Two photos

I see that a building I've always admired on Chestnut St. is up for auction.  Unfortunately it's squeezed between the expansions of Mercy Hospital and Baystate Medical Center and is probably considered prime real estate.  Can it survive ?

 

 Sasha enjoying a bitter cold but sunny morning on the porch.

Beatings, lynchings, brutality: one difference between black and white

I woke up in the middle of the night  Wednesday realizing I'd overlooked something that only a white person could overlook.  I'd written a post that day about the "lynch mob" mentality statement by Springfield Patrol Officers Union President Joseph Gentile, and saw it as a threat to the community that police would be less willing to do their jobs.  What I had lacked was the immediate emotional trigger that the words lynch mob would evoke in the African-American community. 

That's why if you're a white person committed to undoing your own racism, you have to commit to a lifelong effort.  It's painful and often discouraging but it's the least we can do: make the effort.

Yesterday the Statewide African-American Clergy Alliance held a press conference that called for full community involvement in the shaping of a new community complaint review board.  Arise was invited to attend and I heard statements from Rev. Talbert Swan, Archbishop Timothy Baymon, Rev. J.P. Morgan and Greater Springfield Council of Churches President Rev. Everett Frye Sr.  Rabbi Mark Shapiro couldn't attend but sent a statement of support.

Beyond the sensible suggestions for a new CCRB, Rev. Swan made two points worth repeating.

Holding police accountable for their misconduct is not a Black/white issue, he stressed.. He introduced Phil LaRouche, a white man who says he's also been brutalized by Officer Jeffrey Asher.  In fact, Buffy Spencer has an article in this morning's Republican listing seven different civilian complaints against Asher in the last 12 years; those complaints will be used as part of a defense strategy for a white man headed to trial who is charged with assault and battery on a police officer-- Jeffrey Asher.  I don't disagree with Rev. Swan's point but I do think that for officers like Jeffry Asher, brutality is more likely to occur when there is a perceived powerlessness on the part of the victim-- and people of color are more likely to be perceived that way.

Rev. Swan also spoke about the "No Snitch" mindset that the police-- and the community-- often run up against when trying to investigate a crime.  He said that both he and Archbishop Baymon had preached about this in their congregations.  but he also said that the same mindset existed in the Springfield Police Department, and he called on other police officers to refuse to tolerate the bad apples in their midst.

I know from experience how hard it can be to criticize one of "your own kind."  You already know there's a set of stereotypes that will instantly kick into play and which will go far beyond the specific person to castigate an entire group.  And you already know too much about how hard life can be for that kind of person, and that very  few people who haven't lived that life will be capable of  taking that into consideration.

But sometimes you just have to stop looking the other way.  You have to ask yourself to whom you are supposed to be the most accountable.  And then you have to act.  This is true for all of us but is especially  true for those who need the public's trust to do their job. 

Can we turn over a new leaf in Springfield?  History is against us, but I have always believed that if enough people want change, we can get it.  Maybe this time.

Disgusting Martha Coakley ad

Well, I'm not voting for Scott Brown (I happen to want health care to pass Congress, flawed though it is), but don't we have some other option besides Martha Coakley?

Just saw a Martha Coakley  ad on TV that really pissed me off.  The voiceover says, "Who is Scott Brown, really?"  and then continues to say he is a "lockstep Republican vote to return us back to the same failed policies of George Bush and Dick Cheney."

But that's not the part that pisses me off.  It's the accompanying video, because at the very second the voice says "lockstep," the image on the screen is that of Brown with his arm held high, palm forward.  If he'd had his elbow straight, it would have looked like a Nazi salute, but that was certainly the unconscious association we were supposed to make, with "lockstep" evoking "goose step."

Shame on the ad agency that produced this ad, shame on Coakley for approving it.

Two friends of mine

Two friends of mine are moving into their own apartment in Holyoke and are in need of furniture.  They're working folks who just don't have much to spare after rent and utilities.  If anyone is in the Holyoke area and has some extra household items, email me at michaelannb@gmail.com.  Thanks!

Springfield shorts

Springfield blogger Bill Dusty has an excellent post at MassLive that gives a history of the current Community Complaint Review Board and why the board was problematic from the start.  Funny, I remember talking to a couple of the board members a few months after their appointment and they seemed really bewildered about what their job was and how they were expected to do it.

