Disturbing the Peace
Disturbing the Peace.
This last week, in the nightmare of fireworks, I learned so much. Isolation, frightened pets, car alarms, fear of fires being set, floor shaking and knowing there is literal gunfire mixed in is not a circumstance. It is a convergence of needs.
If you called the fireworks hotline, a nice woman answered politely. Eventually, even the faithful knew it was entirely futile. There were political promises, meant by some and offered with guile by others. At first, I chose to believe the professional graphics and lawn signs touting a new commitment to rid our city of illegal fireworks. I considered the sheer numbers; hundreds of calls, every firework illegal, people wanting it to stop. I read posts about paying taxes, voting out council members, blaming the mayor, threatening to move out of the city, pets lost, all escalated by the rising river of covid. Voices collected, language became more and more angry and then a chorus about criminals.
Catch the criminals. Video them. Go outside and take their picture. Can you see them? Describe them. This really outraged me. Why would I, a single elder, go out at 11pm to video lighters. They had paid their money, set their sites on breaking the peace. Why would I, possibly in slippers and certainly unnerved, go outside and take their photo. This is not a good look nor leading to a reasonable outcome. I wondered if I was told that to dissuade my calling again.
Today I ask myself what is it that I wanted. What did the people unraveled by the fireworks want? It was not to “catch the criminals.” It was not to be a part of the risk, the chase, lighting the alley with a flashlight or camera. It was not self-deputizing. It was not wearing a heroic cape. It was not escalating the drama.
We wanted to be told the truth. We wanted to know what, if any, services were available to us. We wanted the operator to say, is there something you need? We wanted to say, my pets are panicked and have the call patched to a vet. We wanted to hear someone say, are you in danger? We wanted the plot to change from hunting down criminals to inquiring about the nature of our suffering. We wanted the focus to move from a super chase of armed uniformed police to handcuff, arrest and confiscate to change direction. We wanted the whole exercise to be about the ones who are disturbed and afraid, who are experiencing high unmanageable stress, who cannot find PEACE.
This is a true and simple explanation of what the phrase, “defunding the police,” is really about. It is NOT about having no police. It is about the conscious, educated expansion of the precise services citizens need dictated by the circumstances. The answer is not to hire more police to catch more criminals who buy and set off fireworks. The answer is to put the spotlight on what do people need. The caller should be the center of discussion.
Ask the simplest, most wonderful, most ignored question, “How can I help?” Begin with that. Counselors, Vet techs, social workers, fire fighters, emergency medical techs. We need some of those to Protect the PEACE.
Hiring guardians of the peace is a whole other process than hiring and training people to go into a battle to catch criminals. The gigantic police budget is better spent in first finding out what people need. Every 911 call is not always for a person with a gun, taser, handcuffs and solely trained to fight criminals. This is a call to expand how we think about what a city actually needs to Serve and Protect for the people to be safe and protected.
