The Mayor Speaks, Brendan Rants.
Last night, while babysitting for my nephew Elliott, The Simpsons was pre-empted by Mayor Street’s speech to the city about the ongoing violence (warning, PDF). It was one of the weakest speeches I’ve seen, to the point that it made George Bush look like a natural orater.
It probably didn’t help that right before going live to the Mayor, the anchorman said “And after the Mayor’s address, we’ll get right back to that breaking story: earlier this evening, 4 Philadelphia men were shot.”
The television cut to the Mayor, who was sitting in a studio somewhere, silently, looking around with that deer-in-the-headlights look.
His speech began, “Good evening. Philadelphia is our home and it’s one of the great cities in America. Our neighborhoods are thriving, our schools are improving and the fiscal health of our city is strong. The city is clean, safe and appealing to our visitors, tourists and those who come here to work everyday. We are frequently called “America’s Next Great City†and we proudly accept the recognition and the challenge that comes with it.”
These words were read with all the passion of a flight attendant doing the spiel about the oxygen masks. No, that’s not the proper description: he sounded like a 5th grader with weak skills reading aloud for the class. It was pathetic. The Mayor looked uncomfortable, nervous, and didn’t seem to believe his own words.
“Our city is safe”? If the city is so safe, what the fuck are you doing on the television asking the kids with guns to dial down the violence? If the city is so safe, why is Will Smith leading an anti-violence march IN MY FUCKING NEIGHBORHOOD?
“The city is clean”? This is objectively false, by measures both micro and macro. I get flat tires every. single. week on our streets, which are littered with broken glass. Debris and garbage are strewen everywhere in this city. Our restaurants are not up to code. You can’t swim in the Delaware River or the Schuylkill, because they’re polluted. Go to any of Philadelphia’s parks, and they’re filled with people’s litter, from gum wrappers and cigarette packs to rusted washing machines thrown in the creek. The Wissahickon Creek was just poisoned with cyanide and sewage. Don’t make me laugh Mayor Street. This city is clean? Compared to what, a landfill? My asshole?
I will digress for moment about last weekend’s march, which went on last weekend. It started directly across the field from my house, a line of kids and adults, mostly black, wearing white tee-shirts symbolizing their copmmitment to nonviolence. There were the drill teams and cheerleading squads, and everyone marched up Chester Avenue to 58th Street. Will Smith didn’t give a speech as he was expected to, but in general the march was considered a success.
Personally, I feel the fact that there had to be a march at all is a greater indicator of failure than any kind of success. Failure of the police, failure of the city, failure of the neighborhood, and failure of the citizenry. A success march would be one celebrating “Two Years With No Murders”.
Alternative Weekly The Citypaper publishes a column called the Bell Curve that rates the city’s past week: the march in my neighborhood earned a “Plus 2.” It should have earned a minus 10. I’m supposed to be proud that my neighborhood is angry that our block has become a shooting gallery, and that celebrities have to come out to tell people how to behave? That’s not something be proud of, that’s something to be ashamed of. It reminds me of when a celebrity visits a dying kid, to make him or her feel better in the final moments. The violence should never have been allowed to get to this level to begin with.
Smith didn’t give a speech, which is disappointing, but I have no doubt if he had it would have been riddled with the same old platitudes I’ve been hearing for years now: education, not violence; stand up; love yourself.
Had I been Will Smith, I would have touched on these topics. But no sugar without medicine.
You know, most people go home to the old neighborhood to visit old friends, grandparents, and to catch up. Not me. I come home and half my friends are dead, because you knuckleheads think you’re a bunch of bad-asses with guns, killing everyone. What the fucking hell is wrong with you, and what the fucking hell is wrong with your parents?
You know, they trot me out here as a role model for success, and I enjoy it, I really do: I like to make a difference in people’s lives, and as someone who grew up here, I want to help my neighbors. But you know what? THERE’S A REASON I WAS SUCCESSFUL, AND IT WASN’T BECAUSE I ACTED LIKE YOU DUMBASSES. I’d be happy to talk about self-esteem and self-love for a bit, but I don’t know how much of that is going to sink into the thick heads of a bunch of kids that think “nigger” is a term of endearment. How far is THAT gonna get you? What the fuck happened to “brother” and “sister”? When did everyone become a bunch of niggers?
