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It’s been over a week since the murder of George Floyd, and in his death, there has been a global outcry from people of all races calling for justice and an immediate end to police brutality against Black people in America. Across the globe, we are seeing people protest, march and fight back against violent oppressors who are working to uphold our system of “Law and Order,” or white supremacy. Police, SWAT, National Guard and military personnel were all deployed in certain states to “keep the peace.” With tensions high between the two opposing factions, some protesters took it upon themselves to try and mend the distrustful relationship between the two groups by asking them (police officers and anyone else with a semi-automatic weapon) to kneel with us.
By now, we’ve all seen a photo or video of a police officer taking a knee in supposed solidarity with the George Floyd protesters, but if those asking officers of the law to “join us” really understood the history of distrust between police and Black Americans, they would see this act isn’t hopeful or done in solidarity. It’s propaganda and it’s problematic to the movement.
This matter of contention between Black folks and police is not a problem that will be solved by well-intended kneeling. And to the protestors (white protesters imparticulary who claim allyship) who would suggest that kneeling is a progressive step towards peace, you are missing the point of the movement entirely. In order to see how this is problematic, we have to look at the history of policing in America.
During the slave era in the south, slave patrols (groups of white men) implemented violent and, during the time, acceptable methods of enforcing slavery. Much like slave-catchers, they would hunt and return escaped slaves to the plantations they ran from. After the 13th amendment was issued, Jim Crow Laws flourished in the south, promoting segregation and harsh punishment of Black people who defied it. This included arrest, physical abuse and, at its worse moments, lynching. The police system is built on Black oppression, it thrives on it. For this reason we cannot ask cops to kneel with us because their work is a direct connection to the denial of Black freedom and existence.
How does police kneeling solve the problem of brutality in this country? How does their marching erase 400 plus years of inhumane treatment of Black folks in America? In short, it doesn’t. Their brief acts of unification are great for photo-ops or alleviating high pressure moments during a protest. But remember, those cops who kneeled are the same ones who won’t hesitate to let the tear gas fly or pepper spray you if it meant “keeping the peace.”
There can’t be solidarity between Black Americans and police as long as they continue to embody the demise of Black Americans. Are we supposed to forgive the murders of countless Black people in this country because one officer kneels? Are we supposed to forget the MOVE bombings led by the U.S. government against Black families and children because a cop decides to march? I refuse.
We cannot condone the senseless violence at the hands of our officers like Derek Chauvin, and we mustn't forget that whether they kneel or not, anyone wearing the badge and uniform symbolizing hate is capable of doing the same thing. Solidarity comes in the form of mass resignation by officers for the treatment of Black people in America. Unification looks like laying down arms and refusing orders that essentially endgander those they’ve been sworn to protect.
If you are asking cops to kneel, you’re feeding into peaceful propaganda that doesn’t address the real issue of systemic racism, but instead places a thinly laced veil overtop of it.
