Bosch author Michael Connelly on George Floyd killing: "Our police departments have long been infiltrated" by cops "who should never have a badge in the first place"

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Connelly, whose LAPD detective Harry Bosch novels inspired the critically acclaimed Amazon series Bosch, covered the 1992 Los Angeles riots over the Rodney King beating as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times. On Sunday morning, following a full day and night of protests in Los Angeles over Floyd's killing, Connelly offered his take on the systemic problem of police abuse: "It’s been a long night," he began a long Twitter thread. "Really tough to see what’s happening in my city and the world. So many frustrations rightfully boiling over. You think you know a lot about a place and then you know there is still a lot you have to learn. You have to learn that something truly horrible 2,000 miles away can light the match of anger in your own city. You can stand for racial equality, that black lives matter, and the idea that everybody counts or nobody counts but its all just words if it is not carried through in how we act and demand others act. Particularly our leaders and our police. In 1992 when I covered the L.A. riots as a newspaper reporter it was the most surreal experience of my life. It was both the low point of my observation of human behavior and the high point. Either way I didn’t think I would ever see something like that again. Yet, here we are. I know so many good cops. The kind that are color blind. The kind that wish they could go to Minnesota and personally put the handcuffs on the man who killed George Floyd. But all the good they do is undone by people who should never have a badge in the first place. There’s got to be a way of changing this cycle. One cop kneels on a human being’s neck for nine minutes while three others casually stand by. It reminds me so much of the Rodney King video and how for three decades apparently not much has changed. They say on the news that the protestors have been infiltrated by those set on violence and anarchy. I don’t doubt it. But as someone on the news also said, we have to be aware that our police departments have long been infiltrated as well. By people who don’t serve and protect us equally, who don’t believe everybody counts. They are in the far minority and not as obvious as the anarchists, but do much more damage in the long run. The man who said that on the news was a cop."