Joe Gentile, the president of Springfield's Local 364, International Brotherhood of Police Officers, released a statement today in support of Officer Jeffrey Asher.  You can read the whole statement at MassLive, but here's one paragraph that jumped out at me:

The unwarranted public attacks on Off. Asher and the other officers involved in the arrest
of Mr. Jones have a price. Most good police work is proactive, being the result of officers actively seeking out lawbreakers and making arrests. The current “lynch mob” reaction to the Jones arrest is a message to all police officers to do as little as possible, because if something goes wrong, some segments of the community you are supposed to protect, and even some of your elected officials, will throw you to the mob.

Mr. Gentile implies-- no, not implies, come right out and says--  that because the public criticizes a particular officer or officers, that other police officers interpret that as a message to be less pro-active, to do less to protect the public.  I don't have a hard time imagining that that is exactly how many officers are feeling right now.  But there is another solution: Clean house!  Aim for the absolute highest standards for your officers.  Train, train, train.  And don't give up.  Springfield police officers have plenty of allies but shouldn't waste their capital in defense of the indefensible.  It's not that we haven't heard Officer Jeffrey Asher's name before.

Finally, U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor has ordered former city councilor and former shelter director Francis Keough back to federal prison for four months for violating the terms of his parole.  He has to report  in 30 days. I still think Frank should have been sentenced to toilet-cleaning at his former shelter.

Videotaping police could be illegal

I wonder if the person who taped the November 27th beating of Melvin Jones III by Officer Jeffrey Asher knew that she could have been arrested for illegal wiretapping?

Massachusetts is one of twelve "two-party consent" states, meaning that persons being taped must consent to their taping.

According to a story in this morning's Boston Globe, some police officers have been using that law to arrest people who are taping them on their cellphones, although convictions, at this point, have been reserved for cases where the taping was done in secret.

Two years ago, Vermont resident Emily Peyton was arrested at a Greenfield, MA anti-war protest for illegal wiretapping, but never prosecuted, primarily because she was very open about her taping of the arrest of a different anti-war protester.

Although video isn't covered by this law, one could imagine that strictly enforcement of this law would impact many businesses, government facilities and law enforcement techniques.

Unless and until this law is changed, the best defense for anyone wanting to document instances of excessive force is to do it as openly as possible.

Photo from bennylin0724's photostream at Flickr.

Police officer to head new civilian police commission?

In a seemingly quick response to Thursday's news about another alleged instance of police use of excessive force, Springfield's Mayor Domenic Sarno announced today he intends to create a new civilian police commission-- one with disciplinary powers.  He announced that beginning Sunday, Captain Robert Cheetham will be in charge, not only of the new board, but also the entire Internal Affairs Unit.

I'm sure we'll hear more details tomorrow, but at the moment I have some questions.

First, when did Mayor Sarno actually find out about the November 27th "encounter" between Melvin Jones III and the four police officers, which left Melvin with partial loss of sight in one eye?  We the community found out last Thursday, when the Springfield Republican broke the story, along with accompanying video.  Turns out that city and police officials had had the video for several weeks.  So it seems as if Sarno's quick response was only quick if compared to the date of community outrage.

Second, not too make too long a process out of this, will Sarno be seeking community input into the structure and composition of this new civilian police commission

Third, what is the police union going to have to say about this?  I find it hard to believe the union will willingly allow its members to be disciplined by a structure outside the department.  (Not saying this shouldn't happen, but will it?)

Does anyone remember the April, 2007 report on the right form of community review of the police for the City of Springfield?  The city paid a pretty penny for it and that report shaped the current, toothless system of police oversight, but it did put its finger on one serious problem.  From the report by Jack McDevitt and Amy Farrell:

The single most significant challenge facing the City of Springfield as they establish a new Civilian Review Board is the time constraints that the department is operating under as part of the existing Collective bargaining agreement. The current police contract for the Springfield Police Department requires a disposition of all complaints within 90 days. The current contact specifies:

        All interdepartmental charges against a unit member shall be initiated no later
        than ninety (90) days following the alleged offense or the date the City became
        aware of the alleged offense whichever is later, and a hearing on said charges
        shall be held within six (60) days thereafter, unless a later date is mutually
        agreed upon by the parties (Article 6, Section 4).

