I am in Downtown Los Angeles. I got a text a little after 7 pm, telling me that all of Los Angeles is under curfew from 8pm until 5:30am.
And we are not alone.
At least 25 cities across 16 states have now imposed curfews.
Beverly Hills
Los Angeles
Denver
Miami
Atlanta
Chicago
Louisville
Minneapolis
St. Paul
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus
Dayton
Toledo
Eugene
Portland
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Charleston
Columbia
Nashville
Salt Lake City
Seattle
Milwaukee
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/george-floyd-protests-05-30-20/index.html
On Friday, I walked home from work and counted 12 police cars going one way down Figueroa and 8 headed the other direction.
I walked through the tunnel and ended up at the tail end of marchers on the way to the middle of downtown.
A block from home I walked, earbuds in, forward-focused, past a row of 10 policemen.
Finally home, I started recording the sounds of the war happening outside my window.
The crackles I hoped, were firecrackers. I went on Twitter to see what’s going on outside. Protestors being shot with rubber bullets. Jewelry stores smashed. Police car on fire.
The helicopters that have been whirring constantly makes it feel like you are under gigantic leaf blowers trying to redistribute two centuries of inequality back into into its hiding places.
Here is the the sort of thing that I have been told should make things better:
Minneapolis passed an ordinance in June 2017 requiring employers to eventually pay a $15 an hour minimum wage. That will be phased in for large employers over five years and for small employers over seven years. That means large employers will hit the $15 wage in 2022. Small employers will hit $15 in 2024
So 2024.
Let the healing begin.
The thing is though, a check can’t stop a choke.
We are told, and it is true, that looting does not help.
But what does?
We can’t breathe. We can’t mind our own business in our homes. We can’t watch birds outside our home.
Nothing seems to stop this.Not I have a Dream or Yes We Can.
We can’t sing enough, dance enough, rap enough, 3-pointer enough. We can’t kneel. Nothing gets our humanity conferred to us, like us conferring it to ourselves.
As soon as we are killed, like Earl Garner or George Floyd or Trayvon Martin, we are immediately autopsied to see what role we played in executing ourselves.
I won’t be going out until the helicopters stop and it’s just down to sirens.
They call it civic unrest, but when was there ever any civic rest? It was just quiet. But quiet isn’t rest.
When could we or will we ever rest?