David CookSomeone, apologize.
Talk about how the handcuffs don’t work, how the blue lights and corner stores and graffiti are like little Baghdads, little war zones that smell like adrenaline and fear and despair. Places that are the American nightmare, not the dream.
Lament the addicts. The dead bodies. How you can’t sleep some nights. How angry you get at the unendingness of it all.
Tell them how if you were in their shoes, you’d probably make the same choices. If you’re a white man, stand up and mourn young black men. Talk about how precious and valuable their lives are, or were.
Acknowledge — no, no — own up to the violent racism that has emerged through the badge of Chattanooga police over the years. There’s a long list of names of black folks who have been brutalized: read it, out loud, and slowly.