The Police Won’t Fix The Police
Don’t abolish the police, hold them accountable.
On April 8th, officials in Windsor, Virginia released footage of a traffic stop tailor-made for the “abolish the police” era.
A brand-new SUV with tinted windows, just the type of vehicle that black people are disproportionately stopped for driving. A black man, or better yet, a black lieutenant, sat behind the wheel, the Stars and Stripes proudly displayed on the shoulder of his uniform. Two white police officers attended the scene, barking threats that were lifted verbatim from of a movie that was set in 1930s Louisiana.
Even though the driver, Lt. Caron Nazario, hadn’t committed any crime, the officers, Joe Guttierez and Daniel Crocker, approached the vehicle with their guns drawn. Guttierez then gave Nazario conflicting orders to put his hands out of the window and get out of the car, all while refusing to explain why they’d stopped him in the first place. When Nazario tried to deescalate the situation, repeatedly asking the officers to “please relax”, they pepper-sprayed him, forced him to the ground, and put him in handcuffs.
As the details rolled in, Trevor Noah asked a question that eloquently expressed what many of us have been wondering:
“… we’re told time and time again that these incidents that…
