THINGS WHITE PEOPLE CAN THINK ABOUT NEXT TIME THEY’RE STUCK ON I-93
Image via ‘Knight and Day’
Believe it or not, there are some invigorating activities for commuters to engage in while stuck in traffic around here. You know, other than masturbating and listening to sports radio morons spew thinly veiled racism in between rounds of praise for black athletes. You can also fire up your smartphone to check game scores from last night, or see who’s on the upcoming season of “Dancing with the Stars,” sure. But in light of this morning’s #BlackLivesMatter ally protests on I-93, I thought to point out a few landmarks that are worthy of relevant reflection.
THINK ABOUT POLICE BRUTALITY
Those stuck in traffic heading south on the interstate can imagine the horror of other drivers as two Boston Police Department officers pursued Mark McMullen on the same road a few years ago, after McMullen failed to stop for them following an alleged hit-and-run on Blue Hill Avenue in Mattapan. After chasing the perp 17 miles to Rockland, the cops reportedly shot and killed McMullen through the passenger side door, claiming later that the vehicle was driving at them. You can get mad about #BlackLivesMatter protests all you want; to each his and her own. Nevertheless, attorneys with the ACLU say, “Evidence suggests McMullen’s vehicle had already been stopped, he had no weapon, and that the many officers at the scene were not in danger.” Bottom line: If you care more about sitting in traffic than you do about that killing—and more than you do about the fact the officers who shot McMullen were awarded the department’s highest medal “in recognition of bravery”—then I suppose that’s just the kind of selfish prick you are. Still, it’s something to think about.
THINK ABOUT SOCIETY
Between the big box store blight of the South Bay Center and the Level 4 BU Biolab is the South Bay House of Correction, and if you look closely you can see the silhouettes of bodies in the prison windows. While rolling by the inmates, taxpayers may want to consider what a joke it is that Suffolk County and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts actually call such facilities houses of “correction” when such an insignificant amount of their budgets actually goes toward rehab and reentry programs.
THINK ABOUT THE MOVIES
We’re not saying everyone is a hypocrite on this one. Obviously a lot of the same people complaining this morning were hammering Tom Cruise and company when filmmakers closed I-93 for the making of Knight and Day. Even though it was unrelated to his production, Ben Affleck caught a lot of the heat for those delays since he was filming The Town at the same time. So if you need someone to get mad at today, it seems rather fitting to retroactively lambaste Xenu Cruise and Cameron Diaz, even if it’s just for associating Boston with that garbage movie.
THINK ABOUT THIS CITY’S UGLY PAST
While we’re beating up on Hollywood … Passing through the Savin Hill area, drivers can ruminate on everybody’s favorite local celebrity Mark Wahlberg, who allegedly threw rocks and hurled racial insults at schoolchildren around there back in the day. Note how Wahlberg may be trying to clear his record in order to become a volunteer police officer, and when you’re done with that try rethinking why people are chaining themselves to the highway.
THINK ABOUT THE HOMELESS
It’s never easy to imagine the people who don’t have a place to stay in this kind of weather, but they’re here, and they now have a new spot to crash and find services at the Southampton Street Shelter right off I-93. Things have been difficult for the homeless community, as well as for the administration of Mayor Marty Walsh, since the closing of the bridge to Long Island, but there’s finally some progress, and that’s something to think about too.
THINK ABOUT MORE TRAFFIC
And how a decade of development for the 2024 Olympics will affect that.
THINK ABOUT ART
And hope. From a Boston Globe piece about the gas tank off I-93:
The 40-something-year-old tank, which holds 331,000 barrels of liquefied natural gas, was one of a pair looming over Morrissey Boulevard. It was actually its twin that was first painted with six splashes of color in 1971 by former nun turned graphic artist Corita Kent …
“It seemed a neat thing to do with the tank’s oval form,” she said at the time. “To me it represents hope, uplifting, and spring. It’s a joyous expression, joining heaven and earth together.”
