Even more extraordinary how patient Black citizens have been, staying so peaceful, despite having been given the message "we are at war with you."

Even more extraordinary how aggrieved police & those who align w/them are, when citizens finally agree "yes, you are at war with us"

I'm told that the most important thing in the wake of this latest in an unbroken string of brutal state sponsored murders of citizens by police is that the situation does not become violent.

It's a telling response to a string of brutal state-sponsored murders of citizens by police.

Specifically, it's telling that some people see violence as their exclusive property, and that they consider the police to be institutionally entrusted with its proper administration.

Police exist, ostensibly, to keep the peace, but they have scorn for peace. It's those the police wage war upon who believe in peace.

The peace won't be broken by protesters this week. It's been broken all along. Protest simply breaks it in ways comfortable people can't ignore.

If a protest becomes violent, that is the failure of our ostensible peacekeepers. If police are unable to meet riot with any means beyond violence, that is a double failure. If they never even make the attempt, that is utter failure.

Every riot is a police riot.

Policing is a failed institution, if what you want is an institution that keeps peace.

Police behave and talk and carry themselves in society exactly as if they think they were hired to wage war, not keep peace.

Who hired them? We did. I did.

We should fire them