This requirement creates a major obstacle to any complaint review process adopted in
Springfield. Thus, the review model chosen for the city most work within the confines of
the existing 90 day disposition requirement. Very few police agencies across the country
face similar constraints when they attempt to establish an external review process.

Last question, but scarcely the least important: what is going to happen to Officer Jeffrey Asher and the other three officers?

Watching the community forum the last few days, I've wondered why the pro-police commenters, who are often the same people who think Melvin Jones III got what was coming to him, don't realize something very basic: that much of our community will not be able to turn to the police as part of the solution to a safe community until we ourselves feel safe intersecting with the police. A few bad cops are allowed to poison the atmosphere, and why other officers and the department in general put up with it, I just don't know.

Wheelchair-bound, homeless-- AND music-makers

I came across a story about some Congolese musicians who live behind a zoo in Kinshasa who, with the accompaniment of some local youth, have produced an album!  You can go to a fantastic music site, Mog, to hear two tracks from the group called Staff Benda Bilili.

What do a white mother of nine and a black suspect beaten by police have in common?

Springfield, Massachusetts events have hit the national news twice since the beginning of the new year.

First, 35 year old Tessa Savicki, Springfield mother of nine children, filed a lawsuit against Baystate Medical Center, two nurses and three doctors, claiming she was sterilized against her will while undergoing a cesarean section during the birth of her last child..

Then, on Thursday, news broke that the Springfield Police Department is investigating the beating of 28 year old Melvin Jones III by four Springfield police officers in late November, 2009.  The Springfield Republican  posted a videotape of the beating taken by an anonymous bystander.

Public reaction to both stories has been vocal and across the board politically, but much of the discourse can be place in one of two categories.

EITHER human rights apply to everyone equally OR  human rights should be applied differently depending on one's perception of the human beings involved.

When I say human rights, I also mean the laws and regulations that are supposed to support those rights.

Ms. Savicki has nine children, has never been married,  and has spent a good portion of her motherhood receiving public assistance of some kind.

Mr. Jones has a previous arrest record and recently finished an 18-month jail term for possession of crack cocaine.

According to some of the public, Ms. Savicki, should have been forcibly sterilized a long time ago, and Mr. Jones got what was coming to him.  Poor people shouldn't have children and young Black men shouldn't get addicted to drugs.  Therefore, whatever happens to them that violates their human rights is acceptable.

The problem with having a flexible standard for human rights is, of course, who gets to decide how those rights are applied.

Forcible sterilization of particular groups of people such as Jews, gypsies, and the physically and mentally handicapped were well-accepted during certain historical times and by certain governments.  Apparently much of the today's public finds forcible sterilization of welfare mothers quite appropriate-- after all, it's their tax dollars that support these mothers.  However, the forced sterilization of a mother of nine-- or nineteen!-- who's a good evangelical Christian in a two-parent family not accepting any public assistance would create a huge public uproar.

Many countries at different times have ceded their human rights to law enforcement, and though private opinion might hold otherwise, public opinion is often vociferously supportive.  So what if our phones are tapped, our email monitored, and our headscarves trigger a full body search?  Hey, if you haven't done anything wrong, what have you got to worry about? 

I have my own opinions, of course, about Ms. Savicki and Mr. Jones.  I think anyone who has nine children in this day and age, and who still wants more, is out of her mind-- whether she's on welfare or wealthy.  I also think Mr. Jones is clearly not benefiting by his relationship with illegal drugs.

Readers of this blog also know I support decriminalization of drugs and believe that a public health approach rather than a criminal justice approach would be more beneficial both to drug users and society. And I shook my head in dismay but not disbelief when Officer Jeffrey Asher's was revealed to be one of the four officers being investigated; I'm all too familiar with that name. 

But what I believe, with all my heart, is that human rights belong to everyone. You have the right to have children whether society approves or not, and you have the right to be treated humanely even if you have broken the law.  That so many of us are willing to allow these rights only for those of whom we approve is sad and repellent.  I can only hope that the majority of us continue to feel differently.

Photo from riacale's photostream at Flickr.