Of course, most of the people getting ridiculously mad about today’s actions are probably among those who believe Kent clandestinely hid the profile of Ho Chi Minh in the blue part.
THINK ABOUT HAIRCUTS FROM THE 1970S
THINK ABOUT THE REASON
This may sound crazy to some, but what if we all listened to the people blocking roads? It’s hard to do, since the media prefers to quote authorities, but their voices are out there. You can start with this line from protester Nguyen Thi Minh Thu, issued in a press release this morning:
We must remember, Ferguson is not a faraway Southern city. Black men, women, and gender-nonconforming people face disproportionately higher risk of profiling, unjust incarceration, and death. Police violence is everywhere in the United States.
Chris Faraone is the News+Features Editor of DigBoston and the Director of Editorial for the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. He is also the author of four books including '99 Nights with the 99 Percent' and 'Heartbreak Hell.'
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Yeah. Think about that gunshot victim in the ambulance three cars back that is stuck on the highway.
Or….I could think about the family of the person who died of their injuries because they couldn’t get to one of Boston’s level 1 trauma centers due to those inconsiderate morons who have nothing better to do with their time than try to assuage their imagined feelings of white guilt.
Sadly my hypothetical situation came true. Well, the ambulance part.
how does this person know that this isn’t what what most ‘white people’
were thinking while on their way to make a living and provide for their
family? i’m sure the people stuck in the diverted ambulances were
thinking about society and how the assholes among them were causing more
traffic. start a real protest, don’t sit in the middle of the highway
like a moron. ‘oh nooooo, police brutality and black lives matter’..
take it up with the police at the police station not the fucking middle
of the road. great way to get people on your side. cost them their jobs,
money, and possibly lives.
Ok, folks – no one actually died this morning: “An ambulance transporting a patient with serious injuries after a car crash in Easton to a Boston hospital had to be diverted to a Brockton hospital, Alben said. The victim survived.”
http://www.wbur.org/2015/01/15/protests-block-boston-highway
That was then…
Spare me this racist B.S. You are trying to fight against racial injustice by judging every white person in the city. You need to get a F’n grip and pay attention to what’s really going on you sheep. How dare you label all white while pretending to take a stand against prejudice. You don’t know the first thing about me, what I’ve been through, or what I’m going through now. You stopped people from getting medical attention, you possibly cost people their jobs, you endangered people. Yet you claim to be the victim. You lose credibility, you lose the support of the people, you hurt your own cause more than you help it. Because all you did was anger people.
So many words, to say “WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!”
I’ve got something for “white people to think about” the next time they’re stuck on I-93: The obscene rate of violence against white people BY BLACKS.
That’s right – although most violent crime happens WITHIN the same race (black on black, white on white, etc) when it comes to interracial crime, blacks commit interracial violence about 10x the rate of white people. Are you a liberal concerned about gun violence? Black males, who make up only 7% of the US population commit OVER 50% of all violent gun crimes in America. And when it comes to interracial rape, black men are the supreme champions: Black men rape white women about 30x times as often as white men rape black women. Want to check the stats? Google “The Color of Crime” or check out “White Girl Bleed A Lot” on Youtube and see for yourself.
Yeah, when it comes to race, whites DO have a lot to start thinking about…
Much appreciation for your piece! My advice: Stop thinking like Americans, start thinking about humanity! Explicitly the humanity of Black and Brown people systematically targeted by police, the “Criminal justice” apparatus, and the ruling class in charge who have set up so many communities to fail and unleashed their enforcers to terrorize and murder. To the “innocent passers-by” ( white motorists)…stop insisting you’re not responsible…just because this system has taught you to be willfully ignorant about the oppression of Black and Brown people ( and others worldwide) …the reality is that this society and its global empire that you are part of and benefit from to one degree or another could not exist for a minute without degrading and exploiting people. Your complacency and/or consent helps keep this system functioning….and it needs to stop. Let this highway protest serve as a wake up call!
