Black and Brown Lives Matter!

Black and brown lives matter!  I can't breath!" are the new rallying cries of outraged Americans.  I recently saw a meme that read "you mean to tell me that I can't whip my kids, but the police can kill them?" with impunity, I add.  The mayor of the City of New York is piloting a program using body cameras on a small number of "NYC Finest"; however, in the wake of a Staten Island Jury's refusal to indict the chokehold officer, Daniel Pantaleo, caught on camera delivering NYC style justice to Mr. Eric Garner, for the heinous act of selling cigarettes on a NYC street--honestly--ask yourself, what good will the program really do?  Even with video evidence law enforcement officers appear to be above the law.   

Akai Gurley, and 28 year old unarmed, totally innocent, African American male who just happened to be walking down a stairwell with his girlfriend in Brooklyn--at the same time that a scared, gun toting rooky happened to be--lost his life; was labeled an "unfortunate tragedy."   Nevertheless, it has been reported that P. O. Peter Liang, allegedly called his union rep before calling for help.

Eighteen year old Michael Brown's murderer, P.O. Darren Wilson also emerges unscathed when a Ferguson grand jury refuses to indict.  He retires from his job with a 1 million dollar “war chest” from online fund raisers and supporter.  After the decision not to indict, Wilson gave an interview painting a shocking portrait of Michael Brown, the like of which those who knew him were in shock and disbelief (content can be see here).  It is said that dead men tell no tales.

Twelve year old Tamir Rice, shot twice while caring a toy gun, something that many children in the United States and abroad have played with for generations.  Thirteen Year old Andy Lopez, of Santa Rosa California, killed by police while walking to his friend’s house holding a replica AK-47 pellet gun which was mistaken for a real weapon.

There are so many of these stories that it is virtually impossible to keep count.  Young men of color have historically been disproportionately incarcerated, and now we must add murdered—at the hands of those charged with the job of protecting and serving—the list.   Society has been preconditioned to view blackness as a threat, something that is dangerous, needs to be controlled, curtailed, and suppressed in order to protect the status quo. 

America’s legacy on race and class has far too often been one of “justice delay and justice denied”  that the decry of contempt from her ethnically diverse citizenry should not come as a surprise.

Brownsville Natives Speak Out on New Police Policy Called "Omnipresence"

According to sources at the NYC Department of City Planning, Brooklyn and the Bronx are targeted for extensive development AKA gentrification.  You can learn about the plans for East New York, Brooklyn here and you can find information on the plans for the Bronx here .

Creating the opportunity for these plans to take shape requires restructuring of community, and in some cases that means "making it more safe."  There are new police framework that has taken shape, or perhaps they are the same policies, only under a different nomenclature.  

Omnipresence--VS--Stop-and-Frisk.
Check out what community residents have to say (watch video) here .

Where Have All The Flowers Gone? The Displacement of Minorities In The Process Of Gentrification

My book has just made it to the virtual shelves at Amazon and other distribution channels!  It will soon be available for electronic devices.  After hard work, a couple of years of dedicated research, my labor of love is completed.

Get your copy here: https://www.createspace.com/4341136
Full color version can be purchased here  https://www.createspace.com/4333770

This book is a dynamic and insightful read, featuring ethnographic interviews with business owners, longtime residents  and gentrifiers.  Do be sure to pick up your copy to read all about "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?"

How Gentrification Affects Those on Fixed Incomes and Has Public Policy Done Enough to Address this Issue?

According to a recent NYT article "The city’s older population is now its fastest growing. By 2030, New York for the first time will have as many residents 65 and older as those of school age — 15.5 percent of city residents, compared with 12 percent now, city planners say. By then, the city will have 300,000 more older people than the one million it has today. By 2040, it will have over 400,000 more than it does today."  The widening income gap between rents and incomes with hit them the hardest, even in rent stabilized dwellings. Here's an interesting article which explains how public policy has affected this demographic.

Gentrification: It's Happening in a City Near You!

My intention, at this point, is to create a series of post on gentrification and the attendant consequences of the process of urban development/neighborhood change or any other euphemism one uses to describe this phenomenon.

