The Northwest Files

The Fire Keeps Burning

What in the world are we going to do about racial animus? Most especially, what are we going to do about police abuse of Black people?

Here's what it looks like to me: There’s another awful incident in which an unarmed Black person is killed by police. Local residents, outraged, demonstrate. So do the supporters of Black Lives Matter. The police oversee the demonstrations. Sometimes they get involved, sometimes they don’t. Thugs show up to break windows and loot stores. Then, after a certain passage of time, it all dies down until it happens all over again.

It's like a flash fire that firefighters think is extinguished. But after a short dormant period, it begins to burn again.

How do we fix this?

What I think matters about as much as a grain of salt. But here’s a simplistic review of what I think. I think that the killing of Black people by police starts with institutional racism. Add to that poor police recruiting, poor training, an unwillingness of police chiefs to confront racial problems in their own departments, the hidebound unwillingness of police unions to allow their union members to be sanctioned in any way, lack of a national database to keep track of abusive cops, and the unwillingness of city councils, mayors, county supervisors and administrators to step boldly up to the problem and Do Something, Damnit!

Do what, exactly? I don’t know, for sure. But I think it involves taking the reins of their respective police departments, doing whatever it takes to regain control of law-enforcement agencies that feel free to profile and abuse people they don’t like.

It's not like city and county politicians don’t already have enough grief on their hands. They do. But somehow, this shit has to stop.

I think it begins with rethinking the money.

I don’t mean “defunding” police departments. I do mean taking a hard look at law enforcement budgets to see where the money is spent. How much is spent on training for incident de-escalation? On counseling? On non-violent responses to unarmed people? On military equipment for police?

Except for a few elite squads, most cops don’t need the military shields, armor, helmets, tear gas, and all the other accouterments we’ve seen used during public protests this summer.

That’s my tax money helping to fund all of that. Yours, too.  I object! I hope you do too. This is a fire that must be extinguished once and for all.

-JFT  

Haircut? Not Just Yet.

I need a haircut. It’s not been cut since March 16, the day that things here in Oregon went into lockdown.

Not that I have all that much hair left. The top is pretty much bare. Call it a clear-cut, common here in Oregon. But there’s still plenty on the back and sides; it’s now down to my collar.

I haven’t had hair this long for a very long time. The way things are going, it probably will get even longer.

That’s because as far as I know, most of the barbers and salons where we live still have not reopened.

That’s fine with me. I’m not particularly keen on long hair; I usually keep mine on the short side of the scale. But we are being diligent about not going anywhere we don’t have to go, not exposing ourselves to possible encounters with Covid carriers.

So far, that means that about all we do is shop for groceries, carefully selecting markets that we know are taking serious precautions. And we go fly fishing once a week. Trout don’t have Covid. Not that we catch any.

I figure that this lack of haircuts is in the fine tradition of Sasquatch. He’s pretty hairy. And here in the Pacific Northwest, he’s iconic.

I’m not iconic and I don’t plan to become iconic. But I do plan to emulate, at least to a degree, the hirsute ways of Sasquatch, as well as his introverted ways.

It just seems the safe thing to do.

-JFT