The Murder and subsequent unjust verdict of Oscar Grant did not happen in a vacuum. The formula and recipe for this type of senseless killing by the Oakland Police can be seen here in NYC and especially Flatbush. The 70th Precinct is being blindly supported by a local blog (the ditmas park blog) that has the eyes and ears of the New York Times, The Daily News and a number of other news organizations. The Ditmas Park Blog is the face of white privilege and white ambivalence towards injustice. They protect the police. They make-up stories to demonized black youth, They romanticize the virtuosity of gentrification, they encourage police profiling and they write out of proportion stories and narratives specifically geared towards white fear and hatred of black youth and black culture at large. Just this week, they posted a story about the "dangers" of building a "hoops" courts in the back yard of an elementary school. Their solution to this perceived problem on a story that was planted by them to the Daily News is to "have more police patrol." Their reasons for this concern is that black youth cannot be trusted to be on their own without constant police supervision and police harassment.
from Huffinton Post:
News came this week that the U.S. Justice Department will review the case of a New Year's Day 2009 BART police shooting, following recent protests and a vocal outcry from Oakland, California's black community. The case involves the fatal shooting of an unarmed man, 22-year-old Oscar Grant, by former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. Mehserle was convicted in State court this week of involuntary manslaughter, but many in the community say this charge falls short. More
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
The DPB post on the PS 139 playground supported keeping it open to the community and in support of having basketball hoops installed.
There are plenty of examples out there of bias, DPB isn't one of them.
If you think the DPB supported the basketball "hoops" with their racially tinged and fear mongering posts, that's your opinion. First the it's Basketball Courts. The use of "hoops" was racist and meant to bring about white fear of jungle jumping Negroes playing basketball on their pristine neighborhood. Obviously you and the Ditmas Park blog don't know anything or care to know anything about black youth and black culture. In my 25 plus years of playing basketball in brooklyn, I've never seen anyone "drinking alcohol" or "smoking" while playing basketball. These are white caricatures of blacks. Sometimes I wonder if those people are even for real. If they really did support the Basketball Courts. Then why did they publish a NIMBY letter, promote the idea of building a "taller fence" and ask the black city council member that they have ridicule to get more police supervision of the basketball "hoops"
You're quoting "__" things that aren't even said in the article.
I was quoting from the ditmas park blog. http://ditmasparkblog.com/news/ps139-argyle-playground
"Following their last meeting, here is a link to the letter Beverley Square West Association is sending to Councilmember Matthew Eugene, asking to find additional funding for a higher fence (that would not be routinely climable) and an increased police monitoring of the yard."
You can cover up for them all you want, but the facts are just the facts.
I was talking about the accusations that the basketball players would be "drinking alcohol" and "smoking". Quotes yours. Who were you quoting?
oh, never mind. Your approach seems to be that it is so because you believe it to be so.
Can't argue with that.
http://ditmasparkblog.com/news/basketball-hoops-to-come-to-ps139
" Some of the concerns that have come up all seem to relate to unsupervised after-school use – climbing over locked gates, littering, playing music, underage smoking and foul language. There are worries that providing basketball hoops would only further encourage such behavior and that proposed solution"
Exact quote from the ditmas park blog. As I've said, I don't know how you people can even fathom that basketball courts can lead to underage smoking. Basketball is a sport. Smoking is the last thing a teen is thinking about when they are playing basketball. Why don't you do your own research next time you want to say something.
PS - sad & thought-provoking article about stop & frisks in Brownsville in the NYT today.
Please don't anybody think that I'm trying to deny that racism is still a terrible problem. I see low-key examples regularly. I read blogs where it's discussed & I recognize situations I've seen myself - and I travel in pretty tame circles so I know that for every thoughtless little slam I hear, there are a hundred more that are worse.
I just don't see it in the DPB outside of a couple of knee-jerky commenters, who usually get thoroughly called out on their thoughtlessness.