How about instead of protesting on the Highway. You take Mayor Walsh up on his offer to sit down and meet. Maybe then instead of making people angry at your group, you actually make a difference in this world, and try and get some new policies in place that help.
And I agree with Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, – “If these activists refuse to take Mayor Walsh up on his offer, they’re not serious. It’s that simple,” said Rivers. “This was just kids having fun masquerading as a political protest if they don’t.”
http://readynews.org/28-12-2014/id24431.html
I hope people get together and form a human chain in front of the court house to block these IDIOTS from making their court appearence and get warrants for their arrest for not making it. PoWWWWW
think about the people in ambulances that could not get to the hospital-lives endangered by these idiots-think of knocking them down like bowling pins-they did not help their cause and then they ask for money-
Pobrecito!!! Bah…bah….baaah. Delayed medical attention, lost jobs, endangered people. These things happen to a whole bunch of people when the US bombs other countries. If you protested against THAT disruption, or even spoke out, then thank you.
Taken from elsewhere: They decided the guy needed a Level 1 trauma center…so they packed him up in an ambulance at 8 AM and expected to drive the 40 minutes north to Boston Medical Center unimpeded on the SE Expressway at rush hour??If he had 40 minutes, then they could have driven him to Rhode Island Hospital which is the same distance from Easton and also a Level 1 trauma center.
In another article, the fire chief is quoted as saying they would have made it there in 10 minutes even in rush hour traffic because “people are good at getting out of our way”…Except it’s 25 miles from the accident scene to BMC, so to make it in 10 minutes they would have had to have AVERAGED 150 MPH! ( http://patch.com/massachusetts/easton-ma/i-93-protesters-block-easton-am… )
Instead, they settled for the closest ER and got him seen in 9 minutes, just not by a trauma center.
And his excuse for not using South Shore Hospital in Weymouth was that “24 was backed up into Brockton making side roads backed up”…Except the hospital he took him to is *right at 24 in Brockton*! If he made it there, the rest of hte way would have been wide open getting to South Shore Hospital, the hard part was already over!
This sounds like a fire chief who wanted to help push another “ambulance trapped by protests” story.
Interesting that all of the protesters who put themselves in the highway were, shall we say, “well fed” persons of pallor – not a single black face or black body among them. Largely wealthy trustafarians doing their rebellion-“f.u. Dad”-“check out my dreads” phase before HBS and JP Morgan.
Guess the #blacklivesmatter too much to place them in harm’s way in the middle of Interstate traffic.
The second a protester said ‘Not Guilty’ to charges they were guilty of…..they disclaimed their cause….and became part of the very system they held in disdain. If one is willing to break laws to further their cause….then they best have the strength of character to own their actions…..or they make a mockery of themselves….of their cause. The end result of this protest showed there is no difference between the actions of the protesters and the actions of the police they protest….both parties show a disregard for life…..and both parties take no responsibility for their actions. Maybe the next time people are protesting they will think about this….for until responsibility is owned….no change will come about…..
You losers are lucky I wasn’t in a car that day. I would have plowed you down and thousands of hard working commuters would have hailed me as their hero. Get a job, asshole.
i will think about exiting my car and going into my trunk and getting my tire iron. enough said . bunch of spoiled ass brats
they are losers. everyone of them
Yes, I am against war of any kind where innocent people are killed. War should be left for warriors, not people just trying to live their lives. However, when warriors hide in neighborhoods, it’s them choosing the battlefield. But that’s apples and oranges. As I’m sure those trying to get medical attention who were denied simply because some people decided that was a good way to send a message is not close to the same thing. If people were trying to get through a combat area, , you would have an argument. But these people were simply driving to work, home, the hospital, and so on. This isn’t war, it’s a daily commute. These people aren’t warriors, they are privileged hangers on, who were dumb enough to buy into a false narrative. These people hurt their cause, all they did was anger people. That’s not a good way to get people to listen to your message. It’s really no different than looting and rioting. You want people to listen and hear your plight, it’s best to get them on your side. Not drive a wedge between you and them. I’m not even 100% sure what their message was. Which goes to further prove how counter productive the whole thing was.
