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Detroit Transit Woes Highlight America’s Broken Social Contract

March 20, 2015 By Joel Batterman 3 Comments

Millions of people around the world have heard the story of James Robertson, the 56-year-old Detroit man who walked 21 miles to work and back every day, in combination with multiple bus trips, for more than a decade. Robertson’s story is, on one level, a story about the metro Detroit region’s abominable lack of investment in a public transportation system. Yet it also brings out a much broader story about America’s broken social contract in an era of brutal inequality.

Robertson’s marathon commute to work in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills was a consequence of that city’s decision not to pay taxes for the metro region’s suburban bus system, SMART. Across the tri-county metro area, 51 municipalities make the choice to “opt out” of public transit. A few of these are rural townships with more cornfields than commercial centers, but many, like Rochester Hills, are highly populated, heavily built-up areas which contain major shopping malls, factories, and educational institutions.

The “opt-out” areas also share some distinctive common denominators. Almost without exception, they are relatively wealthy and majority-white. Detroit could hardly present a starker contrast.

Filed Under: Civil Liberties, National News Tagged With: Detroit, inequality, poverty, systemic racism, transit

Chief McClelland Is #SorryNotSorry For Houston Police Brutality & Racism

March 5, 2015 By Remington Alessi Leave a Comment

In the midst of public outcries against the racism and violence of the criminal justice system in the United States, police departments are trying to repair their images with the same lack of grace as Bill Cosby’s Far From Finished comedy tour.

“It’s not the race or ethnicity, it’s the behavior,” Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland said when asked why people of color had their vehicles searched at disproportionately high rates.

While speech like this is not uncommon in police departments, the McClelland’s choice of venue was questionable, as his voice filled the auditorium of Texas Southern University, a historically black college located at the center of a historically black community currently being ravaged by gentrification.

Filed Under: Civil Liberties, National News Tagged With: Charles McClelland, Houston, police accountability, police brutality, systemic racism

Please Stop Hitting Yourself: Open Letter to Houston’s Chief of Police

January 15, 2015 By Remington Alessi 1 Comment

We expect you to step up your game. It takes a lot for us to start feeling sorry for a cop. We can tell from your last press conference that you’re about as enthusiastic about your job as we are when one of the sheriff’s employees hands us an inedible, green bologna sandwich from Adrian Garcia’s little concentration camp downtown. We can tell you’re not even in the game. Your tone and body language give it away. Don’t let us style on you like this.

We made a fool of you when you decided to pretend that serving coffee out a drive-thru window would undo institutional racism.

But seriously, stop hitting yourself. We’re asking you really hard. We feel like we’re bullying one of the most powerful people in town, but in a way that our feels are starting to hurt for you. They pay you lots of money to be better than this. A little group like us makes no money at all, but we’re victory lapping you in a way that makes us almost feel ashamed for making a fool of you every Saturday, and we do it for the lulz instead of your six digit salary.

Filed Under: Civil Liberties Tagged With: Charles McClelland, Houston, police, police brutality, systemic racism

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