Day 294: We can’t stop now.

Yet another day for protesting and another day for police brutality. Every day I check to see what’s been happening and what is currently happening with the protest and I hold my breath every time I wait for the current update. I’m nervous the protests will slow down, I’m nervous we are going to get tired and stop.

Humans have short attention spans and they are particularly short in the US. Frankly, I am happily surprised at the size and scope of the protests going on. We need to keep going, we can’t stop and we shouldn’t stop. Still, I’m nervous that people will get bored, they will take their privilege, and go home.

So far that hasn’t happened and the size of the protests seems to be growing. Slowly, very slowly, things are changing for the better. That is the point, but they are currently only minor changes. Small glimpses at the end goal.

To be completely clear, I’m for defunding the police. When I say that I don’t mean take away the funding, I mean eliminate the entire idea of the police. We don’t honestly need them, we can replace them with groups that support and foster the needs of the people. But, but, but crime! Yeah I know, hear me out, we don’t need a specific group of people to reduce crime, that job can be easily handed off to other more compassionate groups.

Most low level crime is a response to a need not being met. We have a war on drugs, but really we need a war on hunger, a war on poverty. We could easily end these things, we choose not to do so. So people who lack the basics are forced to do what they can to get food or shelter.

Okay, so we don’t need them for crime, what about domestic violence? Well first, you obviously have never seen how the police handle domestic violence. They rape kit backlog is huge and it’s not from a lack of funding. They simply don’t care. You know who do care? Advocates, people who can help the victim find justice. Police have been documented over and over making things worse and I’m not going to cite that claim, but google is a thing. Don’t worry I’ll be here while you do it.

There are so many better uses for the bloated budgets that police are given to do jobs that they cannot and should not be doing. There is literally nothing the police do that can’t be done by another group better, with more compassion, and with less funding. It’s time to look beyond the system we were told was for our own good and look to a better way.

So we protest and I sincerely hope that we continue to protest until we set ourselves on the right path. The one were we put the needs of the people first. The one where no one is above the law, especially police. The one where being black doesn’t place an invisible target on your back.