So we (a Palestine solidarity group) were leading a pride parade chanting the usual things in a megaphone. When we started chanting “From the river to the sea” the cop (who was supposed to be the liaison for pride) tried to grab the megaphone and said “you can’t say that”. Well, it turns out the person who used to babysit his kids was in our group and they gave him a dressing down while the person with the megaphone started shouting into the megaphone “from the river to the sea” the cop got really mad, was completely humiliated by his former babysitter (I think neighbour too?) and his cop body put his hand on his arm and said “what are you doing?”. At which point he backed off.

So I guess personally knowing a cop can help, just not in the way people think.

I try not to make friends with cops in the first place. I even had some friends who ended up deciding to join the police force, very enthusiastically. I have not spoken with them since. As for family I find that discussing anything political with them is almost never worthwhile, unless you don’t mind becoming very estranged, as I’ve learned the hard way.

Step 1: don’t talk to the police

The cops are trained to dehumanize people so that they can see you as enemies and nothing more; you’re the kind of person who can break that training and prevent the police from becoming abusive.

If you organize with other people in your situation and in your locality; you could do a LOT to help w demonstrations.

My father was a cop, but not the kind who goes out to arrest people, more like security bodyguard type. But parents are divorced and we don’t talk for a long time anyway, grade A asshole and it didn’t even have anything to do with job.

Terry Pratchett wrote a whole scene where various guards (cops) were disheartened by their own grandmothers (who were on the barricade) calling them out by name and shaming them with childhood incidents. I always wondered if this would work in real life.

Two of my family members (aunt and uncle) are actually police officers. Both are bad people but I personally haven’t talked to them in ages. With one of them I had wonderful conversations a year ago, because they wouldn’t stop saying the n-word or wouldn’t accept that roma and sinti people should also not be called slurs. They also said that they didn’t have anything against immigrants, but that their experiences of having been a professional pig for more than 20 years showed them who was to blame for most crimes (meaning brown people). Apart from that they also always defended police brutality by saying that we never see what happened before those video started.

I’d advise to stay away from them. Since it’s the relatives of a friend of urs, it should be theoretically even easier not to deal with them, no? Regarding seeing them at a protest, it may feel a lil awkward I guess, but apart from that, what does it matter?