To all honest and good police officers out there:

Please. Do this.

It will clarify matters.

It will also put the responsibility for maintaining some sort of civilized society back squarely where it belongs: on the average citizen.

Maintenance of civilized order has been outsourced to police the same way teaching children has been outsourced to public schools. Both are a mistake. Both are the result of the citizenry being unwilling to assume responsibilities properly theirs.

Sheriffs and posses of able-bodied citizenry worked fine for maintaining order for a long time. But the men have to be willing to accept that this is part of their social responsibility, part of the cost of maintaining a free society. The police state is the alternative, once those men decide they just don’t feel like doing it anymore.

Same with the city where I live. In fact, there are huge swaths of the inner city that were burned in the riots of the 60s that were never rebuilt – and no one ever talks about it. The riots of the 60s were the biggest thing that happened in that decade. They had the most impact on the most people’s lives, they transformed our cities, and were the real shaper of racial relations going forward. The Civil Right Act was small potatoes. Everything that’s happened in American cities since the riots, has been in reaction to the riots. Not being able to talk frankly about the riots of the 60s is one of the many factors that has distorted the national conversation about race and cities.