There is No Simple Way to Describe What Is Going On in America
“While no one condones looting, on the other hand, one can understand the pent-up feelings that may result from decades of repression and people who have had members of their family killed by that regime, for them to be taking their feelings out on that regime" - Donald Rumsfeld, describing the scene in Iraq, 2003
We live in a nation going through multiple crises. In hundreds of cities in the U.S. and around the world people have taken to the streets.
Simultaneously with these protests there are troubling developments internationally and domestically, pointing to further destabilization of the economy, the environment, and the health and well being of people everywhere.
I wish I had time to enumerate them all. Suffice it to say, people need to become aware of the big picture.
There have been more than a dozen protests in San Diego County, though the only ones most people heard about involved conflict with police and property crimes.
There will be more protests, and it’s safe to say the bluster coming from Cadet Bonespurs in the White House bunker will lead to some sort of --mostly symbolic-- crackdown involving a public figure.
The death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who pleaded with the white police officer who had pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck, was the ostensible trigger for all this mayhem coverage by the mainstream media.
It appears as though the “enemy of the people” rhetoric aimed at the Fourth Estate, has been taken to heart by people with bad intentions.
There can be as many narratives about who did what as there were demonstrators, cops, witnesses, and media workers. Many of them have some element of truth, with the possible exception of the armchair overlords of pundit-land.
(“Antifa” isn’t behind this and workers are not rising up in a historic proletarian rebellion.)
https://twitter.com/charlie_savage/status/1267139775263322115?s=20
My friend Kate summed up the situation with this post to Facebook:
Please remember when seeing accounts of protests and rioting that these complex and chaotic events involve lots of different individuals and groups acting with very different motivations and goals. There can't be a single coherent narrative and by trying to simplify this story we will get it wrong.
https://twitter.com/NaveedAJamali/status/1267304932647948289?s=20
The place to start talking about “this” is racism, starting with Quarterback Colin Kaepernick as an object lesson. To this day he is “black” listed for the crime of using his fame to call attention to the violence taking place on a regular basis in communities around the nation.
The nation’s billionaire football team owners and the President of the United States conspired together to send a message.
They may have thought the message was something along the lines of “respect the flag,” but that is not what many people heard. Instead they heard that protest would not be tolerated.
There are all these fine well-meaning folks saying the best way to take out frustration is at the ballot box. But what we see all around are people doing their damndest to make that course of action more difficult.
There’s a pile of easily provable falsehoods about “voter fraud” being used to justify all sorts of anti-democracy actions.
The latest right wing scam in California are the so-called vote-by-mail lawsuits, brought by upstanding Republicans like former Congressman Darrell Issa, who has voted by mail no less than 16 times. (h/t Ken Stone).
Republicans say “voter fraud” and we’re supposed to be afraid. What people hear is “we don’t want you to vote.”
https://twitter.com/IshmailSaboor/status/1266909373034610688?s=20
Trevor Noah did a good job of putting the situation of all last week’s events starting with the women in Central Park freaking out over a bird watcher into context.
When you are a have or a have not, you see the world in very different ways. And a lot of the time people say to the have nots; ‘this is not the right way to handle things.’
When Colin Kaepernick kneels they say this is not the right way to protest.
When Martin Luther King had children as part of his protests in Birmingham Alabama, people said ‘having children in your protests is not the right way to do things.’
When he marched in Selma, people said this is not the right way to do things.
When people marched through the streets in South Africa, people said this is not the right way to do things.
When people burn things they say this is not the right way…
It’s never the right way; there’s never a right way to protest--and I’ve said this before--there is no right way to protest because that’s what protest is.
It cannot be right because you are protesting against the thing that is stopping you
And so I think what a lot of people don’t realize, is the same way you might have experienced more anger and more just visceral disdain watching those people loot that Target...Try to imagine what it must feel to Black Americans when they see themselves being looted every single day.
So I’m guessing there are people reading this passage saying to themselves in some fashion: Really? It can’t be that bad?
Why, yes, it is that bad. And every American knows it deep down:
(watch this short clip...)
https://twitter.com/BerniceKing/status/1266730015196090368?s=20
If you want to better understand racism in America, the New York Times has an antiracism reading list from the professor and author Ibram X. Kendi.
***
A couple of local notes.
Read Genevieve Jones-Wright’s op-ed in the Union-Tribune about the struggle to create mechanisms for meaningful local police accountability.
Transparency and accountability in policing are necessary to keep San Diegans and our officers safe, increase community trust and get justice for victims of police violence. Luckily, change is right around the corner.
Women Occupy San Diego and the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association teamed up in a coalition called San Diegans for Justice to propose a ballot measure that would create an independent, community-led Commission on Police Practices. It’s being considered by the San Diego City Council right now for placement on the November ballot, and we must pressure our council members to do the right thing and let the voters have a voice in our public safety.
The ballot measure proposes four major reforms in police accountability for SDPD: independent investigators who do not answer to the police chief; independent legal counsel (an attorney who does not represent the city or its police department); subpoena power over officers, witnesses and documents to get to the truth; and independence from the Mayor’s Office to shield it from political influence.
Getting the ballot measure passed is only step one. Once passed, the City Council would need to create a supporting ordinance that would determine who sits on the commission and the processes by which it would exercise its powers. This is a long-term process. But, the sooner we start the heavy lift of police reform, the sooner we will see lives saved, the “bad apples” held accountable, and good officers free from the stigma their unchecked peers create.
Not included in this op-ed are all the behind-the-scenes actions by the police union’s lobbyists and apologists to sabotage an honest effort to right some wrongs.
San Diego’s reformers have been undercut and double-crossed many times, often by so-called high profile liberals. They haven’t been called out for their actions only because reformers are trying to take the high road and get this done.
https://twitter.com/RamonGalindoNBC/status/1267115727682596864?s=20
https://twitter.com/SDuncovered/status/1267293609088319492?s=20
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Lead image credit @AmoreEricka