Quote:
Originally Posted by waxnrope
L.A., the place where I was born and raised. Where I learned to fear police, and for a long time, hate them.
L.A. It's a hot place. So dry, the air sometimes crackles.
In L.A., law enforcement exists to enforce those situations that threaten white privilege. Of course, this doesn't include poor whites ... except when that group is privileged over brown or black. This helps to maintain tension between groups, dontcha know. And supposedly gives poor whites a sense that they are at least over somebody else.
L.A. the place where, in my youth, a male companion, also a POC, was picked up by police while we walked around the closed shops of Wilshire Blvd. I looked for my friend, for the police department. Found him around the corner from where he was picked up. He was beaten.
L.A. They said that things had changed there. It wasn't like the old days. Then, Rodney King happened. He was a long time ago, too. But I hear, once again that things are better. The things I look for to change, though, are not the presuppositions and facile pronouncements of an accepted multiculturalism. Rather, it is the heat and dryness ... of racist thoughts and the actions, or lack of same, which follow such thinking that renders my judgement. Just my penny's worth...
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And so goes Richmond and Oakland, California! I don't know if the new Oakland police chief is going to deal with this stuff, I hope so. Richmond is a mess and has such a high population of unemployed POC, the desperation hangs in the heavy in the air. Kids kill each other there like going to a Friday night movie. Rapes on school campuses happen all of the time- we just hear about the gang ones!
About a month ago, I was physically threatened in a Richmond park by an African American man who really had a problem with a butch woman just asking him to leash his dog after it attacked my dog (his dog was about 85 pounds to my 25 pound little guy). The guy was big and I had no escape route and with my mobility problems, I was even more in a pickle and it was getting dark.
I made a police report after getting to safety. And I have to say that while talking to the Richmond PD officers (both white), I immediately felt something change when I told them the guy was African American. At first they were not all that interested in my complaint (hummm... not such a big deal that a butch is threatened with physical violence and stalking, I guess). But since the guy was a POC, that was cause for action and getting all the facts as well as statements from these so called "professionals" that frankly were racist.
Weird, weird situation! The guy could have been any race that attacked me- he did call me "white bitch," (I’m a quarter Latino, but don't look it) "bull dagger" and said, "you can suck my cock" to me. he told me that he was going to come back every day to the dog park and "make me miserable." And that there are no rules at dog parks (there are, it is run by (the regional park service).
Mostly, he was a sexist, homophobic ass that decided to throw in some racial stuff while threatening me. But, I didn't feel like the Richmond PD officers were much better than him and frankly, I think that they would have gone after him differently than if he were white if he had stuck around.
This whole thing demonstrates just how fucked up race, homophobia and police in areas where POC are the majority. It is craziness!! not to mention that I was very scared and am always looking for this guy at that park. For awhile, I went to another dog park, but, I have gone to this one almost every day for 10 years and it is close to my home. I decided to face my fears and reclaim my dog park! Have never seen him again.