Maggie says:
You know a story's finally catching on when in the space of a few days, all three major print media outlets in town - the Journal, the Trib, and the Alibi - not only cover the same issue, but do a good job of it at that. The current police state of our downtown and beyond is the hot topic around town, and for good reason. The Journal did a nice job handling the downtown bar owner angle this morning (kudos to Dan McKay's balanced approach and the blogging that seemed to start it all) and the Alibi's been tackling this all week. I'll firmly admit my bias when I say that it was pal Gene Grant's Thursday column that I think did the best job of getting to the heart of this issue. Gene understood right away that overly aggressive cops aren't the whole story; we're really talking about the changing pulse of Albuquerque, of the values residents hold versus the ones that are being policed.
What's fascinating about Albuquerque today is that it's a city experiencing massive change and transition, and we can literally see competing values battle for control in our shared spaces, both public and private. When communities are in flux, it's amazing to watch the struggles for place and identity that rise to the surface. I saw that a couple of months ago during the Spring Crawl, where hordes of undercover cops burst out of lines in front of bars to tackle - literally tackle - a group of teenage guys running down Central. We saw that on the streets last summer during the National Poetry Slam, when young people bursting with passion made our streets more alive just by being here. On May Day this year, I sat in a bar full of trendy beer-drinkers watching our city's youth bursting with pride and waving white flags out their windows; some of us grinned along with them, some folks were appalled, but everyone was touched. And of course, look no further for true cultural juxtaposition than the overpriced loft overlooking the homeless man on the sidewalk or the subsidized company opening its doors on an empty mesa now powered with new infrastructure.
As places change and become something else, most of us act with nuance to the transitions around us. Sometimes change happens so quickly we might not even notice, say, a newly renovated building until we're sitting down somewhere eating and take the time to realize it's there. Sometimes we can't see the whole past its many and varied parts. Sometimes we don't realize how far our authority figures overstep until it becomes a pattern.
And of course, some of us notice these patterns faster than others.
Albuquerque's police state - especially downtown - has been a problem for some time. You know this if you drive east on Tijeras as it's getting dark and witness the critical mass of force gathering there to begin their shifts a couple of blocks away. You see it when harmless kids who are running down Central become the equivalent of terrorists to the protectors of our "safety." You see it when you're at a party and this city's biggest buzz-killer - The Party Patrol - ends up not just ending the night early, but doing so with explicitly political intent. You surely see it if you're a gay man at a space that feels safe and comfortable and are faced with a full-on assault of cops in riot gear who seem to enjoy taking pictures of you naked just as much as making whatever dubious arrest they can drum up.
The burden to be better lies as much with us as it does with our uniformed enforcers. After all, if the rest of us can find the space to be not just tolerant but energized by the electric current of change in the air here in Albuquerque, why can't the police? If we can see gray, why do they see only black and white? If we're all playing a part in shaping the dynamic place Albuquerque continues to become, why are they so insistent on holding it back?
Time for a conscience-check. Not on the part of the cops, because I think we know how that would turn out. It's time for us to hold their force of weapons and stubbornness to the fire of a populace who demands better. After all, if their charge is to enforce our values, shouldn't we let them know what those values are, and more importantly, what they aren't?
