"Defund the police"

I put that in between scare quotes in the hope that the Very Serious People will spare me their very serious lectures. Look, that slogan was never intended as a mandate for anarchy. It was a demand to demilitarize the police and return them to their mission to "protect and serve."

As a White male, I understand that the current police practices in the US are mostly geared to protect me, people who look like me, and my property. If I were a Black man, I would do everything in my power to avoid the police. As the case of Tyre Nichols vividly demonstrates, it's not the race of the police, it's the attitude and practices of policing in America.

Will that change when the men charged with Tyre Nichols' beating death are convicted and sentenced? No, of course not. Just like the latest mass shootings will do nothing to alter the ammosexual gundamentalist firearms fetish in America.

What will it take? I'm an optimistic person, but I'm not stupid. I know that too many of my fellow Americans believe violence is the answer to the problems in the world and that the lives of their fellow Americans are a price they're willing to pay.

Pro-life? Feh.