Gen X (and Karens) Hate the Police: The Police are Over.

Most of my friends are rich, white and in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

I don’t say this to brag (as though that this would even be considered braggable), but rather to point out a seismic societal shift that I’ve observed over my lifetime.

Rich white middle-aged people used to love the police. But now, it seems, they are among the loudest voices calling for their defunding.

I have friends who are millionaires, who once proudly volunteered with the cops, joining protests and talking about major reform of the police force. Still others who — wealthy and privileged — are speaking out and acting up against police brutality and overuse of force.

Now I don’t think my social circle is representative of everyone, but I do exist in multiple spheres at once. A sizable chunk of my friends and family are poor and working class, a large number are creative and many are rich/corporate or rich/entrepreneurial. Across the board — whether liberal or not, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim or Christian, something seems to have snapped in these folks.

I don’t know if it’s the specifics of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor or Ahmaud Arbery’s cases, the stress of the pandemic, economic concern, the idiot in the White House or a combination of all of those things, but it is a marked…