Burning wood for warmth NOT the same as large-scale biomass

I'm a member of a couple of anti-biomass lists and was recently very taken with the following message by Divid Nickell, who lives in a farm in West Kentucky.  With his permission, I'm posting it here.

I live on a farm and my primary source of heat is wood.  All the wood I have burned for the past 25 years or so has been from what fell out in the fields or across fences on its own and had to be cleaned up in order to continue farming--I have felled nothing for the purpose of firewood; whether live or dead.  And I have rarely used an already down tree in the forest; if it doesn't have to be moved to keep my limited farming (raising and training draft horses, and raising their feed) going, I leave it for the bottom feeders that are the foundation of the ecology on my little piece of the world. This means I have burned everything from Oak, Ash, Elm, Hedge Apple, Dogwood, Redbud, Hackberry, Box Elder, Tulip Poplar, Willow, or whatever else the world throws my direction.  So, I guess I use biomass for at least part of my energy consumption.

I also realize that I live in far western Kentucky where natural wild fire is not an issue.  A five or ten acre natural fire is a rare occurrence.  It is humid here in the summer and muddy all winter.  Most of the year you have to work at it to get a fire started.

I would not want for everybody to burn wood for heat.  That would be catastrophic.  I would like to see more people in  similar circumstances to my own try to get away from fossil fuel energy for heat.

BUT, when I think of Biomass as the corporate powers are promoting it, I cannot help but have the image of Easter Island.  As Wendell Berry has said, the fact that we are willing to destroy the world in our effort to sustain a clearly unsustainable lifestyle should give us pause.

"Economy of scale" needs to take on a new meaning, based in the philosophy of the Buddhist economic model outlined in the book, "Small is Beautiful."  When economic rationality is the driving force of what happens, evil is the inevitable outcome.  That is an unpopular thing to say in this culture, but it is the unavoidable truth.

The thing that worries me the most is that the only hope we seem to have is a mass awakening of awareness--an emergence of class consciousness, as another very unpopular philosopher phrased it.  Given the influence of the corporate media promoting corporate strategies, I don't see much hope for that.

My only hope is that dramatic and unexpected changes have taken place throughout history.  Short of quietly waiting for the unexpected to happen, all I can reasonably do is speak out against destruction of that which all life is based upon.  Corporate scale, market driven plans, are always destructive.  I challenge anyone to give me an exception to that rule.  Small, regionally based strategies driven by local cultural knowledge of and care for place are the best answer I see out there.

Biomass makes some sense in limited applications in very localized situations.  As a mass, one size fits all, for profit enterprise, defined by corporations with no concern for any place or any people, it is an abomination that must be opposed with everything we can throw in its path.

I think it is worth remembering that the major obstacle to Henry Ford's new automobiles was that there were no paved roads.  He had to convince local, state and federal governments that it was worth spending massive amounts of society's resources to build paved roads.  His main argument was that automobiles were the solution to pollution.  The main pollution problem of that time was mountains of horse manure in the cities.  Flies spread disease and the stench was overwhelming in the summer.  The exhaust from the new Model T's just blew away.  It seemed, at the time, to be the perfect solution.  We now know it only replaced one problem with a far worse problem.  As Paul Yambert always said, "The first rule of ecology is that there is no such place as 'away'."

Biomass, on a corporate scale with profit as the driving impetus, is just another technological fix, replacing one problem with a far more complex problem for our children to have to deal with.

Just my thoughts...

Photo from Denis Collette...!!!'s photostream at Flickr.

McKnight Youth Council to hold Public Safety forum on Friday

Sometimes it seems like we live in a "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" city. Mostly we ignore the potential for violence in our community, or complain and do little to prevent it. Then, when violence hurts or even kills someone, we complain about how nobody does anything.

Truth is, a lot of good people and agencies are doing a lot to prevent violence in Springfield.  Youth-led efforts, however,  are rarer, not because youth don't care, but because often they don't get the structural support they need to do good work.

The McKnight Neighborhood Youth Council.does get the full support of the McKnight Neighborhood Council, and the Youth Council has pulled together a pretty power-house forum on public safety this on Friday and, while focused on McKnight, is open to the community at large.
 

