Let’s Decriminalize The USA

Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash

As a white male, I cannot possibly understand what black folks have gone through and are currently going through in this racist country of ours. Because I cannot understand, I can neither sympathize nor empathize, as both of those require understanding. Some writers have a problem with the concept of white allyship, as they feel it’s tantamount to me offering to help them clean up my mess. Out of respect for that position, I will not call myself an ally. The body I currently inhabit is not able to march. 10 years ago, sure, but no longer. So I have been thinking about how I can use my white privilege to add value to the larger conversation. What exactly can I contribute?

I believe that defunding the police is a necessary and important step. We need to reduce the size of the police’s brief, mostly because they are not qualified or trained to do many of the tasks expected of them. They should not be playing amateur psychologist to a fighting couple, or rousting homeless people from sleep, or appearing at assemblies. But there is another part to this equation and that is reducing the amount of work police need to do within their area of expertise.

I do not respect Donald Trump. I think he is a truly awful human being, and possibly an even worse President. However, he recently put forward a thesis which, as distasteful as it is on its face, has truly progressive…