Evening thoughts. June 16, 2020

Evening thoughts. June 16, 2020

Cumming, GA

Rashard Brooks, the budget and Dave Chappelle

Thinking about Rashard Brooks and three of the times I got pulled over by the police. First time was in college. I was not driving, but I was in a car full of drunks. One of our number was getting sick and we had to pull over so he did not puke all over us. While we were pulled over a Clarke County Deputy pulled up behind us and came up to the car. I am sure it reeked. He checked on us and sent us on our way (note, one of my regular readers, long-time friend and Facebook friend was with me in that car 30+ years ago). Time 2. Still in college, coming back from Atlanta. I had one beer to drink at the event and by that time it was at least a couple of hours later. I got a breathalyzer out of that. I was way under the legal limit and he sent me on my way.

Time 3…about a year ago. I’d been driving all day. It was about 2 am, I had dropped Claire off at her dorm and was about a mile from my house. I was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy. He asked if I knew why he pulled me over. I had no idea. Turns out I ran the red light coming off 400. I had no recollection of it. I am sure I fell asleep. In one day I had driven from Cumming to Dahlonega to Statesboro attended a funeral drove back to Cumming to Dahlonega and back to Cumming. The last two hours were fueled by Diet Mountain Dew and Milky Ways. The deputy checked my license and plates and let me drive the rest of the way home. Only about a mile at that point.

All this to say, at none of those stops was my car ever inspected, was I ever frisked, cuffed, etc. It’s really not even in my imagination that that would happen, even though it very easily could have. That is some SERIOUS White Privilege.

Which brings me back to Mr. Brooks. He falls asleep in a parking lot and then he’s dead. Let the man walk home. Better yet, offer to take him home. Even better…just knock on the guy’s window and check on him. Why does this call for police response and an arrest? This is why policing needs to be completely overhauled. Seems an arrest should be a last resort, not a first.

The budget. I was discussing this with some friends this week. The issue is not that there isn’t enough. The issue is how we choose to spend it. At the federal level we spend it on wars and weapons and tax cut and don’t have enough for healthcare and education. At the state level we can spend a billion dollars on sports stadiums and cut taxes, but we can’t pay our teachers or expand Medicaid. In my town our kids go to school in trailers but we get a snazzy new $100 million jail. A dollar is a dollar, it’s how we choose to spend it. Personally, I’d prefers schools, education and healthcare to bombs, fighter jets, wars, stadium, jails and tax cuts.

Last, this Dave Chappelle clip is raw. It’s from his new Netflix special 8:46. He goes off on George Floyd’s murder about 4 minutes in, starting with the 35 seconds of the Northridge Earthquake in 1994. “the wrath of God…it’s not for a single cop, it’s for all of it, fucking all of it…this is the streets talking for themselves” https://youtu.be/3tR6mKcBbT4

 

Louie Giglio needs to go to the church of Dave Chappelle and Killer Mike.