Here at Deadspin we generally assume that our readers are at least somewhat intelligent people. A lot of other sites dumb down content or write for an audience of morons: we dont do that. But because weve gotten at least one dumbass e-mail, and some dumbass comments and tweets, Im going to explain why what Ed Werder tweeted is stupid and worthy of derision. There are a significant number of people (maybe even a majority) in this country that believe it is okay for the police to murder unarmed black men because they talk back to police, because they illegally sell loosies (a misdemeanor), or because they commit any other number of imagined offenses or real but minor offenses. This is compounded by the fact (as in the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner) that police—who are extensions of the state—are rarely held accountable for killing citizens. This is why people are protesting: to assert that #blacklivesmatter, and against a judicial system that lets off killer cops. On the other hand, there are virtually no people (its not zero, but its close) that believe executing police officers is okay. There is nobody that is going to go oh, you know, I thought shooting cops as they just sat in their car was okay, but now that you have protested this, I see that it is wrong because it is so self-evidently awful and wrong. Furthermore, there is no lack of justice for cop killers. For this offense, our justice system metes out punishment. In virtually every case, cop killers either kill themselves, are killed, or are arrested and sentenced to life in jail (or death). There are very, very few cop killers walking the streets freely, but there are plenty of killer cops doing so. There is no cop killer lobby, but there is a killer cop lobby (theyre called police unions). There is nothing to protest here, just like there is no reason to march in the streets protesting against pneumonia. There is a massive asymmetry between the two issues, and anybody that doesnt see it is either dumb, racist, or both. I dont know which Ed Werder is, but either way its an awful tweet.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 00:01:54 +0000
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