Opinion | My Grandfather Was a Good Cop. Or Was He? - The New York Times - 0 views
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I grew up proud of my grandfather. In a world of adults who vanished into dull, anonymous offices, my grandfather was someone. See the pictures? His starched collar, his pins, his boots; his trooper’s hat, his squad car. Always in uniform
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Now, as the horrible images of the Capitol attack proliferate, my grandfather is wired into my vision. I see him in the police beaten by rioters, in the troops pulled out of formation by the mob, in the more than 50 officers who suffered injuries, in the Capitol Police officer who died from his injuries that day and the one who died soon after by suicide.
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The one that flared yet again when a police officer mercilessly killed George Floyd in full view of all of us. When police officers in military-style riot gear assaulted and beat unarmed protesters in the weeks that followed. Some 90 percent of voters cited protests over police violence as a factor in their voting, and mistrust of police has grown in the face of overt brutality. So how do I make sense of my grandfather’s legacy? Can I reconcile the public good with the biased policing practices and the systemic racism in which he was probably complicit? What story will I tell my son about his great-grandfather?