An Open Letter to the So-Called Good Cop
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to validate your existence
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
Dear So-Called Good Cop,
I write this to you in the spirit of a shrug. Not a dismissive, Kanye-West-snatching-Taylor-Swift’s-moment shrug, but a shrug of resignation. It is an if-we-must shrug. You are, of course, under no obligation to read this missive, but I can no longer labor under the banner of productive activism if I do not write it. Your name gets brought up a lot though; I think we can both agree it’s not as much as it used to.
I want to make clear at the outset that this is not an olive branch. I’m not here on behalf of anyone to bridge a gap, or to start a conversation, or to have a beer summit. I’m here to establish a position. What you do with it is up to you. I have a suspicion about what that reaction might entail, but I’m trying to keep an open mind.
In all truth, I do not believe you exist. I don’t mean that in the way that I do not believe unicorns exist. I mean it in the way in which I do not think we agree on what the word “good” entails. And because I maintain that the word does not apply to you, I cannot believe you exist.
