Once again, we're all watching protests on TV from Minnesota, where another Black person has been killed by a police officer in a way that seems utterly incomprehensible to any reasonable person. Of course part of our problem is the rarity of reasonable persons in America; I suspect our population is down to the double digits by now. But once again, we're embroiled in conflicted emotions and open conflicts regarding policing in our increasingly diverse nation.

I've had some interesting experiences with police in the course of my life as a social and political outlier (as you might expect).

There was a time in my life when I (and my friends) assumed a rather colorful self-expression--letting the Pagan hippie vibe hang out, and to make it worse, I drove a series of battered Volkswagen Beetles. There was one memorable occasion when I was driving down Rte 128 at 50 mph (as I said, it was a VW Bug) and a car full of teenagers drew up beside me in the next lane, pacing me. The young person in the passenger's seat lowered his window (my window was open because it was summer and, VW Bug--I was lucky if they had heaters). The young person yelled over at me:

"Do you have any rolling papers?"

It was like the stoner version of the Grey Poupon commercials. Regretfully, I had to disappoint him--and that wasn't because I didn't smoke weed. I just didn't have any right then.

But maybe it was the general vibe that the young people picked up on that led to my being pulled over by the cops on a fairly regular basis. I'd be going someplace, obeying the speed limit, minding my own business, and...flashing blue lights. I'd pull over, the cop would ask for my license and registration, he'd ask where I'd been and where I was going, and then--"okay, you can go." I was never cited. I was never told I'd been doing anything wrong. And this happened all the time.

The VWs all went to car heaven, my style changed from hippie to Goth and later to funky artist, and I no longer attracted so many blue lights. But when I hear stories from Black Americans about being pulled over for no reason by the cops, I can relate--at least sort of. I didn't really worry about being shot, not the way Black people do. But I did think about it. I was acutely aware that the officer behind me was armed. And I still get tense when I see a police cruiser, to this day.

It's impossible to look honestly and objectively at the current events in this country and not conclude that our approach toward policing and law enforcement needs a serious change. Whatever faults our police have, they don't exist in a vacuum. They reflect the major shortcomings in our nation and our society as a whole. We can't simply yell "defund the police" as though that will solve the problem--or any of the problems. It won't, and it only increases the tension and mistrust between the police and the citizens they are sworn to serve.

It's interesting to note that the people who claim most passionately to support the police are the very same people who proclaim their "2nd Amendment rights" and go into near-hysterics at the slightest hint of gun regulations. If you ask them why guns are important to them, they'll say they need guns for "self-defense."

But aren't the police supposed to defend us? If you say you need guns to defend yourself against criminals, aren't you flat-out saying that you don't trust the police to help you?

One reason the police have such a dangerous job, and want to be so heavily armed themselves, is because the American citizenry is so heavily armed. The best way to make every police officer safer (and less scared) is to enact really rigorous gun control. But the very same people who wave "blue line" flags also wave "come and take it" gun rights banners.

Here's the bottom line. If you support the police, support gun control. That's it. Period. Every cease-fire has to start with somebody. It takes a real exercise in trust to put down your weapon. But we've got to do it.

Our social problems can't be isolated and fixed one at a time. Violence, racism, authoritarianism, delusional thinking, they're all a knotted tangle, but they have one root: fear. Fear is the great enemy. All our sins grow from the seeds of that bitter fruit. That's what we need to solve.

Defund the police? No. But put down our weapons, all of us, police included? Yes. It's time for the Pax Americana to come home.

Inanna Arthen