McKNIGHT NEIGHBORHOOD YOUTH COUNCIL HOSTS

                                    PUBLIC SAFETY FORUM

                                    Panel to include  MAYOR SARNO & CMR. FITCHET 

WHEN:           FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2010;  6 TO 8 pm

WHERE:         REBECCA JOHNSON SCHOOL AUDITORIUM

                        55 Catherine Street, Springfield

The McKnight Neighborhood Youth Council will host an open forum on public safety at Rebecca Johnson School, 55 Catherine Street, on Friday, January 8, 2010, from 6 to 8 pm.

The forum will feature a panel including Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, Officer Reggie Miller and Kathleen N. Brown of Springfield Community Policing, Sgt. James Brown of the Neighborhood Watch, representatives of the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department, and Walter Kroll of the McKnight Neighborhood Council Public Safety Committee.

Panelists will be taking questions from the audience about what residents feel are the major problems that contribute to crime and violence in the city and what they want their city government and police department to do about it!

All of the newly elected and re-elected Springfield City Councilors have been invited, as have representatives of Mason Square community and youth organizations, businesses and churches.

The Youth Council, with the full support and backing of the McKnight Neighborhood Council, Inc., is responsible for organizing this major event in bringing greater citizen participation to the important issue of our common need for safety on our streets, in our schools and playgrounds, and in our homes.

The forum is open to all residents of Springfield, although the main focus will be McKnight and the neighborhoods surrounding Mason Square.

For information email mcknightyouthcouncil@hotmail.com, or call Youth Council Chair Jesse Lederman, 351-6785, or  Administrative Staff Kat Wright at 827-9526.

.  
Photo from Meanest Indian's photostream at Flickr.

The state of our forests in the state of Massachusetts

The Media Education Foundation has been sponsoring a series of films each Friday night-- free to the public-- but this Friday night is something special.

Chris Matera and Dave Gafney of Massachusetts Forest Watch will be presenting about the threats to our Massachusetts forests.  They'll be bring lots of photos-- and lots of passion-- with them, and engaging people in a discussion of how we can be involved in protecting our forests.                                                                    

January 8    7:00 PM

Media Education Center 
60 Masonic St, Northampton

Fighting the Massachusetts Chainsaw Massacre!                         

Learn about the clear cutting of State public forests, watersheds and parks, and the latest developments surrounding proposed wood burning Biomass plants in Western Massachusetts.

Sponsored by the Northampton Committee to stop the War in Iraq and Afghanistan

Oldest rocks on earth discovered

Once upon a time-- less than 100 years ago!-- most people, scientists included, believed that the universe was eternal and infinite.  It took Edwin Hubble's discovery that the universe was expanding for scientists to run the clock backwards and realize that the universe had to have a beginning-- now estimated to be about 13.7 billion years ago.

Our solar system, including the earth, was created about 4.5 billion years ago.  Although most of the original crust of the earth has long since been mashed up in the process of plate tectonics, last year scientists found what are believed to be the oldest rocks on earth on the shores of Northern Quebec, almost as old as the earth itself-- about 4.28 billion years.  Science Daily.

But here's what I love to think about:  ten percent of the atoms in our body are hydrogen, created at the moment of the Big Bang, and the rest of the elements in our body were created by the explosion of stars, many before our solar system was even formed.

We are older than the earth.

Homeless girl tells her story in new street newspaper

The Philadelphia Enquirer has a story about a thirteen year old girl who kept the fact she lived in a homeless shelter a secret-- until she was asked to write her story for a new street newspaper, One Step Away.  Then she was able to have the kind of opportunity for personal empowerment and political growth that we would wish for every homeless kid and adult.  You can read her story here.

St. Petersburg, Florida has a new street paper, also, the St. Petersburg Homeless Image.  The blog Pushing Rope covers the story.

What's a street newspaper?  According to the North American Street Newspaper Association:

A street newspaper is a newspaper that primarily addresses issues related to poverty and homelessness and is distributed by poor or homeless vendors. Vendors sell the newspaper for a set price, usually $1, and have to pay the organization a fraction of the price (20% to 40%) for each paper up front. The self-employed vendor sells the papers on the street and keeps the money he or she makes. For many people, this is the opportunity they need to get back on their feet and into permanent housing.
 

