May 30, 2020

Declining hours of a shining day. Stayed up very late watching You Tube videos, and so rose when it was almost 9. Weeded. Pulled out dead roses. Drove to Reems Creek and used part of my gift certificate to buy flowers to put into the empty spaces. Planted, dug, weeded. Spent the afternoon waiting for people who wanted bamboo to make trellises, but didn’t come because they got “wound up” in something else. They have no way of knowing how infuriating that is to me. DJ said there was a groundhog under his porch, and I remarked that meant in a few days I would have a groundhog under my tool shed, and, lo, today it came to pass. I stood on the step and said to the groundhog, “I will have to choose between the garden and the groundhog.” He pokes his head from under the shed and whistles, strongly, rather lovelily I remember that folks in Ohio called him wejack or whistling jack. He is not spooky. I can stand quite close and say, “Move on, little brother. The exterminator comes Monday.” I am divided about this. One is divided about everything..
Assessing the damage of the last round of infection. Perhaps I’m at the point– I’ve been close to it a long time–when I’ll have to buy two pairs of shoes in different sizes, for the left foot, swollen, cannot take anything bought to fit the right. Most cuts of pants will not accommodate the swollen left leg. Just one charming novelty afer another. No one had knelt on my neck until I died. . . .
Sat on the back stoop writing poetry. That’s when I saw the groundhog. My thrushes chased each other through the crowns of the hemlocks.
Reports say that white cop provocateurs actually started the fires and the rioting in Minneapolis. I have no idea how to live in this world.

Wrote some notes concerning the police.

We call for immediate demilitarization of all police forces. Military operations should be conducted by the Army or the National Guard. Large armored vehicles, aggressive SWAT tactics, military-level artillery have no place in the enforcement of civil law. Those situations which call for military-like operations (riots, etc) have in most cases been caused by the police in the first place, and their presence in the suppression of those acts of civil protest makes the issue, ultimately, worse. Military tactics and equipment should be used by the civil constabulary ONLY in cases of bomb threats or terrorists attacks, never on civilians .

We call for radical changes in the training of police officers. The idea that a police officer must control a situation shall be replaced with the idea that a police officer must calm a situation. The police shall think of themselves as officers of the peace rather than as warrior chieftains who must rack up a victory at every encounter. We call for an end to Cop Culture, the conviction that the police are a separate fraternity (one might say gang) set apart from and with different goals and priorities from the general public. The police officer’s only concern must be public welfare. The priorities of the police must in no wise differ from the priorities of the populations which count on them for protection.  The “blue wall” that protects the corrupt and prevents officers from demanding justice and uprightness from their fellow officers shall not be tolerated. Whistle blowers and officers who call their lawless brethren to account shall under no circumstance be disadvantage, fired, or vilified.  Concealing police corruption shall be cause for immediate dismissal.

We call for the establishment of a civil review board for every police department, to be the authoritative body for every accusation of false arrest or police misconduct. The idea of police policing police was always absurd, and has revealed itself to be invariably corrupt. The civil review boards must have access to all police records and possess complete autonomy, and their authority concerning police misconduct must be absolute, and not subject to review or modification by any police authority. Police bodycam footage must be surrendered to the review board fully and immediately should there be an accusation of illegality or misconduct. Persons related to or associated with the police must not sit on this board, though they may attend in an advisory capacity.

We demand that charges of police brutality or overreach where the officer’s bodycam has somehow been turned off must be decided in favor of the civilian plaintiff.

We counsel that the police officer keep his hand off his gun. It shall be illegal to use, draw, or menace with a firearm except in cases where the officer’s life is demonstrably and actually in danger. Use of or reference to a firearm in a traffic stop or in an instance of trespassing or other minor crime shall constitute abuse of authority and be referred to the civilian review board. Using firearms as an instrument of terror has resulted in too many unjustified deaths.  Putting civilians in danger, even during an arrest or other police action, or humiliating civilians for the sake of “officer safety” shall be forbidden. In most cases, the heavily armed and excitable officer is the only actual danger.

A police officer is not competent to judge when a person is being nervous or furtive or suspicious or possessed of the wrong attitude, so we demand that all stops and detainments be based on the commission or the immediate and visible threat of the commission of an actual crime.

We demand that police undergo training in recognition of bias based on race, origin, gender, age, sexual identity, to achieve nullification of that bias. The tested ability to separate private biases from public action shall be a qualification for employment as a police officer.

We demand that a police officer who kills or causes the death of an unarmed person shall be tried for murder. Confusion, misunderstanding, stress, power tripping, misidentification of everyday objects shall not be acceptable excuses. A police officer’s life must actually be in danger to justify the use of deadly force. Fearing that an officer’s life is in danger or a reflex based on the fear that an officer’s life is in danger shall not be an excuse for homicide. An officer will take that extra second to determine whether that object is a gun or a cell phone. A police officer is not a doctor, and misinterpreting or ignoring physical distress that leads to death shall be considered criminal. Failure to obey police commands shall not be a capital offense, and death on the basis of failure to obey police commands shall be considered homicide. A civilian’s life shall not be counted of less value than a police officer’s. If the preservation of your own life and safety is your central concern you should not become a police officer. Teachers, doctors, firemen, social workers, numerous others face danger every day without requiring the privilege of pre-emptive murder.

We demand that the police serve and protect.