Attorneys from the Legal Aid Society assailed the act of white people calling the police on black people in a new op-ed on Truthout. Citing the notorious viral video of Amy Cooper – a white woman in New York city who called the police and falsely told them a black man had threatened her life – the authors detail the role of the police in maintaining racist social hierarchy in the U.S. and defending white privilege at the expense of black Americans.

The op-ed was jointly authored by Nefertiti Ankra, Zamir Ben-Dan, Julia Jenkins and Takiya Wheeler​ – all public defenders and members of the Black Attorneys of Legal Aid Caucus at The Legal Aid Society.

“White Americans know that a de facto function of the police is to keep Black people in check; and when they have called the police, it was a given that the officers would side with them against Black people,” they write. “There are lots of Amy Coopers in the U.S. […] and their privilege and sense of entitlement makes life in the U.S. hell for Black people.”

Read the full piece here.