Without any ado, here are some examples of times I’ve been involved with police:

• I was pulled over for speeding and tried to joke with the officer about his last name being the same as mine. He smiled politely, wrote me a ticket, and wished me a nice day.
• My friends and I dressed up as police officers for a night out, accessorized with Tim Hortons donut boxes and toy guns that shot plastic beads. We received laughs and smiles in response. 
• A police officer came by a picnic I was having with friends in a park. He advised us not to “advertise” our wine, but let us continue to break the rules against public consumption. 

In all those situations and others, I was confident that any consequences from my actions would be minimal or nil.  

Today, when my phone flashed up the headline about Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict, I shared the news with people attending a meeting with me. We were all stunned – in a good way. 

Here’s the thing: that feeling of surprise is born from the same society that has afforded me the confidence to speed, impersonate the police, and drink in public. 

While this blog is generally about a “maybe there’s more” philosophy, there are two things I can’t imagine anyone arguing with: 

• If your job is to protect people and you’ve successfully restrained a person who you believe is a danger, there is no further need to suffocate him to death. 
• We shouldn’t need to watch a video of someone being suffocated to death to believe there is a problem. 

I have so much more to say, but I’m going to leave it here. Today, one of my hopes is that people don’t feel a need to take sides on this news.