[RP TownTalk] car break-in

Mon Oct 12 11:17:11 UTC 2015

Heather

Flagrantly abuse their power, harass people of color?  I don’t think you truly understand what police have to go through each and every day.

Imagine being a member of the police force working a long shit (12 hours) in an unsavory area in DC.  One minute your working a domestic, where a husband is beating his wife and you are trying not to get into an altercation with the drunken husband, a half hour later you get a “shots fired” and find a dead teenager laying in a pool of blood, later dealing with a drunken disorderly spitting and screaming at the top of his lungs an inch away from your face, next it’s a B and E where a distraught senior couples apartment has been completely ransacked and everything of value has been stolen.  On the way to the next call, you are diverted to discover an infant in a dumpster followed by a fatal head on caused by a drug addled driver who just killed a mother with her kids calling for her in the back seat.  Imagine working in this environment day after day, week after week, year after year.  Think of how this would affect you and what affect it would have on your disposition and “attitude”?  

Stop parroting the media tripe and think about what these men and woman have to go through.  In my opinion, they are patriots fighting a war they cannot win.  They are no different than any other veteran of any other war.  Protecting me and you from abject chaos often risking and losing their lives to do so.  On top of that they are being vilified by folks like you and the media.  Sure the police make mistakes, there’s collateral damage, and there’s injustice from time to time, but this is war girl.  These men and woman aren’t playing in a sand box.

I think it’s time to stop vilifying the police and start questioning the media.  Their bias is in the stratosphere pretty much across the board.  The police are not the enemy, they are part of the community akin to your neighbors.  That’s the “attitude” all us should have not the one you articulated below.  If you take care of them, they will take care of you.

Bruce 

From: towntalk-bounces at riverdale-park.org [mailto:towntalk-bounces at riverdale-park.org] On Behalf Of Heather Cronk
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2015 9:28 PM
To: Sarah Wayland <sarah.wayland at gmail.com>
Cc: TownTalk at riverdale-park.org
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] car break-in

I appreciate the background, Sarah.  Unfortunately, the idea of calling the police under the policy of, "If it looks weird, give us a call" doesn't make me feel any better.

The problem is that a community policing effort that relies mostly on subjective standards still relies on an individual's perception of danger, or even on something being "askew." I'm all for community-driven solutions that supplant a police force -- but the type of effort you're describing still sounds like it's grounded on individual perception.  That individual perception is, of course, also grounded in systems of oppression that many of us learn at an early age.

I know that we all want to believe that "our" police force is different than those that flagrantly abuse their power and harass people of color for little more than walking down the street (as in the case of Eric Garner in NY) or rolling through a stop sign (as in the case of Sandra Bland in TX) -- and I hope that's true.  But when the evidence overwhelmingly points to police bias and when too many of my friends report police harassment on a regular basis, I would really rather not call the police unless I observe someone in immediate danger.

I appreciate the conversation and hope that our police force is "listening in" via email.  I haven't yet been able to attend a community forum with the police chief, but I hope to do so soon.  And unless we're hearing from the police chief that the Riverdale police force has undergone extensive cultural competency training and has an explicit commitment to de-escalation, I'll remain skeptical of calling the police in anything but overtly dangerous situations.

-Heather

On Friday, October 9, 2015, Sarah Wayland <sarah.wayland at gmail.com <mailto:sarah.wayland at gmail.com> > wrote:

This is an important point, Heather. Let me provide some explanation & clarification, in the interest of starting a dialog. 

I used to think exactly what you wrote. Many years ago (wow, I think it's actually been almost 20 years now) crime was worse in our town, and a group of us started up a Neighborhood Watch program. (our current mayor, then a new resident of town, was actually one of those primarily responsible for setting it up!) As part of our training, we spent several hours getting trained by the police who told us when to call and what to call about. This was before cell phones were in common use, so we carried police scanners with us as we walked through the neighborhoods. 

I was stunned to learn during the training that the police *wanted* us to call, even about little things. I had thought this would be annoying to them, and that they didn't want to hear about random annoying little things. It turns out that what seems "a little off but not harmless" can often be the information that helps to the police solve a crime. The rule the police gave us was, "If it looks weird, give us a call."

I learned that things like "cars parked on our side street that aren't usually there" might be a drug deal. I had no idea! Now that I know what to look for, I'm sorry to say I can spot a drug deal pretty easily now. They happen *fast*, as do most crimes. 

Of course the problem with this is that it's a slippery slope. A neighbor of ours was watching his friend's car while his friend was away on travel. Another neighbor called the police about the "strange car parked on the side street", and our neighbor's friend's car got towed without even a notice! That's exactly the kind of thing we don't want! 

In the 20 years since we started that Neighborhood Watch program, my car has been broken into twice, and my garage has also been broken into. It was never horrible, just a slight violation. The time my garage was broken into, a neighbor's shed was broken into just prior, and another neighbor called me because she was very shaken up, having just witnessed the shed break-in. Little did I know that while I was talking to her on the phone, my garage was being broken into! 

That string of shed break-ins, by the way, was solved when a resident called the police when he saw a guy jumping over a fence. The police caught the guy in the act of stealing stuff from another shed because they had a lead from someone in the community who called right away.  

Of course these folks usually commit their crimes when no one is looking, and they operate quickly. It's hard to even know whether you are seeing something weird, and I can personally attest to the fact that sometimes you don't even realize how weird it is until hours later.  

To be clear, what I don't mean by "weird" is "someone who looks different than me and my neighbors". 

But what *is* weird? This write up on the City of Lonsdale (MN) is quite consistent with what the police told us during our Neighborhood Watch training: 

http://www.lonsdale.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC <http://www.lonsdale.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B8E39A899-29E8-4B18-AF14-ED1081ACCC6B%7D> &SEC=%7B8E39A899-29E8-4B18-AF14-ED1081ACCC6B%7D

I keep thinking about another neighbor whose home was broken into while I was home. I heard a loud bang, but because of the noise of a nearby construction site, thought it was nothing unusual. I didn't call the police. My neighbors lost many things that were not only of monetary value, but also of great sentimental value. I still feel really really bad about that. I should have called. 

-Sarah

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