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.

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?