Killer APD cop, Garrett Rolfe, gets reinstated on a technicality that shouldn’t exist.
a reflection by an abolitionist
As many of you know, laws in this country have little to do with morality and so much to do with protecting white supremacy and anti-Black violence. Today, the stockpile of evidence of this truth expands yet again.
Killer cop Garrett Rolfe, the one who murdered Rayshard Brooks (may his soul rest in peace) in Atlanta last summer, is being reinstated and is now requesting backpay.
He isn’t being reinstated because he did nothing wrong, or because he is without guilt, or because of any perverse American sense of justice — no, he is being reinstated on a procedural technicality. Apparently, after he unnecessarily killed Rayshard Brooks, the officials of the city moved ‘too quickly’ to remove him from his post, skipping procedural steps officers are ‘entitled’ to. The procedural steps that cops skip in the interest of killing us, procedural steps already written into law, never seem to be as important to them. Police unions and the City of Atlanta are transparently much more concerned with protecting the jobs of cops than the lives and dignity of Atlantans, especially poor and Black Atlantans.
Procedures around firing cops are seemingly far more robust than what any worker is entitled to — cops are not workers and thus of course the State privileges them in every imaginable way, even as they break, bend, and eliminate the laws they’re charged with ‘enforcing’. Even as they destabilize communities and kill, they are privileged. Police ‘unions’ and associations have not had to fight for worker’s rights, instead, they’ve historically stood in solidarity with and in protection of abusive, exploitative and violent employers. Police unions tend to have dangerous power over local politics. Police are antagonistic to workers’ rights and thus them being reinstated under the guise of ‘workers rights’ is laughable if not maddening.
Let the racists, white supremacists, capitol rioters, and mass incarcerationists rejoice in the reinstatement of a cop who has already proven the immense propensity to devalue a Black person’s life. Let them rejoice in our somber reminder that there is no Life for us with the institution of policing.
Let the cries of the abolitionists ring true in your spirit — further laws and reforms will be used as tools to protect police officers almost inevitably. The police, their unions and their political allies will always find the loopholes because they have the power to create them. They reinstated an officer with a murder charge. He will be empowered to do what he and so many of his colleagues are encouraged to do — continue to harm Black people while convincing Black people they are necessary for our safety. We need to be able to see a lie. The conflation of policing and safety is a lie. And I have grown tired of hearing it. The technicality that has reinstated this murderous agent of the State shouldn’t exist because of a few things — firstly, few employees are protected when they fuck up like cops are, and secondly, cops shouldn’t exist.
Read more about abolition today to learn why we do not need cops to experience community wellness:
