Quote:We both know that law enforcement would put "martial" in front of their title end send out armed patrols (I suppose they send out armed patrols anyway) to enforce curfews and suspended rights first.

 

Ditch militarized policing and go to community policing instead. Put transparency into internal affairs with citizen presence on the committees that decide how to proceed. Take the shotguns and assault rifles out of police cars, and remind police departments in the US that they exist to protect those around them, not to serve as an arm of revenue enhancement. On the flip side of the coin, root out those within the BLM movement that advocate harming other human beings and charge them as accessories to assault, murder, whatever the case may be. Will it stick? In most cases, no, but it buys us time to get both sides to sit down and realize that, at the end of the day, people don't really want to wake up in the morning and kill other people. There are strong agendas on both sides that want to make sure that images of white riot police running over crowds of black people--sometimes not even protesting--are there to ensure that the racial tensions remain nice and stoked.

 

That's not to say we're without hope. I was at the Capitol in Tallahassee yesterday afternoon, and out front they have pictures of those who died in Orlando, with a Florida state flag flying over every one. Not terribly remarkable by itself, right? What is remarkable is that down at ground level, there are smaller rainbow flags in place as well, one for every victim right next to their picture. Not a single one of them has been pulled up, defaced or damaged. There is decency left among us. Quite a bit, actually, and little things like that prove it. It's on us to find it in others and see that it's not that we hate each other for hate's sake. We hate each other because we've been conditioned to almost since the dawn of humanity, and we've lived under leaders for centuries who've known that it's to their benefit to keep that train rolling.