What a pretentious asshole, to assume the thousands upon thousands of people affected are so unaware they need his preachey lesson on what it takes to be empathetic or compassionate.
I’m old enough[late 60s] to remember how and when the arguments you put forth above…..were made no matter how painstakingly clear our explanations were….then as now on matters of civil rights, police murders of civilians, war in Vietnam and elsewhere. And I don’t know how privileged these road-blockers were. If by that you mean that they should “get a job”, that’s meaning a lot given the state of unemployment in this country. Those in the 1930s who blocked housing evictions and marched for then-nonexistent social security…..didn’t have jobs either. Finally, the commuters of Baghdad and Tripoli, and Panama City [1989] weren’t combatants either. They too were simply on their way to work.Finally when you speak of privilege, remember if you go to work each day, you are privileged. If you’re not sure what the demonstrators message is……….look up Ferguson MO, Garner NYC, urbanized military on your computer screen when you’re done reading this reply to yours. Then….if you have some positive ideas about how one can put their concerns across and win people in the process….we’re all ears.
Gary congratulations on making the valid points Chris was making without randomly implying people jack it and listen to the dolts on WEEI while commuting for the sake of pseudo snark.
It takes a humongous set of testicles to block an interstate so as long as its for a good reason it is what it is.
Walsh held one meeting with Evans and Conley at 12th Baptist. It’s a good start.
He and Evans have a lot of work to do. Both of them push back as if the work is already done. It isn’t.
“Teens in the Bowdoin Street area are regularly stopped by police, regardless of their involvement or lack of involvement with crime, residents of the Dorchester neighborhood say. Last week the issue took center stage during a meeting with city officials and neighborhood residents.” http://t.baystatebanner.com/news/2015/jan/15/dorchester-residents-slam-police-abuse-question-co/
I respect your guts to post something that 99% of people will think you a fool for commenting about. I strongly disagree with what you have to say and your opinion, but love you are willing to speak openly about it and attach your name. More journalists should be like you…unfortunately, now a days most people who don’t like what someone says because of a contradictory viewpoint insists on others being fired or just calls the other viewpoint a “sheep”.
Yes, I’m privileged, but I’m not out blocking traffic to get some misguided point across. If this is about the false narrative that black people are being killed by cops, I suggest finding better martyrs. The vast majority of these “victims” were criminals, resisting arrest while committing a crime. Do their crimes warrant a death sentence? Doesn’t matter, the moral of the story is don’t commit crimes. … and if you do and are questioned by police, don’t physically resist. I agree that there are bad chips
cops out there, who have a god complex and an itchy trigger finger. But blocking traffic isn’t the way to get your message across. You aren’t “taking it out on” those you are speaking out against. You are taking it out in innocent people who just want to get on with their lives. You want to get a message across, protest in front of police stations. Vote, speak out against tyranny. But this blocking traffic nonsense is counter productive. It angers people, it puts them in danger. When you upset people they won’t care about your cause. You want support? You want people to pay attention and listen? Then appeal to them, don’t anger them. Not a single person stuck in traffic decided to join their ranks, none of them decided “well I better hear what they have to say”. So the whole exercise was futile. It’s funny, all this time I keep hearing people cry about Micheal brown and Eric garner. But nobody talks about John Crawford. Holding up criminals as the poster children for misjustice and nobody wants to talk about the one case where justice was not served. But yea, let’s block traffic, that’ll get people to pay attention.
Well, as long as it’s for a “good cause”. I’m going to go to the local fire department and flatten all the tires in the name of world peace. I mean as long as it’s for a “good cause”, it’ll be ok. …. right?
Surah 109 of the Holy Qur’an will more than sum up our discussion. Btw I’m not a muslim, but I know a good, relevant comment when I see it. Peace out.
Fair enough. If everybody agreed on everything, this would be a boring world. I try to remember that while I may disagree with someone on one issue, I might share their opinion on many other issues. I forget that at times, but I try.