Monday, June 29, 2009
Homo / Dancing "11:55—FOREVR"
Posted by Jesse Vernon on Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 8:35 AM
The best part of Saturday night's guerrilla dance party was the monstrous dancing shadows cast on the apartment building behind us by the cops' spotlights. It's hard to tell from my grainy cell-phone photo, but the dwellers' heads peeked out of windows between giant waving arms and bobbing heads.
Confidential to pissed off residents: It was only midnight, lasted for no more than 15 minutes, and was Saturday night during Pride. Get over it.
Confidential to pissed off queers: Cops brutalizing unarmed black men in Oakland is fucked up. Cops killing protesters fighting for a sliver of democracy in the streets of Tehran is fucked up. Cops busting a street dance party is not "SO FUCKED UP!" Get over it.
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1
Jesse,
Thanks for the sense of perspective. Yes, the cops there that night were total jerks, a few of them really aggro and unnecessarily physical with some folks, and the seizure of the speaker and subsequent arrest of one person was also unnecessary (since folks were leaving these actions led people to actually stay longer and get pissed off). But relative to lots of other things, it's not that egregrious. Folks should really think before calling something repression. And remember that the police may treat brown folks (such as myself) slightly differently than whites -- even white radical queers -- at things like this. Not saying the cops are justified if people piss them off, just recognizing the reality that it may impact different folks in the crowd differently.
Thanks for the sense of perspective. Yes, the cops there that night were total jerks, a few of them really aggro and unnecessarily physical with some folks, and the seizure of the speaker and subsequent arrest of one person was also unnecessary (since folks were leaving these actions led people to actually stay longer and get pissed off). But relative to lots of other things, it's not that egregrious. Folks should really think before calling something repression. And remember that the police may treat brown folks (such as myself) slightly differently than whites -- even white radical queers -- at things like this. Not saying the cops are justified if people piss them off, just recognizing the reality that it may impact different folks in the crowd differently.
2
if they did it at a reasonable time, like 10 they would be such douchebags.
sorry, you can't justify this bullshit.
sorry, you can't justify this bullshit.
3
So what I'm hearing you say Jesse, is "things could be worse, stop complaining, at least youre not black". Is that right?
bookworm: you are totally right; race effects how cops treat the people they're dealing with. i wonder how the dance party would have gone if a large portion of the crowd was not white?
bookworm: you are totally right; race effects how cops treat the people they're dealing with. i wonder how the dance party would have gone if a large portion of the crowd was not white?
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