Not the country I know

I no longer recognize my country.   I say that because as we have witnessed the protests across the country we have also witnessed police brutality.  Behavior that is callous, uncalled for, and in violation of our constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. Beside that it brings into question our basic humanity! Yesterday an elderly man was shoved to the ground By police in Buffalo,  New York and left bleeding on the ground as a phalanx of police walked past him.  Protect and serve? And the police said he tripped and fell. And the mayor talked about their training. There was no violence or looting going on! It was broad daylight.  50 cops then resigned in protest to support their suspended colleagues because after all they were only following orders and doing their job. Protect and serve?
We have known as a country that their is something fundamentally wrong with our police. Their culture their training, whatever... We have excused this brutish, murderous behavior stating 99 % are good cops.  No, they re not. If we witnessed this same pattern in health care , or sports or anything else we would have concluded something was systemically wrong instead of blaming “bad apples “.
Let s call it what it is and fix it. Part of what it is , is a basic loss of human decency and civility. Basic personhood.  We see that we have lost it in our discourse, our partisan politics , our leadership and our racism. This is OUR problem. The police are showing us who we have become as a country. They are the empowered authority we have paid to protect and serve. They have failed us and we have failed them.