We HAVE to TALK about racism and police brutality

[KingCharlemagne]

50. Few dispute the need for some sort of constabulary force, barring evolution of a fully communist

society. Even socialists recognize the need for some type of constabulary force to further the interests of justice, broadly defined. The question, as always, is whence that constabulary's legitimacy.

From my perspective, the racism we see in Ferguson and St. Louis County now reflects a growing crisis of legitimacy among the ruling elites and the structures -- the constabulary merely one of those -- that those elites use to perpetuate their status. In short, I see racism as one symptom of a deeper failure of capitalism to provide the blessings of liberty for all its subjects. Capitalism, one might say, depends and thrives upon the maintenance of a sizable underclass of second-class citizens, all while preaching an ideology of pure egalitarianism. The constabulary are there to enforce that second-class status.

No one has yet explained to me why a city that is roughly 70% black has only 3 black officers on its 53-person force. And no one has yet explained to me why Ferguson hires officers who live in other communities (like Crestwood), rather than who live in and have ties to Ferguson itself. (Wilson's home is in the upscale suburb of Crestwood.) No one has yet explained to me why we have a society where 10% of the population control 80% of the wealth. But somewhere in the nexus of those statistics and the definition\explanation of racism I provided above lies answers to those questions.