December 30, 2015--Black Lives

After the shootings and judicial decisions in Baltimore, Chicago, and Cleveland, if you were a black person, would you think your life matters?

Tamir Rice

May 4, 2015--Joy Ride

At least in Brooklyn, when I was a kid, when the cops, to teach us "respect for the law," took one of us for a joy ride, they had the guts to throw us in the back seat of their patrol car and beat us up with a rubber hose.

How different now where the cops lack the guts to do this with their own hands but rather, shackle someone, toss him in the back of a paddy wagon, and then take him for a "nickel ride," as it is referred to in Baltimore. And while on this ride they make intentional abrupt stops and starts and violent turns so the prisoner, unsecured, is thrown about in the vehicle and is sure to be slammed unprotected against the steel walls of the vans.

Most times, "to teach them a lesson," the victims wind up "just" battered, on occasion paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life, as in B'more, or as in the recent tragic case of Freddy Gray have their spinal column severed and in the process are killed.

Lesson delivered. Respect for the law.

And in Maryland, in Charm City, the cops have something else going on--the so-called "police officers' bill of rights. Passed by the state legislature there and, as reported in the New York Times, in at least a dozen other states, it gives special legal protection to cops. Maryland's is the first, passed in the early 1970s, and goes further than any other state in offering the police the most layers of protection from accountability or prosecution.

For example, the Maryland bill of rights gives officers 10 days before they are required to talk to investigators. Ten days more than any other Old Line State citizen. Common sense suggests only one reason for this week-and-a-half delay--it provides time for a potentially accused cop to consult with lawyers and colleagues who may have been involved in an abusive or felonious situation to align stories. In they words, to cover up what actually happened.

Other aspects of the Maryland law limits the amount of time officers may be questions and dramatically shortens the time an alleged victim has to press charges--90 days from the time of the incident even though the potential complainant may be in the hospital recovering from injuries.

These laws come to be put on the books as the result of police unions lobbying for them and contributing tens of thousands of dollars to local campaigns to assure the election of police-friendly officials.

In Freddy Gray's case it was only because of the pressure of protestors and the worldwide coverage his murder attracted that caused prosecutors and the police themselves to move things along so quickly.

There is understandable celebrating in Baltimore but savvy residence know how difficult it is to convict police officers of any crime, especially one this heinous. There is so much ambiguity about what happened in incidents of this kind and the police unions have limitless resources to deploy in the defense of their members that the likelihood is that all six who are charged will not be convicted. It almost never happens.

April 30, 2015--Burn, Baby! BURN!

"Burn, Baby! BURN," during the 1965 Watts riots, was the trademark of on-air rhythm-and-blues DJ, Magnificent Montaque. He and others proclaimed, some said encouraged insurrection as a large section of Los Angeles was in fact burning. During the 60s and 70s, so-called race riots spread to many American cities and to some, Burn, Baby! BURN became a rallying cry for the violent minority. Others protested peacefully, most stayed safely out of sight and were only marginally engaged.

As a much smaller section of Baltimore was being looted and torched on Monday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake uttered a 2015 version of Burn, baby! BURN. She said--

While we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we work very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate, and that's what you saw.

What we also saw was a three-hour period when the rioters and looters had free range--or should I say had "space" "to destroy"--what we saw was an almost complete absence of police and not even a glimpse of Mayor Rawlings-Blake.

I can only conclude one or two things--she was ether cowering somewhere not able to think clearly about what to do or, more likely, was closeted with her political advisers since her primary preoccupation these days is not being mayor but how to launch a campaign for the U.S Senate seat about to be vacated by long-serving Barbara Mikulski.

After this week, I think she can forget about her Senate dreams.

But is there something to think about in her psychobabble about giving young people "space" to do their thing?

Much of urban America has missed out on the recent improvements in our economy and the steady growth in new jobs. As someone said, if a rising tide is to lift all boats, first you have to have a boat. Too few in the ghettos do.

Unemployment among the under-educated, especially young men of color, looms imperviously at at least 25 percent. Local schools are dysfunctional, families are shattered, street thugs rule the neighborhoods, and there is little left to do other than attempt to act as "cool" as possible, not to show concern about one's reality and sad prospects.

As with most of us, in order to become reconciled to our position in life, our reality, we find ways to validate and flaunt our circumstances, no matter how impoverished. And it doesn't help in Baltimore, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, to see the glittering city meant for and protected for other people--those of us who through fortune and effort have done well.

In everyones' faces, if they choose to look up, is evidence of the widening inequalities that are manifestly worsening.

So what to do with that frustration, anger, hopelessness, and rage? With so few on-the-street examples of friends and neighbors making it (except in the underground economy) where and how is that pent-up pressure going to express itself, get some relief? In what private and public space?

This is not to find bleeding-heart excuses for criminal behavior but rather to ask, if social remediation is not likely, what do we expect of people whose lives are so full of insult and despair? In the absence of hope what is the appropriate response to oppression and containment by the criminal justice system--the police, prosecutors, courts, and prisons?

Listening to Wolf Blitzer and Jeffery Toobin on CNN in real time Monday when the looting and arson was occurring, not so much from their words but from their tone they conveyed nothing but disgust as mainly young men looted a CVS pharmacy. They didn't deserve sympathy, but they were not the "animals" Blitzer and Toobin implied them to be. How many viewers privately agreed with them?

More likely, they were desperate people who felt the world had no respectable place for them. That too needs to be part of the narrative.

What would we expect them to do? In their circumstances, what would you do? For myself I do not have a good answer. Or one that makes me feel good.