As you all know, two cops were murdered by a kook over the weekend. The guy was a kook. There shouldn’t be any connection to events surrounding recent protests of police behavior, but the guy made the connection in Instagram and everybody else is making those connections, so now we’re in a full fledged stand-off between police and the mayor of New York City.

I’m not sure what to say. I’ve been pretty disgusted with a lot of the commentary regarding race in the past few weeks. Both sides took it too far for me. I have no patience with people who argue for the end of policing and all laws. (Yes, I’ve heard people argue for that.) I just read some blog post by a woman who said that she hates nice white people. And then the other side starts putting its foot in racism and then I run the other way.

When the arguments go to the extreme, people start cocooning. If you argue that we should have no police force, that all cops are assholes, and that all white people are probably evil inside, then there can be no meaningful reforms. Hell, there can’t even be a proper dialogue. If you argue that there is no need for reform, then you are also cutting off discussion. I also feel manipulated by people who have a lot to gain from intensifying tensions.

We need to get some moderates into this national discussion.