See, that's the question
For me. What I would like to see is a peaceful city where everyone has a fair shake and we can all live side by side respecting one another. So the question I want to ask is how do we get there?
I'd argue that fixing the police is only a tiny (though important) step in the process. I think we could use better civilian oversight; something with more teeth. I think we could use reforms to get police officers out of cars and onto streets talking to their neighbors. (More of them, anyway.) Maybe we could use more community service officers. And focus the officers with cars on traffic enforcement and emergency response. (We could use better traffic control anyway.) And maybe better training for community engagement and no public pay for "warrior cop" seminars. This isn't a war. It needs to not be a war.
But even if we have perfect police officers trained well we'll still have systemic problems. We also need to learn to respect our neighbors, to stop at crosswalks when we're driving. To be careful around pedestrians. To be less angry and more peaceful. It's too easy to see someone that dresses differently and tense up because of a subconscious assumption that they're somehow a danger: a woman in hijab, a man sagging his pants, that kind of thing. We need to teach ourselves to breathe slowly and be nice. (And I include myself in this.) We need to sit down and eat dinner together, so we learn about the sore feet from working long hours on a concrete floor. We all have sore feet, right? Concrete doesn't care what color your feet are when you're standing there. And we can all commiserate about grueling nasty stuff if we stop to listen.
And we need to give folks that have been poor for generations better access to educational opportunity, better access to housing, to community services, and so forth. Make it less of a stigma. Make it more invisible. Maybe even make it more automatic, so that if you make less than x you get this whether you apply or not. Kind of like motor voter, only for aid. Lord knows there have been points in my life when I could have used help, but I've been too damned proud and stupid to ask.
Just spitballing. But that's the right question. And victory comes when demographically you can't predict the color of someone's skin from what kind of job someone has, how much they make, or which high school they attended. Victory comes when that damned question goes away. For me. When no one even CARES what high school you went to. That's victory. Small steps. Small measure. But good questions.
See, that's the question we need to be asking.spreadsheetwizard wrote: Protests have been 99% non-violent. I applause the organizers.
Yes, windows broken, etc.
While I'd be super pissed if someone put a rock thru my window -- the weekend has turned out as best as could've hoped.
For the larger issues -- what is the end game? Cops will most assuredly shoot / kill someone under dubious circumstances. Especially in a crime ridden city as STL...
What then?
What is the goal? How does one determine victory?
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For me. What I would like to see is a peaceful city where everyone has a fair shake and we can all live side by side respecting one another. So the question I want to ask is how do we get there?
I'd argue that fixing the police is only a tiny (though important) step in the process. I think we could use better civilian oversight; something with more teeth. I think we could use reforms to get police officers out of cars and onto streets talking to their neighbors. (More of them, anyway.) Maybe we could use more community service officers. And focus the officers with cars on traffic enforcement and emergency response. (We could use better traffic control anyway.) And maybe better training for community engagement and no public pay for "warrior cop" seminars. This isn't a war. It needs to not be a war.
But even if we have perfect police officers trained well we'll still have systemic problems. We also need to learn to respect our neighbors, to stop at crosswalks when we're driving. To be careful around pedestrians. To be less angry and more peaceful. It's too easy to see someone that dresses differently and tense up because of a subconscious assumption that they're somehow a danger: a woman in hijab, a man sagging his pants, that kind of thing. We need to teach ourselves to breathe slowly and be nice. (And I include myself in this.) We need to sit down and eat dinner together, so we learn about the sore feet from working long hours on a concrete floor. We all have sore feet, right? Concrete doesn't care what color your feet are when you're standing there. And we can all commiserate about grueling nasty stuff if we stop to listen.
And we need to give folks that have been poor for generations better access to educational opportunity, better access to housing, to community services, and so forth. Make it less of a stigma. Make it more invisible. Maybe even make it more automatic, so that if you make less than x you get this whether you apply or not. Kind of like motor voter, only for aid. Lord knows there have been points in my life when I could have used help, but I've been too damned proud and stupid to ask.
Just spitballing. But that's the right question. And victory comes when demographically you can't predict the color of someone's skin from what kind of job someone has, how much they make, or which high school they attended. Victory comes when that damned question goes away. For me. When no one even CARES what high school you went to. That's victory. Small steps. Small measure. But good questions.
