the pavement, saw blood pour from his ears, and then proceeded to ignore him as he lay bleeding.
The cities, towns, villages change; everything else is the same. Police might take a momentary knee in supposed solidarity, but inevitably the batons and pepper spray are unleashed, and their rage is unmasked. It doesn’t matter who, it doesn’t matter where; the police cannot restrain themselves.
So we must restrain them. The question I posed above as the title of today’s newsletter is the Italian translation of Juvenal’s Satires:
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
But who will watch the watchmen?
The answer is us. It always has been; it’s just that we thought we could rely on a supposedly elite force to do that for themselves. But they’ve forfeited that privilege, and now must face the gravest consequences for the abuse of that privilege, which freely given, can never be granted again.
And if they should ask why, I’ll leave some Washington teenagers to give the blunt rejoinder:
“Y’all see no one ever says ‘fuck the fire department!’ ‘Cause they do their job and mind their business!”
No links, except for this one: National Resources List. This is a list of bail funds, mental health resources, and other helpful links and materials that we should all keep at hand, and share with one another.
I love all y’all. If you’re protesting, especially after curfew: you’re brave and courageous and I salute that with every fiber of my being. Stay safe. I’m here for you. Hit reply if you need anything.