[FRIAM] Thoughts on the Floyd protests

[Steve Smith]

uǝlƃ ☣ wrote:
> I've thought that Portland's "street response team" [†] is a good idea that addresses much of this, at least if the idea is taken seriously and extrapolated. It helps address the militarization of police by allowing the police to be/stay that way, but then NOT sending police out for everything. The composition of the response team can be dynamic, maybe even self-organizing to some extent. And if it were extrapolated to (e.g.) groups like CERT (of which Renee' was a member back in Oregon), neighborhood watch, suburban/corporate security services, etc. it could be a serious approach to "defunding" the police. (Defund in quotes because it's not really defunding them, just changing the way it's all organized.)
>
> [†] https://www.kgw.com/article/news/amid-spike-in-911-calls-tied-to-homelessness-street-roots-pitches-response-teams/283-cb0ee8bc-f0e1-4c22-984e-f1c0244e9a7a

Mary did a short stint in Western (semi-rural) Nebraska as a regional
coordinator between Law Enforcement (primarily Sheriff's dept) and a
group of trained therapists who were "on call" to meet law enforcement
on calls and *usually* take point with any call where there might be a
mental-health component.   That included domestic disturbance calls as
well as drug/alcohol-involved calls, youth and elderly, homeless
(vagrant?) etc.    The Law Enforcement welcomed them with open arms and
the therapists appreciated the opportunity to be involved early, rather
than later at the jail, the hospital or a bereaved family gathering.  
That may not translate into the higher gradients of urban contexts, but
it was a start.  

Now, if their funding had come out of the Sheriff's budget, maybe not?  
It sounded like it was about 1 FTE of funding, probably stacked against
a Sheriff's dept and town police forces numbering less than hundreds
over the region...  seems like a good investment...  but tell that to
the laid off staff when funding shifts?

I do think that EMT-trained non-enforcement can pick up a *LOT* of what
we consider Law Enforcement response needs, and a LOT of what we think
requires LEO's help doesn't:   

When I found that Ed (who had been living with me for nearly 2 years)
had taken his life (3 years ago) on my property, I chose NOT to call 911
but instead to drive 8 miles to the fire-station who had responded just
a few months before when Ed had blacked out at a Casino.   The
firemen/EMTs had (against some rules I think) taken Ed's car-keys (at
Ed's request while being loaded into an Ambulance) and drove his vehicle
to their fire-station a mile away and took his dog (100lb Akita) inside
to care for overnight.  Ed and I picked "Brando" up the next day after
he was released from the Hospital.   The "rules" probably called for
towing his vehicle to an impound and "towing" the dog by animal
control.  Instead they did the common sense, humane thing.   We brought
them Jerky and Breakfast Burritos.   They thanked us and patted Brando
on the head and gave him a bite of their jerky.

I knew I was risking something by NOT calling 911 (though I had the
technicality that I have no landline, no cell service at my house, and
the Google Fi service I have states: "NOT FOR EMERGENCY/911 calls!"
(though I know that is their liability, not an proscription from calling
911 on their service). I was in no mood to have Ed's death treated as an
emergency (it was a shock but not a surprise to those who knew him
well), much less a "crime".  I hoped that the EMT-Firefighters could
respond more humanely.   Unfortunately, they did not answer their door,
and when I called the number on their locked door I got central-dispatch
(not 911, but nearly so) who in fact dispatched the same team as well as
5 Sheriff's deputies to my house.   I rolled in just after the first
Deputy arrived at high-speed, lights/sirens-on, etc.     So much for my
good intentions.    The EMTs did arrive soon after, recognized Ed's
vehicle and dog and were very gracious, but entirely displaced by LEO. 

The Uniformed Sheriff's officers were very professional but were
required (I suppose) to treat my home as a (possible?) crime-scene and
even after the first couple of hours seemed to be treating it as a crime
scene and me? as a suspect? in a crime?.   There was a (running the
whole time) patrol car parked blocking my driveway right up until the
coroner's vehicle arrived for Ed.  I spent a couple of hours (total)
with a Sheriff's Detective (2 actually) and again they were very
professional but I did feel "grilled" most of the time.   If I had been
more "paranoid" about law-enforcement, I could imagine having become
adversarial with them.   It helped that the main questioner was very
junior (and clumsy in his affect/questions), it might even have been his
first case, and I recognized that this was probably being used as an OJT
opportunity for him... which made me believe that they weren't *really*
treating it as a possible homicide.   There came an unspoken moment in
the "interrogation" when the tone changed radically and it was evident
to me that the two detectives had given one another some kind of sign
and they shifted to a more conciliatory tone.   