The benefits of street papers go far beyond economic opportunity. For the vendor, they offer a positive experience of self-help that breaks through the isolation that many homeless people experience. They offer the public a means to reach out with their dollar to help a homeless person directly and, over time, form a caring relationship.

Most street newspapers also provide homeless and/or those living on the margins of society the opportunities for expression by publishing their articles, letters and artwork. These publications build a bridge between the very poor and the wider public by helping people to understand the issues and the personal stories of those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

For a look at street newspapers around the world, check out Homeless Street Newspapers.

Photo from debcha's photostream at Flickr.

Move Your Money!

Got an email from a friend this morning promoting this idea  and I think it's great and want to spread the word!  And do watch the video....funny...I've quoted some of these lines before.  Arise for Social Justice just switched its account to a community bank earlier this month.  Move Your Money!

JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS, a few friends were having dinner wondering what personal actions they could take to help limit the power of the big banks and create a more sane, stable financial system. How, they wondered, could they help end the era of Too Big To Fail? The financier at the table recommended that everyone could move their money out of the Wall Street banks and into community banks. Community banks are typically more conservative about how they manage their money, they’re more closely connected to the people and businesses who live near them, and they’re more inclined to make loans they know will get paid back. In other words, they have the values that more people would want banks to have.

The filmmaker at the table reminded the others of the story told in the classic film It’s A Wonderful Life — a tale about a small banker, played by Jimmy Stewart, who almost gets crushed by a big banker. In the end, though, the community rallies around the small bank and helps save it.

Three days later, the filmmaker made a short video, displayed on this site. The editor wrote a commentary about the idea. And others started pulling various resources together.

This site was set up as a modest home for the effort. A seed. But the idea will only have an impact if others take it from here.

How? For starters, you could move your money to a small bank. To do so, click on the button that says Find A Bank. But there are dozens of other possibilities: You can get your friends or organizations to do the same. You can use your online social networks to help broadcast the idea. You can look into where your town government keeps its money and, if it uses a big bank, you could try to get it to use a smaller bank. Start your own website (to improve upon or replace this one), dive into the research about smaller banks, and help give rise to a bigger, broader effort.

There is no official organization here. It’s a volunteer project. If you have ideas about how this idea can grow, send us a note and we’ll display the best ideas in the Updates section of the site.
We hope this idea will spread in a thousand different ways.
Thanks for whatever you can do.

Three years left in Patrick's plan to end homelessness

But homelessness has doubled in the last two years

Massachusetts gets a mention at Change.org's  Ten Most Notable Homelessness Stories of 2009.  Apparently one-third of all the homeless families sheltered by the state iofMassachusetts last year stayed at motels.  (Number Ten, however, is actually about the uncounted "hidden homeless" families who fly under the radar of homelessness by moving to a hotel when they've run out of other options. )

Paying for families to live in a motel is a crying shame; the only worse thing the state could do would be to leave these families on the street.  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts pays $2.8 million a month to house 1000 families.  Interestingly, the state would only spend $800,000 a month to takes those thousand families and put them in $800 a month apartments.  What's wrong with this picture?

Back in January, 2008, Gov. Deval Patrick announced his Five Year Plan to End Homelessness, which included the merger of  the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) emergency shelter services with existing Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).  The three main goals of the plan were to

• Identify and help people at risk of homelessness.
• Create more affordable housing.
• Help create economic stability for families to make sure they don't slip back into homelessness.

Now, these are great goals-- homelessness advocates support them--  but at least some of us were concerned, back then, that the state had little new money to help meet these goals and instead planned to fund them by cutting shelter services in a diversity of ways.  Western Mass lost its oldest family shelter, Jefferson House, as well as several other shelters in our area. Eligibility rules were tightened and stays were shortened.

The very next month, prefaced by the summer's  housing crisis, the recession hit.

If the five year plan was malnourished to begin with, two straight years of financial crises and budget cuts have been devastating.  We are entering year three of the five year plan and homelessness in Massachusetts has doubled. The bureaucracy has been as slow as as the Titanic in steering a new course for its strategy to end homelessness, and each time a recession recedes it leave more and more people like jetsam on the shore.  I don't see an end to homelessness coming any time soon.

Photo from Curtis Gregory Perry's photostream at Flickr.