Y’all oughta be ashamed of yourselves. God knows I am.”
[Ed: At first I had qualms about writing the above fantasy speech. I'm not black, I'm didn't grow up in an African American household, I don't face the same obstacles. But guess what? A lot of my friends and a whole boatload of my colleagues at work ARE black, and they're just as angry as I am. I have heard my neighbor Kelvin, 45 years old works at the IRS, stays in the neighborhood to be near his aging parents, use the word "nigger" once, and it was in reference to the shitbag that tried to shoot someone on the basketball court across the street. Needless to say, Kelvin wasn't happy. Acting like, you know, a responsible human being is something that should cross all lines of class, race, and socio-economic status.]
To get back to the Mayor’s speech. Look, I appreciate and understand the difficulty we have with violence here in Philadelphia. The legislature in Harrisburg, on both sides of the aisle, are petrified of losing votes and their cushy jobs, and refuse to do anything that will alienate gun owners in the rural counties. I disagree with the idea that safety locks and 1-gun-a-month regulations will stem the violence, but the Mayor is grasping at whatever he can. I understand this. But laying this on the backs of the citizenry coupled with band-aids like more cops or the National Guard is just not going to fix anything in a long-term way. There needs to be a wholesale reform of the way this city does business. For example, Kia Gregory’s excellent “You Wouldn’t Snitch Either” is an indictment of crappy police-community relations.
In many of our city’s communities—many of them gripped by gun violence—there’s a cold fear of the police.
Fear that police don’t protect witness confidentiality.
Fear that when you call 911, your name and number appear on the caller ID, and that makes you vulnerable.
Fear that the cops will come and park their blue-and-white car right in front of your house and knock on your door in full uniform, thus alerting the neighbors, the drug dealers and the shooters there’s a snitch inside.
Four years ago, at the height of Operation Safe Streets, police flooded the city’s high-crime and open-air drug areas. Then, earlier this year, the mayor and the police commissioner toured church pulpits to announce Operation Safer Streets, which focuses on “smarter policing, community engagement, social services and gun reduction” in the city’s designated hot spots.
THAT, my friends, is fucking weak. It’s also true: need I remind my Philadelphia readers of the way the PPD’s rape squad consistently covered up rape stats? This is a persistent pattern of behavior, and it stinks.
There are several other factors to consider as well: the Bush adminsitration, like the Bush admisnitration before it and the Reagan adminsitration before that, has been hell for cities. Carter’s domestic problems were largely inherited from Nixon and Gerald “Drop Dead” Ford. Republians are bad for cities: this is a fact. The jobs in the city that have replaced the decimated manufacturing base don’t pay as well. Democrats and Republicans in the statehouse have fucked our schools. Child care is unsubsidized, an immense cost for parents. Both parents have to work, and work longer hours, to make ends meet, so there’s not as much guidance for the kids.
It’s a social problem that will require the participation of our entire society to solve. But speeches and platitudes, marches and town watches, and misguided pats on the back for doing the very things we should be doing automatically are no substitute for sound policy.
July 28th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Great post. Great template, now. But you have two sitemeters.
August 1st, 2006 at 12:28 am
on abc world news tonight they had a story on the heatwave, and they featured philly cops kicking kids out of the fountain (i think ben franklin pkwy) – the water’s more dangerous than the 100 degree heat. and i read in pw or cp this morning that philly can’t figure out how to locate people using cell phones to call 911. i still think philly is cleaner than nyc though, but probably not your asshole.
and i really like how your blog looks now too.
August 1st, 2006 at 2:01 am
you know we have a crime problem here, you know, drug dealers people getting shot.
And the best use of the cops is to harass children.
April 13th, 2007 at 11:50 am
[...] just north of the building is the basketball court where we had an attempted shooting LAST year (this was also the starting point for Will Smith’s clearly useless anti-violence march last yea…). West of the building is an open field used for soccer. South of the building is an outdoor [...]