We need more trees not cops

Feelings about the West Indian Day Parade

Hi, I’ve been trying to tell myself it’s okay to cry any time in a dystopia whenever I find myself crying for what I think is no reason. Today I’m sharing my feelings about my experience at the West Indian Day Parade. Onto the news…

The news that made me say we need more trees and no cops

I went to the West Indian Day Parade on Labor Day because my husband wanted me to come with him. I love people but I hate crowds so you will not see me at any parade anytime soon unless I’m in a bubble where no one can access my personal space. Call me Bubble Person! I don’t remember when I started hating crowds, I suppose I’ve always hated crowds. I do remember at the beginning of our relationship my husband and I would get into arguments every time we were in crowds because the crowds would make me super sensitive to anything. 

He would say, “Are you okay?” And I would respond, “What does that mean? Are you implying that I’m not fun?” Obviously this is the projection of someone who is in fact not having fun but wants to be still viewed as fun. I’m unfortunately that person a lot. I’ve been called the fun police once and when someone calls you a police of any kind, you have to look within your soul and wonder why they would say such a thing. However, you don’t spend the rest of your life trying to be team fun when you are really team “I want to go home”.

Nonetheless, we went to the parade with the understanding that I would sound the alarm when the crowds were too overwhelming because I’m okay with not always being fun these days.  

As soon as we walked outside there were small blue NYPD barricades littered on the sidewalk to remind us that we were unsafe. If that wasn’t enough of a reminder, there was a large NYPD flood light across the street as we walked around police cars parked on the sidewalk. It’s not enough that they have to pollute our streets with their existence, now we can’t even walk on the sidewalk? 

Why were there so many police? Short answer: We live in a racist police state that doesn’t want Black people to have fun. They are the fun police, not me! I just don’t think it's safe for someone to climb down a ladder on the side of a building just because it’s attached to the wall. No one knows how strong the connection between that ladder and that wall is. It might be as strong as the relationship between my fitness instructors and me, very weak. Telling someone to not climb down a ladder off the side of a building because you love them doesn’t make you the fun police, it makes you someone who loves and cares. I didn’t point a gun at them and tell them to get off the ladder, now that would make me the fun police.

Nonetheless, the city of New York sends additional troops to Flatbush for the parade to keep things unsafe. They claim it’s for everyone’s safety but 5 people were shot at the parade despite the fact that there were more cops than floats. I wish the police would have been the floats so we could throw things at them. The answer to five people being shot will of course not be the cops don’t keep us safe and we really should carry out proven ideas of safety. We don’t live in a rational world so the answer will be more cops!

We live in a world where the answer is always “more cops”. The cops failed so we need more cops. The cops don’t know what they are doing so we need more cops. The libraries don’t have enough books, we need more cops! 

Cops don’t keep us safe. Safety comes from actually feeling safe. If you live in a neighborhood with plenty of resources, trees, and not one that is a source of extraction and oppression, you are safe. I went to such neighborhoods in Montana and Rhode Island. I didn’t see a cop the whole time and no one was running around screaming that they felt unsafe. You know what was also in these neighborhoods? Libraries, trees, clean streets, grocery stores! I keep saying trees because the lack of trees in my neighborhood is literally environmental warfare and people don’t talk about it enough. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation itself states that being around trees improves people’s moods and encourages us to spend more time around trees. 

How am I going to spend time around trees if there are no trees in my neighborhood? Sure, I could go order one for my block. What about the other blocks in the neighborhood? Did the white people who live in Park Slope have to order their trees too or is ordering trees just something that Black people have to do? 

How about this? Instead of having more cops for the next West Indian Day Parade we have more trees, more third spaces, cleaner sidewalks, housing for all, food for all. Then let’s see what happens.

That’s it for the news but don’t go yet

We have everything we need to free each other. Keep fighting for a better world. We can do it.

If you enjoy my work and would like me to be able to do more of it, please tip me, become a patron, or become a paying subscriber below.

If you like what you read, share it with your friends or restack it. If you hated it, share it with your enemies. You can use the nifty button below.

❤️

Your favorite anarchist comedian/poet/social critic,

Marcela