The only thing that irritates is how intractable it all feels. Humanity has changed bigger, more difficult, more entrenched systems before; the frustration I feel is in not seeing where to start with this one. But I bet there are models out there, even for places like ours. Thank you for once again laying it all out so clearly!
Did you see that the city also agreed to move the Crisis Intervention Team from Missoula Fire Department to Missoula Police "given Missoula's reliance on trained law enforcement officers to respond to calls involving a mental health crisis." Does anyone in the city really think people join the police because they want to be empathetic social workers and actively work to defuse and deescalate complicated problems of substances abuse, mental illness and poverty? Police are simply agents of the state hired to enforce the criminalization of poverty - a perpetual, recurring feature of capitalism.
One of the most important blogs you have written. I once saw a policeman about to shoot a scared, bewildered dog, and I screamed at him, "Don"t shoot. I know how to rescue him. He cocked his rifle and sneered at me, "Nobody tells me what to do." I suppose because I am a white middle aged woman he did not shoot me as I calmly gave the dog some food and water and slipped a leash on him and led him away. I was amazed at the cockiness of the policeman.
Great article. I see this; I was one of those white guilt ladies who didn't know anything real in the 60s because my education was so poor then. Yet I also saw, while signing up for some green-policy movement then, how an angry young man reveled in the chance to grab a leadership role that allowed him a scratch of power and a megaphone. And a way to further humiliate women.
This is my point. At 78, I am exhausted by so much that I see; that I finally DO see, after a white middle-class privilege, how thorough and widespread the fear of not being "someone" radiates through society, ravages any sense of empathy or compassion, allows people I love to rush toward authoritarianism like Trump, defend nonsense in order to support evil. It exhausts me. The scope of it!
I can only proceed by focusing on one small area to work in--now it is helping various efforts with small, continuous donations and yes, writing letters, etc. But also educating my grandson, with "Maus," with "On Tyranny," with the desperate importance of being kind. And my son is kind, even though troubled with chronic depression. And my daughter is finally, in her way, also becoming kind.
We too who are awakening, even though slowly, must be encouraged, not disparaged. Signing e-petitions might be a start toward a stronger stance. Yes, encourage seeing FURTHER, but don't dismiss altogether.
It's a hard journey every damned inch, isn't it, for all of us.
Big picture it feels endless and hopeless. But at the bone, humanizing the incarcerated matters. Stories. (No humans are disposable although there are plenty I struggle to find compassion for.)
Feb 14, 2022·edited Feb 14, 2022Liked by Chris La Tray
“ for all its smug self-assurance about being “progressive” and “democratic,” my community remains—with some few occasional and notable exceptions—a bastion of white supremacy that only cares about white people.” yes. Thank you.
And thank you for adding footnote 4. I’m an abolitionist and spend way too much free time begging people to care about city budgets. When you said, “Policing is the ultimate flex of white supremacy and it’s the one, like the endlessly expanding military budget, we seem least inclined to really do anything more about than occasionally grumble and shake our fists at.” I felt seen. People seem to just accept that policing is dangerous and think it’s a few bad apples. Begging for change feels impossible. You criticize Biden it Democratic structures and people just scream REPUBLICAN and shut right down.
Looking at the Dunbar-Ortiz statistics made me realize that the official COVID death count will eventually match the number of incarcerated people. Which…well, I’m going to shove down all the feelings that brings up for a later day.
Don’t have the stomach to read the Killology article at the moment but the excerpt about “implying the sexual pleasure of police officers is amplified following a violent confrontation” jumped out. I think the Killology trainers accidentally said the quiet part out loud, because there’s always been a line connecting sexual pleasure and fascist militarization.
Police culture is absolutely on some Jeffrey Dahmer-esque shit and we’re just supposed to be ok with it instead of being disgusted and alarmed.
"But we have to do something. It is a life or death situation."
Exactly. No action too small. Against all odds. When I arrived in 1974, traumatized, with very little money or visible power in this small university town in a lightly populated county in the northwest corner of Washington State, it was whiter than it is now, with the exception of the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Indian Tribe and a growing population of farm workers. I will die here with very little money or visible power, doing what I can, knowing that the beloved community is growing, throughout the world, visible and invisible.
Have been thinking about this too--frustration doesn't seem to run deep enough for the entrenched racism in policing. Policing in America originated in slave patrols to stop 'fugitive' enslaved people and stop any slave rebellion. It is an inherently racist practice borne out by decades of cruelty and needless incarceration and needs to stop. And its directly tied to the proliferation of american gun culture as well. I've been so disheartened to see defund the police receive the expected backlash. It was squarely taking issue with that history, legacy, and outcomes we still have to witness. Thanks so much for writing this.
