Greets and saluts from the humid NYC metro area. As is customary, fuck Trump, fuck the GOP, and fuck the enabling media. They’re flinging all manner of bulkshit hoping some of it sticks so that Trump gets reelected despite the neverending shitshow of failure, incompetence, malevolence, and criminal conduct.

Protests continue nationwide, and there continue to be police involved shootings, excessive force at protests all around the nation. There’s been a bunch of attacks on cops too - particularly in NYC. Three NYPD officers have either been stabbed or shot at by persons, and that only adds to the ratcheting up of tensions.

NYC imposed curfews to stop protests.

Protests get even bigger. Cops go to break them up. Riots ensue along with looting and attacks on otherwise peaceful protesters. Cops escalate even more after cops themselves are attacked 3 times this week.

The problem is zero engagement.

— lawhawk (@lawhawk) June 4, 2020

There’s little of that in NYC and between Cuomo sniping at DeBlasio, the police union thinking any form of oversight and enforcement of law against cops is high crimes, and police feeling like they’re isolated while communities feel under siege, it’s a recipe for disaster.

— lawhawk (@lawhawk) June 4, 2020

Then throw in the idiot Trump and his asinine actions that only serve to escalate violence further because he makes those at the NYPD and other police departments struggling with protests against their brutality feel like he’s their answer.

They aren’t. He isn’t

— lawhawk (@lawhawk) June 4, 2020

It means better education and training for cops and politicians on how to resolve these longstanding issues.

It means confronting them and addressing bad cops and prosecuting those who break the law, especially those behind the blue wall of silence.

— lawhawk (@lawhawk) June 4, 2020

Not only is Trump a fuckup, but we’ve got a fucked up dynamic between police, prosecutors, politicians, and the communities they’re all supposed to be serving. Everyone wants to wear mantle of law and order, but politicians are wary of holding cops accountable for their crimes - they get targeted by right wingers, cops, and prosecutors for being pro-criminal, anti-cop, instead of being law and order.

Cops and their unions are even less willing to be held accountable when their own break the law.

This has to change.

We’re seeing that change begin, and it’s something to behold - in places like Newark NJ police are working with the community to not only keep protests peaceful, but to work with the communities to address their concerns. Ferguson just elected the first African American woman mayor - a double historic event - it’s the first woman and first African American to ever hold office in that city.

But electing politicians that want to change policing and fight institutional racism is just the start. You have to get buy-in from law enforcement and prosecutors, and that’s a much harder nut to break mostly because the law protects cops from consequences of their actions (qualified immunity), and union contracts that make it all but impossible to fire bad cops, and a wall of silence that protects bad cops. That’s critical to dealing with all of this going forward, and none of it is easy when you have a normal functioning government. It’s even harder when you have a lawless WH occupant willing to send in the military to break skulls, giving cops the green light to do same knowing they are buoyed by Trump’s words.

The GOP must be defeated in November - utterly and completely, and the ongoing protests show just how. It shows how weak Trump truly is, how he doesn’t get what’s going on, and that his failures are magnified by the fact that he’s building a prison for himself. The WH belongs to all Americans, not him - and shutting down streets and putting up fencing so he can’t see protests is anti-American. He can’t take the criticism. His fragile ego can’t take the sustained beatings. Fuck ‘em. And fuck all the enabling GOPers who are pushing for fascist solutions. And fuck the Times for elevating fascist solutions - we know where the Times editorial staff stands, and it’s not on the side that protects Americans.