I know I'm not going to change anyone's mind here & I apologize if my opinion is offensive (I read enough to know that a middle-class middle-aged square white chick like myself is simply not in a position to comment as knowledgeably on this issue as those who feel it daily & personally) - it just seems like attacks on a simple blog that posts neighborhood news, events & pictures doesn't do anything to help solve the real issues.
Last words here, though. Blogs is blogs & I'm not going to come back & make any more of an idiot than I already have over opinions that people are entitled to have if they want to.
I lied. Readers here should go check out the comments on that post (and yes, seems K. follows the DPB more closely than I do, but I still don't see that DPB reporting on concerns that other people expressed at a meeting = DPB supports those concerns).
On the whole, the comments support dismissed those concerns as being overblown & were thoroughly supportive of basketball courts.
Yes we all know about those chain smoking basketball players in the NBA. Actully the letter to councilmember Eugene did not mention alcohol--- it said the "hoops" would encourage drug use, underage smoking and foul language. The best solution is to built a taller fence and have more police supervision. Do they want to have snippers and swat teams near the "hoops" while these chain smoking, drug using basketball playing hoodlums are playing? Seriously! Don't you have anything better to do with your life?
btw wonder if the basketball hoops will be the hand-forged custom ones that NYC parks blacksmiths still hand forge? Pretty neat that something in this mass-produced world is still produced one at a time, by hand.
done now. srsly.
Michael Powell
Not sure where you grew up, but I'm a New Yorker born and bred, played high school ball and in playgrounds in three boroughs. Hoops was the term of art.
Second, the ditmas blog supports the courts, as was immediately evident when I read your post and then read DP's post. I'm not clear why higher fences are a problem--it's certainly preferable to relying on cops to clear playground hoops after hours.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and sometimes support for a hoops court is just support for a hoops court
Hoops has never been use the way you white people are using it. Every kid that I grew up with has always said I'm going to play basketball or play ball. "hoops" is a term that white people use to either try to sound cool or conjure up something ethnic. If you think the dpb supported the basketball courts then that's your opinion. If they were so supportive of the project then why give such importance to a nimby letter. Their post was very sympathetic to the nimby cause. Just look at how they mock other points of views they disagree with and how they presented the basketball teens during drugs and smoking crap. They don't just want a taller fence, they want a taller fence plus more police supervision. It's not an either or. Plus the compete arrogance of these people to think that concilmen Eugene would even entertain the idea after they have mocked and ridiculed him for the past 2 years. You white people have the luxury to give the benefit of dough to the police, the ditmas park blog and racism as long as it does not involve you. The original post was about the atmosphere that is being created by people like you and the ditmas park blog that enable the police to execute a young black man in cold blood. Yet when the verdict came in. White people and the white media was more concern about Lebron James being "too arrogant" and uppity to have a 1hour show on espn to announce where he would play. It does not get any more evil then that. You white people are more concern about Michael Vick fighting dogs then you are about another human being executed in cold blood by the law.
How are they going to make it illegal to use foul language on a basketball court? If I didn't read it myself I would have thought this was a joke. You're right the ditmas park blog was very sympathatic to the sentiments of the nimby letter. It's very insulting to think that black youth are going to use the basketball courts to smoke and do drugs. If they. Knew anything about black youth or black culture they would have easily known the basketball courts is a place to go to keep healthty, play basketball and staying out of trouble.
I love how Bonnie, just glossed over the fact that the dpb published a stupid letter accusing black kids of underage smoking while playing basketball after she called out Kwame for making it up.
"I still don't see that DPB reporting on concerns that other people expressed at a meeting = DPB supports those concerns)."
How convenient why don't they also go to the local kkk meetings and report the "concerns" that "other" people express. They did not just report those concerns, they were very sympathetic to those "concerns". That was not a post that they did to ridicule or criticize that group, they posted it on behalf of that group. Give me a break.
Post a Comment