I don't watch videos of police brutality anymore. This story is too real and change too far off.

I try not to watch the videos anymore.

I still regret scrolling through Twitter during the spring of 2020 and unwittingly seeing the video of Ahmaud Arbery being shot down as he fled attackers through a Brunswick, Georgia, neighborhood. I think I was eating a peanut butter sandwich that I didn't finish. I can't unsee the image. I can't forget the violent crack of the gunshots. 

I never watched the video of George Floyd a few months later having the life slowly, methodically choked out of him by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

And for now, I don't have any plans to watch what's been described as a gruesome video of an unidentified police officer shooting Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head after a traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

I've seen enough. 

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It's an incident that's sure to inflame tensions and follow the predictable path we've followed when these events come to the spotlight. In the coming weeks, we'll learn all the specifics and particulars, the legal arguments and qualifications, and there will be forums on race relations and community town halls.

We will hear a lot of the "what about-isms," and suffer an avalanche of codewords, keywords and dog whistles. 

But I wonder when we'll hear more about action. 

A reckoning without much action

Two years after George Floyd's murder and the alleged "racial reckoning" in the aftermath, there have not been a lot of meaningful steps taken toward change outside of performative measures and gestures. There have been larger-scale debates for sure about Confederate monuments and reparations and tons too much talk about critical race theory.

But what about some of the central, achievable legislative goals that could have resulted? 

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In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden spent some time admonishing the "defund the police" sloganeers, to a standing ovation. He also said beforehand, "Let’s not abandon our streets or choose between safety and equal justice. Let’s come together and protect our communities, restore trust and hold law enforcement accountable." 

The latter statement on the surface seems like a reasonable enough sentiment. Anyone deserves and should have the expectation in a free society to feel safe from crime while riding on a subway and safe from being arbitrarily stopped and frisked as a law-abiding citizen. Saying you have to suffer one in exchange for the other is a pernicious lie and a false choice. 

Lots of politicking, little change

But Biden, a Democrat who has had varied stances on crime and policing during his lengthy political career, didn't say much about restarting bipartisan talks that broke down between two Black U.S. senators, Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey and Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina. Scott and Booker were spearheading what seemed to be the last gasp at any meaningful federal discussions of police reform in the post-Floyd era. 

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And these days, you don't hear much from GOP circles either about a bill Republicans advanced in the Senate immediately after Floyd's death aimed at achieving at least some nominal reforms in the policing system. Senate Democrats blocked the legislation at the time, arguing the measures didn't go far enough. But even nominal reforms would have been something. 

Instead, we've come back to the usual political jockeying, and not much has changed at all. The videos, and the awful personal tragedies that go with them, still show up every few months, and the stale conversation repeats itself.

So there's not much point in watching. I know how this ends. Unless something gets done.

 Commentary editor Austin Bogues is a member of Paste BN's Editorial Board. You can follow him on Twitter: @AustinBogues