The only thing that irritates is how intractable it all feels. Humanity has changed bigger, more difficult, more entrenched systems before; the frustration I feel is in not seeing where to start with this one. But I bet there are models out there, even for places like ours. Thank you for once again laying it all out so clearly!
Did you see that the city also agreed to move the Crisis Intervention Team from Missoula Fire Department to Missoula Police "given Missoula's reliance on trained law enforcement officers to respond to calls involving a mental health crisis." Does anyone in the city really think people join the police because they want to be empathetic social workers and actively work to defuse and deescalate complicated problems of substances abuse, mental illness and poverty? Police are simply agents of the state hired to enforce the criminalization of poverty - a perpetual, recurring feature of capitalism.
One of the most important blogs you have written. I once saw a policeman about to shoot a scared, bewildered dog, and I screamed at him, "Don"t shoot. I know how to rescue him. He cocked his rifle and sneered at me, "Nobody tells me what to do." I suppose because I am a white middle aged woman he did not shoot me as I calmly gave the dog some food and water and slipped a leash on him and led him away. I was amazed at the cockiness of the policeman.
Great article. I see this; I was one of those white guilt ladies who didn't know anything real in the 60s because my education was so poor then. Yet I also saw, while signing up for some green-policy movement then, how an angry young man reveled in the chance to grab a leadership role that allowed him a scratch of power and a megaphone. And a way to further humiliate women.
This is my point. At 78, I am exhausted by so much that I see; that I finally DO see, after a white middle-class privilege, how thorough and widespread the fear of not being "someone" radiates through society, ravages any sense of empathy or compassion, allows people I love to rush toward authoritarianism like Trump, defend nonsense in order to support evil. It exhausts me. The scope of it!
I can only proceed by focusing on one small area to work in--now it is helping various efforts with small, continuous donations and yes, writing letters, etc. But also educating my grandson, with "Maus," with "On Tyranny," with the desperate importance of being kind. And my son is kind, even though troubled with chronic depression. And my daughter is finally, in her way, also becoming kind.
We too who are awakening, even though slowly, must be encouraged, not disparaged. Signing e-petitions might be a start toward a stronger stance. Yes, encourage seeing FURTHER, but don't dismiss altogether.
It's a hard journey every damned inch, isn't it, for all of us.
Big picture it feels endless and hopeless. But at the bone, humanizing the incarcerated matters. Stories. (No humans are disposable although there are plenty I struggle to find compassion for.)
“ for all its smug self-assurance about being “progressive” and “democratic,” my community remains—with some few occasional and notable exceptions—a bastion of white supremacy that only cares about white people.” yes. Thank you.
And thank you for adding footnote 4. I’m an abolitionist and spend way too much free time begging people to care about city budgets. When you said, “Policing is the ultimate flex of white supremacy and it’s the one, like the endlessly expanding military budget, we seem least inclined to really do anything more about than occasionally grumble and shake our fists at.” I felt seen. People seem to just accept that policing is dangerous and think it’s a few bad apples. Begging for change feels impossible. You criticize Biden it Democratic structures and people just scream REPUBLICAN and shut right down.
Looking at the Dunbar-Ortiz statistics made me realize that the official COVID death count will eventually match the number of incarcerated people. Which…well, I’m going to shove down all the feelings that brings up for a later day.
Don’t have the stomach to read the Killology article at the moment but the excerpt about “implying the sexual pleasure of police officers is amplified following a violent confrontation” jumped out. I think the Killology trainers accidentally said the quiet part out loud, because there’s always been a line connecting sexual pleasure and fascist militarization.
Police culture is absolutely on some Jeffrey Dahmer-esque shit and we’re just supposed to be ok with it instead of being disgusted and alarmed.
"But we have to do something. It is a life or death situation."
Exactly. No action too small. Against all odds. When I arrived in 1974, traumatized, with very little money or visible power in this small university town in a lightly populated county in the northwest corner of Washington State, it was whiter than it is now, with the exception of the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Indian Tribe and a growing population of farm workers. I will die here with very little money or visible power, doing what I can, knowing that the beloved community is growing, throughout the world, visible and invisible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naj6zZakgEg
“A useful bone to chew on” indeed. Thank you Chris.
Thanks, Chris. Still chewing and it seems very tough.
Have been thinking about this too--frustration doesn't seem to run deep enough for the entrenched racism in policing. Policing in America originated in slave patrols to stop 'fugitive' enslaved people and stop any slave rebellion. It is an inherently racist practice borne out by decades of cruelty and needless incarceration and needs to stop. And its directly tied to the proliferation of american gun culture as well. I've been so disheartened to see defund the police receive the expected backlash. It was squarely taking issue with that history, legacy, and outcomes we still have to witness. Thanks so much for writing this.