city on fire
Jan. 12th, 2009 04:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkittyI'm writing today about a forest fire. A conflagration that will burn a community to the ground, foster tensions between the residents (who blame each other) and cause great harm to trust among people, which is shaky at best.
One issue is that for many years, someone has been piling up dead brush and fallen limbs and other flammable detritus all around. Despite some efforts to get them to change their mind or at least pile up smaller bits of wood, the lumber-hoarding has continued to this day. Less of it, a point that the hoarder is quick to make, but still enough to matter. A lot of people think it's no big deal as they don't feel personally affected.
Another issue is that another person has been playing with fireworks, setting them off at odd hours of the day and night and generally making a nuisance of themselves. A few people have told this person that the way they play with fireworks is dangerous, but the majority of people don't know or care, and don't want to be bothered. On New Year's Eve, this person was careless with the fireworks and an ember flew into the overgrown brush pile.
Now people are arguing with each other about whose responsibility it is to fight the fire. There are rules that must be followed and rights that must be respected. As the argument continues, the fire is starting to catch. Everyone can see that the community will burn, but the arguments continue by fire light.
The piled wood and flammable trash is racism. The person playing with fireworks is the police.
The majority of people who don't want to be bothered, either with the tinder or with the fireworks, is you and me and the others.
The ember is the homicide of Oscar Grant.
The community is Oakland.
The flames will be real.
I can think of one small way to put out the fire. A token symbol of mourning.
When a police officer is murdered, fellow officers wear a mourning band across their badge.
These can be bought commercially (as at Galls) or made from black elastic band material and sewed or stapled.
From PoliceLink: "The mourning band is the traditional way for a law enforcement officer to publicly mourn the death of a fellow officer. . . While there is no national standard, it is important that each agency has a written protocol regarding the wearing of mourning bands."
The civilian equivalent is a black armband worn on the upper left arm between shoulder and elbow.
I think that members of the public, especially those traveling on BART and/or in the Oakland area, should consider wearing a mourning band.
Really.
Perhaps it should be the custom that when a civilian dies in police custody under less than honorable circumstances, that the agency should recognize this by also wearing a mourning band, perhaps of a different color. Even a small public acknowledgment, however token, would mean a lot to people. But that is up to the agencies involved.
A mourning armband, however, is something that everyone can wear if they choose.
One issue is that for many years, someone has been piling up dead brush and fallen limbs and other flammable detritus all around. Despite some efforts to get them to change their mind or at least pile up smaller bits of wood, the lumber-hoarding has continued to this day. Less of it, a point that the hoarder is quick to make, but still enough to matter. A lot of people think it's no big deal as they don't feel personally affected.
Another issue is that another person has been playing with fireworks, setting them off at odd hours of the day and night and generally making a nuisance of themselves. A few people have told this person that the way they play with fireworks is dangerous, but the majority of people don't know or care, and don't want to be bothered. On New Year's Eve, this person was careless with the fireworks and an ember flew into the overgrown brush pile.
Now people are arguing with each other about whose responsibility it is to fight the fire. There are rules that must be followed and rights that must be respected. As the argument continues, the fire is starting to catch. Everyone can see that the community will burn, but the arguments continue by fire light.
The piled wood and flammable trash is racism. The person playing with fireworks is the police.
The majority of people who don't want to be bothered, either with the tinder or with the fireworks, is you and me and the others.
The ember is the homicide of Oscar Grant.
The community is Oakland.
The flames will be real.
I can think of one small way to put out the fire. A token symbol of mourning.
When a police officer is murdered, fellow officers wear a mourning band across their badge.
These can be bought commercially (as at Galls) or made from black elastic band material and sewed or stapled.
From PoliceLink: "The mourning band is the traditional way for a law enforcement officer to publicly mourn the death of a fellow officer. . . While there is no national standard, it is important that each agency has a written protocol regarding the wearing of mourning bands."
The civilian equivalent is a black armband worn on the upper left arm between shoulder and elbow.
I think that members of the public, especially those traveling on BART and/or in the Oakland area, should consider wearing a mourning band.
Really.
Perhaps it should be the custom that when a civilian dies in police custody under less than honorable circumstances, that the agency should recognize this by also wearing a mourning band, perhaps of a different color. Even a small public acknowledgment, however token, would mean a lot to people. But that is up to the agencies involved.
A mourning armband, however, is something that everyone can wear if they choose.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-13 01:09 am (UTC)Cops shoot young black men because their whole lives, even before they were cops, they were told to be afraid of being murdered by young black men. The best way I know to stop the spread of the fires is to call people on that lie every time they spread it, is to do everything in our power to make sure that nobody can say that in public without someone in the room knowing to correct them on their mistake.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-13 01:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-13 06:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-13 08:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-13 12:42 pm (UTC)And I own a couple miniature police badge pins -- gifts from my father-in-law, the cop. I can put a mourning band on one of thise and wear it.