The Counterpublic Papers vol. 1 no. 25

I’m officially on the first leg of my what the hell was I thinking July tour (Chicago, Detroit, Gary this week, then back to Baltimore, then Cleveland and Vegas). Still trying to work through what I’m going to talk about on my panel on Black Politics After Obama later today, so this is going to be very short. 

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I take public transportation to work everyday. Walk about a mile from my house to the Old Court Metro stop (either the second to last metro stop if you’re coming from the city, or the second metro stop if you’re coming from the county). About 16 minutes to Mondawmin Mall, now known as one of the epicenters of the Baltimore Uprising. And then about 20 minutes on the 22 and I’m right outside of the Lacrosse field. I take public transportation because it’s relatively cheap, because doing it keeps me “fighting trim”, because it gives me a chance to meditate on the way to work and to read on the way home…and because it keeps me connected to the city in a way that driving my car to work doesn’t. 

Today while waiting on the 22 at Mondawmin I was reading Charles Stross’ new book The Annihilation Files…when I heard a loud crash. Looked up. A black car tried to beat a red light, lost, and was smashed by oncoming traffic. The driver and his passenger both got out of the car, but rather than taking stock of the damage they both ran towards other cars. I didn’t get what they were doing for a second, until I saw one of them yank the door handle off of another car. The other passenger ran wildly up on (the nearby) Parks and People’s premises while its summer camp was in session, scaring the hell out of the kids (who screamed and ran back into Parks and People headquarters). 

I realized they were trying to get away from the crash scene entirely. And after a few attempts on other cars he successfully forced what appeared to be a young father and a young boy out of their car, his passenger got into that car with him and they both sped off. 

The metro stop at Mondawmin has an above ground police station. I ran to it, bamming on the bullet (and sound) proof glass. The police officer pointed me around to the door, and I told him what happened. He stepped out and then (slowly) walked across the street. 

Turns out it wasn’t a father and his kid. It was an older and a younger brother. The older brother couldn’t have been any older than my oldest son—which puts him at around 18. The younger brother was probably around my youngest son’s age—which puts him at around 11. The older brother tried to stop the carjacker by punching him in the jaw, but the carjacker was bigger (and probably hyped up on adrenaline). 

I know people who’ve been victims of carjacking. This is the first time I’d seen one. 

Witnessing the entire thing caused me to have two questions.

First….what would I tell my son if he were in the car with his younger brother? Would I tell him to just give them what they want? Regardless of what I tell him, what would he actually do? 

I can imagine that if the two victims were white, they’d likely have simply gotten out of the car, scared out of their minds. 

But I probably would’ve done what the older brother did, and would’ve likely had the same outcome. Even if I’d been told by someone that the best thing to do is simply get out of the car. 

Second….I’ve a lot of friends who believe the police should be abolished, many of them here at the Socialism Conference. If the police didn’t exist how would this be adjudicated?

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Some years ago after I’d started DJing again, I made a July 4th inspired mashup of Frederick Douglass’ Fourth of July speech as performed by James Earl Jones and Marvin Gaye’s performance of the Star Spangled Banner. Take a listen. 

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I’m finally doing a book talk at home in Detroit. This Thursday at 7pm. Going to be appearing with a local writer (who will be reading from his short fiction). Then on Saturday I’m going to be giving a talk in Gary at a Black Power conference. The conference goes from 8:30am-3:30pm. 

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Like I said. Short. I’d have written “short and sweet” if I had any sweet in me at all. See you next week.