On Fri, 16 Mar 2001, Jordan S. Kushner wrote:
>
> In the CODEFOR neigbhorhoods, people are subject to constant police
> intrusions that they would not and should not normally have to endure, not
> because they did anything wrong, but merely because they live, work or have
> some need or desire to travel through a CODEFOR neighborhood.
>
Generally they're more likely to be robbed, mugged, raped or shot merely
because they live, work or have some need or desire to travel through a
CODEFOR neighborhood. Would you prefer that the police ignored this fact?
> Although the police department insists that they follow the constitution
> in deciding whether to stop, search or arrest people, (i.e. don't stop
> people without reasonable suspicision that they are breaking the law and
> don't search or arrest people without probable cause), the realities
> are that 1) people are undeniably suffering more police intrusions in
> CODEFOR neighborhoods,whether there is "probable cause" or not;
>
CODEFOR still requires a crime to be committed for someone to be
stopped. Tagging, Jaywalking and driving a damaged car are illegal, there
is nothing inherently oppressive about stopping people who do these
things.
>
> 2) the extra police intrusions disporportoinately impact people of color
> and low income people because those are the neighborhoods that are
> chosen;
>
Isn't the point of this thing to eliminate crime in these
neighborhoods? Haven't they succeeded? I think we all remember the
"Murderopolis" label? I personally would rather get hassled by a cop
occasionally than have my place broken into all of the time and get shot
at once in awhile.
Would you prefer that the cops just pulled out and let the gang and
community leaders come to a consensus about how to run things?! Get a
grip, the program seems to be working. Look at what home prices and
the VIOLENT crime rate are doing in these naeighborhoods.
Lastly, I think it does a disservice to dissidents throughout history to
apply that label to the Highway 55 protesters.
Evan.
Evan Schnell
Ward 1, Como
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