Policing in pairs? We’ve got a ways to go before we reach enlightenment

The order went out to Chicago Police Department officers Sunday morning in the wake of an attack on officers in Baton Rouge, La., that left at least three cops dead and others wounded.

CPD showing their support, while watching their backs

They’re not to be going out on patrol all by their lonesome. They’re also to be in full uniform, to ensure that it is fully clear to the public who exactly the police are. Similar orders have been given to police officers in New York and Boston, to name just a couple of cities.

NOW SOME PEOPLE might think that makes the cops all the more of targets. It probably does. Although I suspect that to the kind of people inclined to want to attack officers, they’re going to know in advance exactly who they’re looking for.

If anything, this might reduce the chance of a non officer being mistaken by someone who thinks of themselves as some sort of revolutionary fighting for the rights of the people against an oppressive force.

Which is what I’m sure is the kind of cheap rhetoric we’re ultimately going to hear if any of the gunmen who attacked the officers in Louisiana Sunday morning are taken alive.

You know, the men dressed in black. And no, I don’t mean the late singer Johnny Cash!

FOR IT SEEMS that one of the gunmen was killed by cops right away, while the other two remained at large for much of the day – with the public in Baton Rouge being advised to look out for anyone black-clad. Not that any further description was given.

For it seems the people who might actually know something didn’t see nothin’, or at least that’s what they claimed when they talked to cops.

Honestly, I don’t know what to think of these latest attacks on Sunday – other than to say we shouldn’t be surprised by anything that happens these days. We have a national mood of mistrust concerning our attitude toward law enforcement personnel.

 

TRUMP: Too eager to mix it up in dispute?

Some of us are determined to view them as the problem, while others are quite eager to use this as an excuse to go after people whom they never trusted and have long wished they could fight back against.

IN SHORT, I’M saying I expect this kind of nonsense to continue on, and not just in Baton Rouge, where local residents remain miffed at the shooting death by police of a black man that got captured on video.

This is not a problem limited to any one city or part of the country. It is why I have refused to get as worked up as some people have over the officer now on trial in Chicago for the shooting death in 2014 of Laquan McDonald.

It’s bigger than any one incident, and it is not going to be solved with cheap rhetoric.

Which is what I think of Donald Trump, who couldn’t wait to rush out with a statement eagerly meant to support the police – claiming he expects that law and order attitudes will prevail. Eager to take sides, and I’m sure his followers will repeatedly parrot the same lines throughout the Republican National Convention being held this week in Cleveland.

PERHAPS HE THINKS we’ll rise up and start shooting people who aren’t sufficiently deferential to the police. Or maybe he’ll settle for an angry mob engaging in fisticuffs against someone who looks just a tad suspicious – from their life’s perspective.

It is a serious issue, this one of mistrust that some of us have with the police – which is really more about our racial tensions and hostilities flaring up!

As much as I wish we could be responsible and rise to a higher level, I won’t be the least bit surprised if our society continues to delve down in the muck for awhile longer.

It’s the kind of situation where I expect there’s going to be many more rounds of stupidity and ignorance that we’ll have to be ashamed of before we can finally attain a level of enlightenment in the future.

  -30-

Seems like some people need to learn to ‘play nice’ with each other all around

Chicago officials often like to talk about how we live in a multi-ethnic city with a racial balance that equals out (roughly 1/3 each white and black, with Latino and Asian populations making up the rest).

The vision of what the United States is destined to become by mid-century. A place where people from just about every place on Earth can be found living amongst the locals.

YET THE REALITY of human beings these days is that while we might be in a great big mix, it doesn’t always mean we get along with each other. Perhaps we need to learn to “play nice” with each other.

That certainly is evidenced by the recent stink over the upcoming Riot Fest musical concert that will take place come Sept. 11-13 in Douglas Park.

That festival was supposed to be held in Humboldt Park, but an outcry from local residents and the alderman – Roberto Maldonado – caused it to be relocated to the park in the North Lawndale neighborhood.

There was a sense that the Puerto Rican community that lives in the Humboldt Park neighborhood wasn’t enthused about having an event in its namesake park that would attract a non-Latino crowd.

I DON’T DOUBT that to be true. Although in talking with people who have gone to Riot Fest events in past years, they say they were contained to a part of the park and really didn’t feel like they interacted with the neighborhood that much.

But before one starts thinking that the Puerto Ricans are being intolerant of others, you have to consider that they may just be spewing back the hostility they feel from others as well.

For the Everyblock.com website currently has a running discussion of sorts calling for people to boycott certain Humboldt Park businesses, along with penalize Maldonado.

Reading through the commentary (which began back on May 22 and running continuously through Tuesday morning), it seems the non-Puerto Rican residents who have moved into the neighborhood hoping to get cheap rents in hopes of “upgrading” the neighborhood to their standards are behind this effort.

GUTIERREZ: A former Lincoln Parker

THEY WANT TO boycott any local businesses that expressed support for removing Riot Fest from Humboldt Park. They’re compiling a running list of these businesses – making sure it is known where we should shop or eat within the community.

As one anonymous person posted on the website, “I need to know where not to spend my money. We are getting screwed blind during the day while we are at work. It’s time to fight back with the money we have earned through our labor and by denying those who sponsor people who vote against our interests.”

Only the most oblivious of persons (or ones determined to ignore racism) doesn’t get the hostile tone of THAT message!

Consider that perhaps part of the reason the locals, many of whom have a history of having been pushed out of the Lincoln Park neighborhood back in the 1960s and early1970s (Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., was among the locals who grew up in what is now one of Chicago’s most upscale neighborhoods), wonder if this newest gentrification is a repeat of the past.

PERHAPS SOME PEOPLE think multi-ethnic is good only if certain select ethnicities are included in the mix. And that statement applies all ways.

So back to Riot Fest, which it seems is going to include artists ranging from Billy Idol to Iggy Pop and from Ice Cube to Snoop Dog performing. Personally, my attention was caught by the band Echo and the Bunnymen being on the program – not that I care for them much, but I recall them being popular amongst the crowd that listened to college radio (and still spinning vinyl discs) back when I was a part of it in the mid-1980s.

It seems to be a mix meant to appeal to as many people as possible (which usually is a good way to make money). But for those fest-goers who have their own ethnic hang-ups, I wonder how they’ll react to being in Douglas Park – which is surrounded by an impoverished African-American community.

Hopefully, music in all forms will keep people’s minds off such concerns.

  -30-not to spend my money.We are getting screwed blind during the day while we are at work. It is time to fight back with the money we have earned through our labor and by denying those who sponsor people who vote against our interests. It is time to fight against those who would have our families out of the Ward with our dollarsI need to know where not to spend my money.We are getting screwed blind during the day while we are at work. It is time to fight back with the money we have earned through our labor and by denying those who sponsor people who vote against our interests. It is time to fight against those who would have our families out of the Ward with our dollarsI need to know where not to spend my money.We are getting screwed blind during the day while we are at work. It is time to fight back with the money we have earned through our labor and by denying those who sponsor people who vote against our interests. It is time to fight against those who would have our families out of the Ward with our dollarsI need to know where not to spend my money.We are getting screwed blind during the day while we are at work. It is time to fight back with the money we have earned through our labor and by denying those who sponsor people who vote against our interests. It is time to fight against those who would have our families out of the Ward with our dollars