In Feeling Alienated, the insidious issue of unidentified secret police snatching people off the street is front and center. The book was, after all, drafted in the spring of 2020. When the bad guys were out of control. Apparently little has changed.
Protagonist Rowan Layne goes off on these paramilitary thugs, railing at them for their blatant ignorance of the Fourth Amendment to our Constitution. Because in her world, it’s not aliens who are the gun-toting marauders.
It’s quite gratifying to see Rowan holding mindless thugs accountable for their part in furthering a demise of democracy. Too bad none with the ability and authority to do so in real life had the apparent guts for it. To call out this police brutality for what it is. Fascism. And outright murder.
The unreasonable reality we reach all too predictably in 2021 is rampant incompetence and worse among rank-and-file police, identified and recorded while blithely performing unreasonable search and seizures resulting in death with sickening regularity.
Unfettered, unchecked violence against the human race, and certain racial profiles in particular. By those assigned a role to protect and serve.
And always, the feckless who see only the explosion of justifiable outrage while they utter the clueless refrain, “Not all cops are bad.”
The problem is, not all cops are good, and no one ever thinks to phrase it this way.
The problem is, it is impossible to train, reform, or enlighten individuals if racism, misogyny or any other form of toxic bigotry has already taken root in their psyche and exists as a driving force.
The problem is, many of these outright murders of black and brown citizens are intentional. Ritualistic. As if someone behind the scenes is pulling strings to deliberately create a race war.
The problem is, this vile and viral situation has long been festering, and allowed to freely infect law enforcement populations with impunity.
Folks have suggested a solution of not using police for certain types of emergencies that might require delicate sensibilities—or a modicum of basic human decency running through their veins.
At this point, we might want to add traffic stops to the list of duties the average cop might not be counted on to perform with any semblance of integrity.
And thanks to the Patriot Act and other maniacal machinations eroding Fourth Amendment rights by taking unethical advantage of 9/11, even small town, small potatoes police are tricked out like a paramilitary SWAT force. More gear, bigger weapons, tiniest of understanding of the responsibility associated with their role.
One bad apple you say? One is all it takes. One is too many. And there is clearly more than one. And they have infiltrated every level of law enforcement. All the way to the top. The festering rot graphically on display with the words and action of the previous administration’s attorney general, among others.
Does Virginia still have an astoundingly unconstitutional law on the books that claims you can’t swear at police? Because commonwealth cops used to preen about it while remaining gloatingly ignorant of parameters the Fourth Amendment places, not on their words, but on their actions.
The atrocities police commit and get away with because of a badge are many. And they are heinous. Dishonoring not merely our Constitution, but humanity itself.
I cannot speak for people of color, but I can be outraged on their behalf. And I can also state unequivocally that for women like Rowan Layne of the Other Worldly series, a male cop is potentially just another gun-wielding thug with a chip on his shoulder, until proven otherwise.
The benefit of the doubt has not been earned. Life experience says to be wary, and to not assume they will be wise.