[RP TownTalk] TownTalk Digest, Vol 111, Issue 8

[Alison Spain]

Hello Neighbors -

I appreciate the mostly respectful dialogue that has been taking place on
Town Talk regarding policing in our community.

Regarding Mr. Wernek's message below, I don't believe Ms. Cronk impugned or
otherwise charged Riverdale's police force with any abuse of power or
harassment, merely stated her hesitance to call police under the premise of
seeing something "weird."

I've been pulled over on numerous occasions in my 41 years, Mr. Wernek, and
only once have I received a speeding ticket.  As a college student and
young white woman, I was generally sent on my way with a warning, by white
and black police, even when there was clearly underage drinking and/or
other illegal behavior involved.  In fact, I have never feared for my
safety in my police encounters. My Black and Latino friends have not shared
this experience.  In high school, an Asian friend of my brother's, not even
15, had a gun drawn on him and was put to the ground for some lesser
traffic offense.  In fact, the only time that I did not receive the help I
sought was for sexual harassment in college, when it was deemed my fault
for being with another woman, hiking together in the woods without male
friends, and therefore likely enticing harassment upon ourselves.

These are anecdotes.  The reality is that your experience of "take care of
them and they will take care of you" is also an anecdote. Statistics and
empirical research prove time and time again prove that racial bias exists,
even when we don't want it to be so. That does not mean police are bad, or
that we are bad, but we are products of our environments and socialization,
and of racist media and stereotypes.  I was stunned to find myself afraid,
yes AFRAID, of a 4-year old African American boy who was a participant at
the non-profit where I taught art.  This is a non-profit that serves ONLY
African  American boys.  I am ashamed to admit this, of course, but as my
boss (an African American woman) at the program said when I told her what I
had thought, with much embarrassment, "Even Black people are afraid of
Black people."  Neither one of us believed or wanted to be programmed with
these kind of thoughts, but there we were, two lefty, anti-racist, do gooder
liberals, one white, one black, with all the same baggage as anyone else in
America.

"Even if, in our slow thinking, we work to avoid discrimination, it can
easily creep into our fast thinking. Our snap judgments rely on all the
associations we have — from fictional television shows to news reports.
They use stereotypes, both the accurate and the inaccurate, both those we
would want to use and ones we find repulsive."
http://www.nytimes
.com/2015/01/04/upshot/the-measuring-sticks-of-racial-bias-.html?_r=0

When I moved to Riverdale two years ago, I had just arrived home when
police came through my neighborhood with weapons drawn in search of a
suspect who had presumably stolen a motorbike and crashed it. He was a
young, black male.  There are several young, black males in my
neighborhood, and I would think very carefully about risking their lives
for a stolen moped.  Google Tamir Rice and tell me you wouldn't.

Again, thanks for the dialogue,

Alison Spain
Tuckerman St.


Message: 4
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2015 07:17:11 -0400
From: "Bruce Wernek" <bruce.wernek at verizon.net>
To: "'Heather Cronk'" <heather.cronk at gmail.com>, "'Sarah Wayland'"
        <sarah.wayland at gmail.com>
Cc: TownTalk at riverdale-park.org
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] car break-in
Message-ID: <012601d104df$8ad04c60$a070e520$@verizon.net>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"




> 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
>
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