I'm a Brooklynite, and by extension, a native New Yorker.  One of my greatest concerns is that I will eventually be priced out of the city that I have called home, all my life.  Gentrification is the process by which this tragedy will happen, not only to me, but to anyone who cannot afford the rising rents in urban neighborhood.  I plan to explore this topic of gentrification to see what it is, how it manifest, and what--if anything--can be done to prevent mass displacement of those who are in the lower strata of the socio economic ladder.   

So what is gentrification?  

Here's a working definition of gentrification:

Since the term gentrification first appeared in the 1950s and 1960s--coined by Ruth Glass--the debate over its meaning and impact has only intensified. The definitions range from the purely economic: such as new high-income households, housing investment, or transition from renter-to owner occupancy, to the demographic: influx of white households, college-educated residents, non-family households, to some combination thereof. Another important aspect of gentrification is the appropriation of economic value by one class from another.

Green gentrification happens when cultural institutions and environmental amenities are upgraded, restored, and/or created, signify a second front of the gentrification process; and they contribute to each other.

Sometimes the reverse happens where historical sites are demolished to make way for luxury housing and boutique hotels.  This effectively erases the spatial significance and history of the former residents.  

For example, historical sites, such as the Fox Savoy Theater--1515 Bedford Avenue--are being destroyed to make way for Luxury Housing. This building, with its rich history and architectural significance could have had the opportunity to gain landmark status; however, was sold by the Charity Neighborhood Baptist Church for $575,000, as a result of financial difficulty. Demolition has already begun on the interior, and it’s not clear whether the outside with be demolished as well.

Related article: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6069

What are some things that we, as residents of Crown Heights, can do to preserve our spatial environment and to stave off development that does not provide for affordable housing opportunities?

The NRA Speaks Out

Wayne LaPierre, the Executive Vice President of the NRA, offered these words of "wisdom." He suggested that the answer is to further extend the right to bear arms to all.  "The only thing that stops a bad guys with a gun, is a good guy with a gun."  And if that was not bad enough, he proposes that we "militarize" every school in the nation.  That "Congress should appropriate what ever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this Nation." and proposes that a former prosecutor Asa Hutchinson, lead and NRA effort for that program.  He holds up "thousands of music videos, and you all know this, portray life as a joke and portray murder as a way of life, and they have the nerve to call this entertainment, but is that what it really is?" as the real reason why people commit senseless violence, and says that "Isn't fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography?"

As Irin Carmon of Salon.Com said on Now w/Alex Wagner that LaPierre effectively "Spit in the faces of the families of the victim of Sandy Hook Elementary."  Sam Stein pointed out that gun violence doesn't only happens in schools so by LaPierre's logic, we need armed guards in Sikh Temples, shopping malls and movie theaters . . . and what he's advocating is incredibly anti massive expansion of government."

LaPierre offered nothing near to a reasonable suggestion, as an answer to the gun violence, love of gun culture in America, or an assault weapons ban, but reverted to the blame game, and the dig in deeper position that the NRA consistently takes after a tragedy occurs as a result of gun use.

What do you say?

Is This The New Reality?

Mother Jones reports that since Friday's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, sales of bulletproof backpacks are up.  Derek Williams, president of Amendment II told Tim Murphy that sales of the "carbon nanotube armor" lined backpacks tripled in volume over what they typically do in a  month.

At the same time, gun sales have surged across the country.  Discount Gun Sales LLC reported on their website that "Due to the overwhelming increase in sales, beginning 12/18/12 we will only be doing local in store sales.  Out of state order[s] over the phone are temporarily suspended."

Perhaps the answer is in tougher regulation?  Maybe discussions surrounding mental health issues needs to be addressed on the national stage?  Perhaps the answer is in technology? Can classrooms be equip with panic buttons that would effectively lock bullet resistant doors that have bullet resistant windows, thereby sending out a signal to local law enforcement that will effectively reduce the response time?  We need innovative solutions to complex human driven crisis's.

Is this the new reality?

Photos retrieved from Bullet Blocker website Dec. 18, 2012, from http://www.bulletblocker.com/bulletproof-school-safety-protection.html