So by now you’ve probably seen this video on Facebook or You Tube or somewhere.

It’s pretty funny and quite naturally people are sharing and all over the place. The kid’s just an okay magician but the thing that makes the video work is the ballsy the concept: Street kid baits uptight police officer using a bag of pot and some nifty sleight of hand, cop gets gigged like a lake trout, the whole things is captured on video and gets posted on You Tube. Hits ensue. Not bad street theater turned into social media entertainment.

When I saw this posted on Facebook, like any normal person I laughed. Then I didn’t.

Look, I don’t want to be a humorless scold; I don’t want to peddle my childhood Catholic social justice guilt where it’s not appreciated—which is pretty much everywhere. But how much can you fight your basic nature?

In the context of the ongoing police violence we’ve been witnessing for the last several years, especially in the aftermath of the public police executions of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, it seemed like something needed to be said.

Watch just a slice of that video one more time…and consider the alternate realities it reveals.

NOTE: The video edit here contains images at least as disturbing as the reality we live in….