I grew up in a very privileged white world, with an attitude that I could always talk to the police because they were never interested in me. I felt that there would be unlikely to be an outcome where I got in any real trouble even if I had been breaking the law in some childish but “not actually bad” kind of way. Doing some dumb stunt or smoking a little weed - “nothing serious”.

A friend from a different place helped me see that in so many ways that attitude was only one I could hold from my position of extreme privilege. The world was in a sense made for me, or rather people like me. As a “normal” white male the system had built-in leniency. White judges would “understand I was a good kid” who “meant no harm”. The law had a built in amount of forgiveness for me. I could risk doing dumb things and still talk to police.

For everyone who isn’t amongst the class this world was build for, the reality is very different. Even my outlook was a fantasy that may not always hold true, but for others there is not even the comfort of that belief. People like me who are comfortable will perpetuate the system because it “works” for us, but everyone else is terrorized by it.

I have a different outlook now, and I can begin to understand why talking to the police is so risky for most people. I understand too that it is risky for me. The system does not in fact care for me. I am more cautious now. And I desire a system that is more fair - though I have so much more I need to learn, and I need to get more out of my comfort zone to better serve the others most affected by the injustice of our system.