I went to my local farmer’s market here in the north woods of Wisconsin, feeling happy for the beautiful day and the chance to be support the growers—but then the first words I heard were a guy saying “maybe they shouldn’t have shot seven times, but other than that I can’t see that he didn’t deserve it”— referring to Jacob Blake, shot in the back by a cop in Kenosha, in front of his children, a few days ago.
This wasn’t said to me, I only overheard it. I didn’t know the person. Thus it was far from clear whether there was any way to respond that could help, since I suppose he was inoculated by Fox News and/or Trump tweets against anything I would have said.
But it certainly ruined my day and made me fear for our country. I made a reflection about it for a podcast that my local church produces. Might be preaching to the choir, but in any case represents me talking to local people I know-- some of whom might be still be something like I once was, living in a town with vanishingly few people of color, where you are taught that the police are pretty much helpful friends.
One thing I said is that I had a beloved son in Milwaukee, who had close black friends including one from Kenosha. They would have been at the protest where the wanna-be cop vigilante murderer, Kyle Rittenhouse, was shooting at protesters.
Another thing I said is that my job as a teacher is to keep cool, even if students are outrageously disrespectful or even verbally abusive to me. If I lost my temper and lashed back, even just verbally, that could literally escalate into my losing my job. Certainly it would land me in very deep trouble if I tried in any way to discipline anyone physically.
Yet the cop who killed Jacob Blake has a free pass to shoot him in the back 7 times if he justifies it by claiming Blake was somehow disrespectful to him.
MBE standard notice: The time I spend on this blog is not in addition to a Twitter and FaceBook presence, but an alternative to it. If you think anything here merits wider circulation, this will probably only happen if you circulate it.