Why We Can’t Wait – 6/20/09
Thursday, June 25th, 2009With regard to the so-called “wolf pack / chain gang” case — whenever we are working to create change — it’s really important for us to be very clear about what we’re up against. For example, with regard to this particular case — we need to ask ourselves, what are the forces that are working to justify incarceration and cruel and unusually long sentences for those who are locked up? One obvious force is the criminal justice system (the police, the courts, the FBI, the Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms Agency etc.). However, there’s another force represented by powerful institutions, which are (whether they mean to or not) working hand-in-hand with the racist criminal justice system — and that’s the racist, mainstream media.
From the start — most of the mainstream media has painted a picture that the people arrested are “bad people”. They have tried to say that they are part of the so-called “chain gain” or so-called “wolf-pack,” and that the “gang” has been terrorizing the community. We have already established that there is no gang. There is no conspiracy, and there definitely is no racketeering. The media has been making misleading and false statements, but they are doing more than simply repeating false and misleading information from the police. What they are doing is spinning a story of what’s going on — that is, presenting a particular perspective or viewpoint. The perspective or viewpoint that they present is designed to help justify the years, including potentially life prison terms, which youth and others are being threatened with. In some ways the perspective or viewpoint that mainstream media presents is more dangerous than the lies and half-truths that the FBI is peddling — because it creates a frame of reference that people then use to analyze the things they hear. It’s definitely going to frame the way that many people respond when we go out and try to give them another side of things.
Many people have heard about this situation over and over again, in the D&C, on TV and radio. Let’s go over it quickly. The story goes: The people who were arrested are all part of the “chain gang,” which also calls itself the “wolf pack”. They were allegedly going around the Beech Wood neighborhood, terrorizing people and selling drugs — allegedly shooting people and allegedly committing other crimes — in an organized, coordinated fashion. Notice how insidious this is. They use words like “allegedly” when talking about specific crimes, but they don’t use it when they say that people are in a gang or when they say that the so-called gang was terrorizing the neighborhood. In other words, the story is: We can’t say exactly what they did because we have high journalistic standards, but we do know they are the bad guys, and that’s why the cops are going after them. The other part of the story that mainstream media helps to peddle is the backdrop that crime is rampant in the inner-city, and the way to fix it is by getting “tough on crime”, which is coded-language for locking up as many black and Latino, so-called “gangsters” as possible — for as long as possible, and that will fix the problem. Well, we (AARM) says that all so-called and definitely real gangsters are not black or brown. In fact, in the overwhelming majority of cases — the biggest, most authentic gangsters are as white as snow.
Clearly, crime is a huge issue for many people, and clearly many people don’t feel safe in their neighborhoods. However, is locking up predominantly poor people of color the answer? This question is rarely even raised by mainstream media. I think that for the most part — it’s just assumed that more prisons is the solution. We have to start challenging these things — in fact challenging the system and that
means putting forth our own stories. And we have some really powerful stories to tell. We need to tell Janice’s story — a woman who has had trouble with the law, but has been trying to work legally within the system, has a job and is trying to build a successful, peaceful life for herself and for her children — a woman whom the rotten-to-the-core, corrupt system wants to send to jail for 10-20-30 years or more — not for any crimes that she has committed, but basically because, according to the system — she is guilty by association. We need to tell Gwen’s story — a mother whose son was shot in broad daylight and the criminal justice system did nothing for her. Now that same criminal justice system wants to unjustly lock her daughter up. We can tell the story of those arrested who MAY be guilty of relatively low-level crimes like selling
relatively small amounts of drugs —- as opposed to bringing tons into the country, and into our communities — or carrying a weapon — as opposed to bringing tons into the country, and into our communities.
The former groups that I referenced are now being told that they were part of a major criminal “enterprise” — even though they are sitting in jail without the financial ability to make bail or hire their own attorneys, and being so-called represented by public defenders and court-appointed attorneys who are telling them to plead guilty to conspiracy and racketeering. What kind of kangaroo-style justice is that? And we really have to tell the story of 30 years or so of this so-called “tough on crime” approach, which is only tough on people who have the least amount of power and never tough on the actual major criminals. This approach has been aiding in tearing apart families and ruining communities. Has it made our neighborhoods safe?
When you see a story about this issue – or any issue – on TV or read it in the newspaper, or hear it on the radio — take a moment to think: What is the story that they are trying to tell and why are they telling it? What ideologies are they trying to promote? When you talk with others about this, keep that story in mind and think about ways that we can break free from it. The story being told right now frames those arrested as “bad people terrorizing the community,” and if people believe that, then it doesn’t matter what kind of evidence we give to them. So we have to fight it.
The D&C, the TV stations and the radio stations have a lot of money and that gives them a lot of power, but we have the truth on our side. Let’s use that truth to counter their story, and to (once and for all) organize our community — so that we can meet power with power — because as Frederick Douglass told us — when he was walking the streets of Rochester —- organizing way back in the 1800’s — power concedes nothing without a demand. In fact it concedes nothing but power. Fred told us, it never has, and it never will.