It was a good 6 hours after I made the drive/call that the last deputy
left my property (I'm surprised his gas tank wasn't empty from idling
all that time, radios blaring and AC running and alternators kicking in
to feed the power draw for all of that).   I couldn't (and don't) hold
anything against the actions or even affect of any of the individuals in
this situation, BUT, it still felt incredibly invasive and wasteful and
disrespectful (to Ed, to my neighbors, and to a lesser extent to me) and
a recipe for bad feelings and misunderstandings.   I sent a note of
thanks/commendation to the EMT/Fire guys supervisor but couldn't quite
do the Sheriff's, even though I knew they were "doing their job
professionally"

Ed's son, sister and grandson came down the next weekend to collect his
possessions and decompress with me (I had met the son/grandson) once.  
It was a good visit, but it became evident that the cost of Ed's
cremation was to exceed his assets (he was living on disability and his
only significant asset as a shaky vehicle and a small bank account
holding the security deposit I'd "loaned" him so he could find a place
to park the RV I'd "loaned" him).   This was going to have to come out
of his son's hide which was not impossible but not trivial for a
struggling young family.    The amount spent on rushing 2 fire-trucks,
an ambulance, and 6 marked cars and two detective's cars 10-20 miles
from home-base and holding the related staff on-site variously for 30
minutes to 6 hours could have covered that expense 10 times over.  I
think one EMT vehicle, one coroner, one Sheriff's detective and a couple
of hours and no lights or sirens or blocked driveways would have been
ample?  Ed *did* get as much preventative care as he would allow from
mental/social services, but a more robust mental/social health system
might have reduced the stigma's that prevented him from asking/allowing
for more.   I'm not arguing that this would have kept him alive, but it
might have been more humane and less wasteful.

Meanwhile, just over the county line in Espanola (closer to my home than
Santa Fe), The city police have arrested the county Sheriff either for
very good, or totally frivolous reasons... In the midst of a the
Coronavirus lockdown and on the cusp of the Police Misconduct/Abuse
worldwide protests, we have that kind of mickey-mouse stuff burning tax
dollars and public trust?

http://www.riograndesun.com/news/rio-arriba-sheriff-arrested/article_6455c066-9bbf-11ea-9ec4-93b4a8ae54cf.html

And in my backyard (or more to the point, the back-yard I am living in
of someone else?) the Tewa Pueblo of San Ildefonso is locked down hard
against COVID19, possibly channeling "racial" memories of the Orbis
Spike/Columbian Exchange that may well have taken over 90% of the lives
of Indigenous Americans in the first 100 years after Columbus.   And I
can see from where I sit, "Black Mesa" where their warriors held out for
months against de Vargas' "reconquest" of the area 300+ years ago.  The
first conquistador (Onate) took the foot of every able-bodied male in
the area (rendering them not-so) to "prevent future uprisings".  It
didn't work.

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/a-refuge-from-the-reconquista-joseph-aguilar-on-mesatop-archaeology/article_5c7bb04c-c31f-59fa-b8ec-c252a0bd0ce5.html

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/630.html

It wouldn't surprise me if my neighbors watching the military
riot-police on TV  don't have visions of conquistadores in steel armor
on horseback wielding swords instead of batons and riot-shotguns 400
years later.  Onate and de Vargas still ride at the lead of the Fiesta
de Santa Fe parade every year (as far as I know... I only had to see
that once).

... and here I sit, mostly safe and comfortable, half-smug, helpless to
do much more than shake my tiny fist and yell "black (red?) lives
matter!" or "I can't breathe (walk?) !" and look for ways to take
Tolstoy's admonition more personally/seriously.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4491-i-sit-on-a-man-s-back-choking-him-and-making

Maybe send a check somewhere?   Yell at a cop?   Light up a dumpster?  
Wish I could vote *twice*?   Hamstring any of my friends/neighbors who
might vote for Trump before election day?  Make up a tone-deaf joke to
post to FriAM?   Make fun of "snowflakes" or "deplorables"?  Whine about
my own 'got it bad' situation?  promote Anarchy?,  demand Law&Ordure?,
conflate ends/means?, riff on hoity-toity free-associations?, contract
coronavirus and make room for a new child on this planet (or not)?

I'm on my 9th year of growing out the 3 corn seeds Robert Mirabal
(Channeling 'Po'Pay) handed me after his re-animation of 'Po'Pay
<https://www.taosnews.com/stories/robert-mirabal-to-perform-popay-speaks-at-taos-community-auditorium,8423>
in 2011.   They might even be knee-high by the 4th of July to celebrate
the founding of "this Great Nation" while the fireworks sold *only* on
native lands start fires in the bosque.  It is a small tribute.  

grumble,

    - Steve

>
> On 6/10/20 2:58 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
>> My "intellectual" interest is in how self-organizing principles and emergence operate in social contexts...  on both sides of the debate here, as is being alluded to here already.   When Law Enforcement gets significantly defunded, what fills the vacuum left by that?
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