They Don’t Come by Ones

We have asked, or at least we should ask ourselves, what will America be like post Donald Trump. It is a question that assumes the country will survive our current troubles. Not so much an assurance that democracy will live on, but some version of America will undoubtedly emerge from the ashes. Weaker. Humbled, I hope. No matter what happens, though, deep distrust—even deeper than what we see and experience now—will shadow whatever comes next.

I keep thinking about the police and federal law enforcement. Maybe it is the algorithms on these social media platforms that push the images of police and federal law enforcement into my feeds. Often masked, they snatch people from cars, brandish guns like cowboys, handcuff people as you hear cries and screams. Who are they serving and what are they protecting?

To see them roll up in communities in DC three, four, five cars deep, and knowing that the Trump administration is preparing to do the same in other cities, I hear in my head Sterling Brown’s poem, “Old Lem”.

They gave him a day
To git out the county
He didn’t take it.
He said ‘Come and get me.’
They came and got him
And they came by tens.
He stayed in the county—
He lays there dead.

They don’t come by ones
They don’t come by twos
But they come by tens.”

Notice how quickly law enforcement has settled into its role in this authoritarian moment. The loop of images of police disregarding basic rights has become standard. And with each image, I can’t help but think about the erosion of outrage: that all of this will quickly become normalized. And distrust will harden like a mosquito caught in amber.

Some communities, especially the ones I know, already view police with healthy skepticism. These communities are often overly surveilled and under-protected. They become the poster child of the latest manufactured panic around crime-justification for draconian policies that rarely, if ever, make the communities safer.

We see mayors like Brandon Scott in Baltimore and Brandon Johnson in Chicago trying to do something different around crime and safety in their cities with some positive results, but their efforts now run smack into the theater of race and crime. (e.g., In Baltimore, homicides are down 40% since 2020 and nonfatal shootings are down 43%)

Trump’s theatrics have nothing to do with safety or the law. He could give less than a damn about either one, especially as he defunds public safety. Cuts in crime-prevention programs. Cuts in funding for community violence intervention efforts. He prefers prisons like “Alligator Alcatraz. And he wants the image of armed National Guardsmen and law enforcement roaming city streets, projecting strength and demonstrating to the public that he cares most about that he, alone, can ensure their safety.

Political theater is what it is. But to see repeatedly police and federal law enforcement agents (of all colors and ethnicities) acting with impunity on American streets only confirms an already embedded skepticism about their role and function in our communities. Although many wear masks, their behavior has removed the cover from these agencies, and we can see them as purveyors of state-sanctioned violence.

As we imagine what comes next after the Trump era collapses (and it will collapse; it’s just a matter of when), I can only think that law enforcement in this country will have a lot of work to do, because people will not trust them to serve and protect.

In the meantime, remember, they don’t come by ones…

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