Dear friends,
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the 1999 police killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed man, outside his home in the Bronx. I remember listening to Amadou’s heartbroken mother speak after his death.
The tragedy marked the beginning of my own child’s intro to street activism. I vividly remember discussing with then 3-1/2 year old Lena why I was going to march over the Brooklyn Bridge. I asked if they were willing to come with me.
We made an agreement that they would ride in their stroller and not get out, and that if they wanted to go home, I would turn us around at the earliest opportunity. We talked about what it means to say, “No justice, no peace.”
I had not remembered that the march took place in mid-April. This was before the more instant mobilizations of the digital age.
Lena wanted to carry a sign, so I mounted a small sign on a plastic ruler. We moved with a river of humanity over the bridge toward a rally at City Hall.
When we got to the Manhattan side, Lena told me that they wanted to go home, so we headed to the jersey barrier that stood between the protesters and the subway entrance under the Municipal Building. On the other side stood a uniformed police officer, who politely offered to help me lift Lena over the barrier.
Lena turned to me and said Mommy, is that the man who killed Amadou?!
I thanked the officer for his offer. Then I lifted Lena’s stroller over the barrier myself. On the subway ride home, we talked about why little white kids probably don’t have to be afraid of cops. I didn’t get into the whole Invisible Knapsack. Well, not that day.
Last Sunday, as I sat at Lena’s kitchen table in Burlington, Vermont, they were on an organizing call. They are working to win support for the creation of an
Vermont has something called Town Meeting Day, and at the next one — on March 7 — voters will weigh in on the proposal. As one resident described it,
“It’s a very basic idea: the police chief should not have sole authority over discipline in cases of misconduct. Police can’t oversee themselves. And while the mayor and chief will talk a lot about all these improvements that they want to make, none of these improvements address changing the charter to fix this issue and this proposal is a path to ensure that.”
Lena and I both liked this article, about citizen assemblies. We share a democratic faith in the people, and we are walking this path together.
Tyre Nichols’s death has reminded us yet again of the need to disrupt the culture of policing. It’s time to give more authority to regular people.
One of the principle demands of ordinary people in Memphis is the empowerment of a Community Law Enforcement Review Board to hold officers accountable.
Sign the petition to Memphis’s city council, calling for structural change to policing. This quick action is from Moms Rising.
NYC Councilman Charles Barron maintains that you cannot reform grandfathered-in police culture that leads to the killing of countless unarmed Black and brown people.
“[E]ven with the clear and compelling evidence of video documentation, the bias and racism of the justice system has not significantly changed.
Barron has introduced the Community Power Act [Intro 0463], which would create
a mechanism for the investigation of complaints of misconduct and possible uses of excessive force by officers and employees of the New York city police department toward members of the public, and determination of appropriate disciplinary actions that is comprehensive, thorough, and impartial. . . . [An] independent elected civilian review, comprised solely of members of the public with the authority to investigate allegations of police misconduct, is necessary to ensure independence, thoroughness, and impartiality.
Let your council member know that we need independent, thorough, and impartial investigation of complaints against the police. I made it easy!
Around the country, people are calling to get police out of the business of traffic enforcement, which ends badly in so many cases. One of the first tragedies I discussed this year was the lethal tasing of Keenan Anderson in LA, following a minor traffic incident.
Use this quick action from Moms Rising to call for an end to LAPD’s murderous practices.
This Sunday, Tu B’shvat — Arbor Day for Jews — begins. This is a holiday I can get behind, since it is a celebration of life-sustaining trees.
I am spending more time these days communing with and learning the names (really slowly!) of the Standing People. Also, the ‘new year for the trees’ is typically celebrated with a meal that includes fruit and nuts. A worthy idea every day.
I am guilty of cherry-picking spiritual ideas: in one strain of Kabbalah, human beings and all physical forms are believed to contain a spark of creation, along the lines of a seed. What a beautiful idea.
Here is a lovely crabapple tree (maybe?!) casting its image on what is probably a sewer pumping station building, repository of a spark of creation.
Photograph by Stanley Greenberg
with love,
L