Something I’ve been thinking about that I thought might be useful to talk through (and refine, with input from y’all). I know I touch upon a lot of related topics and this might be a bit to spread out, but I hope my main line of thought is at least somewhat coherent here.
When minorities protest about racism and police brutality, it’s not just about George Floyd.
When women talk about being sexually harassed, it not just about that guy at work that one time.
When service workers complain about customers, it’s not just about that one Karen on Thursday.
It’s about seeing and having those experiences, day in and day out, every day, for weeks upon months upon years upon decades, and not seeing anybody particularly interested in doing something about it or caring. I don’t see how you can’t at least sympathize a little with “abolish the police” when I’m sure the minorities being argued against hear, “yeah, I know this has happened 5210 times before in the past century, and every single time we’ve said there will be reform and things are still not improved, but THIS TIME we really really REALLY mean it, I swear!” It seems to be the same as the “not all men” reaction (and just as missing the point).
In fact, the police abolishment movement is exactly what made me think about the similarities here with sexual harassment and treatment of minimum wage workers. The inability or refusal to understand that it’s about a decades-long, CONSTANT trend and struggle that never seems to get better, seems to be the source of most of the misunderstanding and frustration in many debates, as previously noted. Of course, as I said in another thread, none of this makes the politics or practicalities any easier to navigate; quite the opposite, by definition. Like with Democrats vs. Trump supporters, it’s like the parties live in different worlds with different facts and rules of physics.
Is there a way to overcome all this? Like, I’m sure that (barring anarchists) most police abolishment advocates would happily ease off their rhetoric if they actually thought that more incremental reform/change was actually going to be done, or even considered in a year’s time, but it’s very clear to me they don’t, for the reasons mentioned above. What can be done, and who’s going to have to do the heavy lifting here?