On my bike ride back from the protest earlier in downtown Philadelphia, I took a brief pause at the intersection of Spring Garden and 2nd street where four national guard members were posted up next to a Humvee.
Still carrying my sign in one hand, “Knowledge is more dangerous than guns”, I said yeo. One of them asked me how I was doing; not a nonchalant, “hey how you doing”, but more like a nervous, I'm the only outcast kid on the playground, please be my friend, “hey, how you doing”. I told him it’s been a long day, but that the protest was peaceful and purposeful and that I just got done listening to Malcolm Jenkins make a speech on systematic racism and inequality. They nodded and said they understood that’s what this is about.
Then I asked how they were feeling. The main guy talking said he was tired too, just had his shift extended three more days and said he’s missing home (somewhere around Eerie) and that it’s in his job description to be here. I told him the protests don’t look like they're stopping anytime soon. I told him that until the city wises up with legislation and funding, that their pockets are going to continue hurting from paying police and outside help to stand around all day, everyday. He acknowledged my point, and before I rode away he said, “Thanks for talking to us. Everybody else just flips us the middle finger and calls us baby killers”. I told him, no worries, and rode off.
Quick backdrop. Two days earlier I rode past the same post and took my phone out to record the men standing there and exclaimed, “THIS IS NOT A DRILL”....I am by no means a saint, but I do try and learn. So what did I learn from my conversation today? That the national guard isn’t here to solely terrorize us, however much myself or anyone else gets the feeling they are. The bigger question is, where does that feeling come from?
Well, there’s no doubt militarization can be intimidating, but I also believe it’s from decades of a dysfunctional policing system where the hierarchy of protections have gone in this order: Property->Laws->People. We NEED to reverse that order. We NEED to end racial profiling and excessive force. It’s also going to include an overhaul of trainings that include bolstered mental health components. Servicemen and women are humans, just like every one of us, so they need the tools to interact and assess accordingly. Maybe most importantly, what we need in this country is accountability. Effective review boards and increased supervision is a disciplinary must. Funding also needs to be re-evaluated, no doubt. That’s what proper police reform will look like.
I’m a big believer that open dialogues are the only way through all this, and that the only way to change the system is to change ourselves in tandem. So, before you start saying all cops are bastards, channel that energy into understanding our system, and continue to march for the cause of changing that, because the “bad cops” are just a symptom of a larger issue.
