Flint, Michigan, has long been a symbol of the failure of American capitalism: a city so poor that even the water was poisoned. Now it has a new claim to fame: former US president Barack Obama singled out this economically depressed city in the American rust belt as a beacon of hope for US race relations after one of the area’s top police officers took off his riot gear and joined protesters during an antiracism march on May 30.

“I want to make this a parade, not a protest,” the white sheriff of Genesee County, which contains Flint, told protesters. He became one of the first US police officers to defuse the threat of violence by taking the side of demonstrators in America’s biggest antiracism protests in 50 years. Video of Chris Swanson high-fiving black protesters, and assuring them that “these cops love you”, went viral as protests spread to cities large and small across the US — including Flint, named the poorest city of its size in the US in 2017.

Eventually police in many places did what Sheriff Swanson did — take off his riot helmet and stand with, not against, the protesters. But he was among the first. A self-described “four-time Ironman [triathlon] finisher”, “motivational” speaker and author of Tinman to Ironman: 26.2 Proven Ways to Crush Your Failures and Transform Your Life Today!, he is an elected official who did not deny aspirations to higher office when asked by a Michigan newspaper.