Part One:
WILL COVID PUSH PEOPLE OUT OF CITIES FOR GOOD?
That is the title of the latest podcast from Slate’s Henry Grabar. Everyone knows that the coronavirus has caused a lot of American (and global) cities to shut down their businesses, events, entertainment venues and (to a greater or lesser extent) everything else. We read stories of city-dwellers leaving on prolonged vacations or heading to less-dense, less-infectious climes to protect their families’ health.
Many questions arise out of this COVID era: For how long will large segments of urban populations stay away from their city homes? When, if ever, will they return and enable urban economies (and societies) to rise again, phoenix-like? What will city environments look like and feel like, when some folks come back and others don’t? Will people’s traumatic experiences during COVID prevent them from feeling emotionally secure, from allowing themselves to heartily enjoy all of the city’s cultural and human joys?
We also discuss which city-dwellers are expected to fall into which categories? Is it only the wealthy who can afford to retreat to their mountain cabins or beach houses? Even working from home is not a luxury that many people of color and low-income folks can “choose.” What about the people whose jobs are “essential” (to the rest of us) but which threaten workers’ lives and which don’t even pay a subsistence wage for a lot of families? In light of the disparate opportunities to take particular actions now, what might the future transitions look like, during the coming months? And what long-term equilibrium will our cities settle down to, once “this is all over”?
Finally, do we have to worry that the “end” of the current pandemic will only lead us to the next pandemic – and more after that? How would various alternative predictions affect the quality of life in American cities? As it turns out, Grabar is not worried about future pandemics. This one (COVID) did not have to become as tragic as it is. He is confident (and the rest of us are hopeful) that future US governments will have learned the painful lessons from the COVID fiasco, and will not repeat the astonishing failure of our government’s capacity to use its treasure and its power, so we can avoid similar catastrophes.
Part Two:
WHY CAN’T OUR POLICE ACT MORE LIKE THE PEOPLE’S GUARDIANS AND LESS LIKE WARRIOR ENEMIES?
We speak with Wayne McElrath, Senior Investigative Advisor, and Sarah Turberville, Director of the Constitution Project, at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), about their report entitled “Poisoning Our Police: How the Militarization Mindset Threatens Constitutional Rights and Public Safety.”
We discuss the shocking increase in militarization of our nation’s police forces. The federal government (Department of Defense) has provided local police with surplus military supplies as well as new money to purchase the latest model of weapons, equipment, armored vehicles, and other items. The result is that the police look more like they are in battle in Iraq rather than protecting an American community of fellow citizens.
More frightening than the military war-like equipment itself is the way this makes the police think about themselves and their role vis-à-vis US civilians (and also what civilians come to expect in the way the police interact with them). In short, there seems to have been a significant shift away from a “guardian” mentality – i.e., police officers’ primary role is to protect their fellow Americans and to help us enjoy better lives – to a warrior/military mindset – that the police are the soldiers enforcing all the rules and regulations, and their role is to “control” the rest of us (seen as their enemies) who are all potential lawbreakers and revolutionary threats to American society.
We hope that our country can re-envision a more cooperative, community-together kind of orientation, and that the police return to being part of the same society where we all try to help each other when someone is in need, to support each other in realizing our dreams, and to “be there” for each other’s emotional needs/dignity/ sense of self-worth.
