Day 86

 

Statistically, the chances are pretty good that I don't like you.  I'm not liking many people these days.  This covid pandemic is turning me into a curmudgeon.

Since most everyone who can is staying locked down and/or working from home, I've gotten to meet several of my neighbors for the first time.  Surprisingly, given the way this post started, I pretty much like most of them.  Nice, college-educated, upwardly mobile moms and dads.  We've had a few semi-socially distanced neighborhood get-togethers, more outdoor cocktail hours than block parties, and everyone studiously avoided talking about politics.  But as the conversation came around to the newest residents on our block, a gay couple and a Nigerian doctor and his family, I sensed an admirable level of acceptance and tolerance.

But my comfort level stops at the end of the block.  On social media and neighborhood news letter and email blasts, I sense rampant racism and intolerance.  Nothing so blatant as to include use of the notorious n-word but full of complaints primarily  about the actions of criminals of color and attacks on our local, predominantly black, city and county leadership. Some of the complaints are valid and understandable, but their singular focus on the black community makes one question the underlying motivation.  

Two stories in particular are getting the locals all worked up - street racing and stunt driving, and boys selling bottled water on the streets.  The former is loud, dangerous and kind of scary (I hear loud engines roaring up and down the streets at all hours of day and night) and the other is inconvenient and kind of annoying.  

Both activities are illegal, but the police are doing little about either situation.  According to the neighbor's social media feeds, it's all the fault of our mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms (or KLB as they keep calling her for some reason - either they can't get themselves to speak her name, or they're trying to lump her together with the notorious AOC), and the "radical left."  Mayor Bottoms had the police officers who murdered Rayshard Brooks at a Wendy's drive-through fired, their narrative goes, and the left is calling for defunding the police.  As a result, the police are so hurt and traumatized, that they're not showing up for work or not doing their job when they do show up to collect a paycheck., and it's not the police's fault for being such incredible little pussy snowflakes, but "KLB's" fault for being a mean girl.

Look, if the police can't handle some people (but not all) criticizing then and even calling for a re-prioritization of our approach to law enforcement to the point where they can't or won't do their jobs, then screw them - they should all be fired and replaced by others who are willing to show up for work.  School teachers face incredible criticism and second guessing from parents, administrators and the press all the time, yet still show up for work day after day.  Doctors and health-care providers face all of the above plus a relentless wave of litigation and continue to do their job, even as the public refuses to wear face masks, thumbing their collective nose at efforts to protect them from the coronavirus.  

But if the police can't or won't stand up to the lawless among the rank and file, or can't tolerate even a public discussion of what their role should be in society, without rolling over and allowing stunt drivers to spin out in circles at street intersections and water boys to harangue motorists stopped at intersections, then maybe it really is time to defund the police.  There's got to be a better way to enforce the law then putting up with their thin-skinned hysterics.  

Also, I notice that the loudest complaints, those regarding the street racers and the water boys, are directed towards activities primarily by people of color, and the blame is directed almost entirely at black officials.  One has to wonder if the grievances of my white neighbors aren't based, in some small part at least, on attitudes regarding race.  

The worst part is that the debate on social media constantly breaks down to name calling and spewing of Fox News talking points.  There's no attempt at dialog or learning, just scoring points for "our team" against "the others" for the amusement of bystanders sympathetic to the cause.  I even get mad at those I agree with just for continuing the argument and not letting it go.

So anyway, if you're one of those, I don't like you, and every day I'm learning there are more and more of you than I had previously known.