The loudest, most dominant voices in American political discourse often are the ones with the least thought-through, least useful perspectives.
For a brief moment, we had a broad, bipartisan national consensus that the police should not kill those in their custody. Then, our warring factions of idiots went and ruined it.
On May 25, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin did something terrible, pressing his knee on the back of George Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, during which time Floyd’s heart stopped beating and he died. Chauvin’s fellow officers, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao, stood and watched. This angered many Americans, if not almost all Americans.
Then, some residents of Minneapolis chose to respond to Chauvin’s actions by setting fire to the Third Precinct headquarters of the city police. The country had not yet finished discussing important questions such as, “What is the appropriate consequence for these officers?” and “Is this incident representative of systemic problems in police forces in Minneapolis or the rest of the country?” But the arson in Minneapolis and provocations such as firecrackers thrown at police during protests outside CNN Center in Atlanta had already prompted the country to leave those questions unresolved and move on to other heated debates: “Are these protests ‘mostly peaceful’?” “Is looting justified?” “How much of what’s happening on city streets is driven by Antifa?” “What counts as Antifa?”
Our national discussion was quickly overrun by those who wanted to use the actions of Chauvin and his fellow officers to define all police across the country, and those who wanted to use the actions of the looters and rioters to define everyone participating in the protests. Anyone with eyes can see that not all police officers are Derek Chauvin, and not everyone who attended a protest, march, or demonstration in response to Floyd’s death was looting and committing acts of violence. But if some cops are bad, then police forces across the country might have to accept changes in procedure. And if some people who came out to protest exploited the moment as an opportunity to commit selfish crimes, the protesters would be forced to acknowledge that the police play an irreplaceable role in protecting the public and restoring order at times of unrest.
