Southern California

Readers may be relieved to note that this week’s post takes a break from the subject of deaths after police contact.

The trip from San Francisco to San Diego takes us down CA-1 through the Big Sur. We’re fortunate, as the day before we are due to drive through, the route was closed for about 100 miles. Significant parts of California have been affected by wildfires, exacerbated by the fact that many areas have not seen rainfall for years. In an unfortunate ‘you couldn’t make this up’ (apologies to Richard Littlejohn) incident, the latest fire was sparked (badda-bing!) by someone trying to self-install a hot tub in their garden (really). Whoops! So the drive through the normally picturesque Big Sur is notable for all side roads and national parks being closed, the air being filled with smoke, and huge stocks of fire fighting equipment being dumped everywhere, as well as temporary tent cities for the fire-fighters. It’s sobering stuff, testament to the power of nature (when assisted by incompetent DIY enthusiasts). One exception to the closures is the beach at San Simeon which has an extraordinary number of elephant seals basking on it (see photo below).

The beaches of southern California are beautiful, special mentions go to Huntington beach and Laguna beach. Miles and miles of fine white powder sand – pretty much how one imagines California looks. In contrast, Malibu is a bit of a dump. Although it does have some top stuff as we drive through. Signs for nude male maid ‘help’ – dial 1-800-728-BUFF. Slightly less exotic, but perhaps just as helpful (depending on your circumstances), dial a criminal attorney (lawyer) to ensure you don’t get locked up: 1-800-NOCUFFS. Who needs metaphor/allegory?

Our trip ends in San Diego, 4 weeks and 2368 miles after leaving Seattle. It’s right on the border and consequently feels half American, half Mexican. It’s big enough to be a proper city (the population is 1.4M) but small enough to navigate on foot. It’s also a relatively new city in terms of its current location, it was re-located during the 1860s, but remained a relatively small backwater until the turn of the 20^th century. The ‘old town’ is located inland and is now essentially a theme park – I wouldn’t recommend a visit, although most of the locals recommend it to tourists. The main green area in the city is Balboa park, which is beautiful, vast and definitely worth a visit (see photo below for an example). There is something for everyone’s tastes, and plenty of people are out enjoying the sun and greenery. The sea front is also very pretty and has plenty of places to eat and drink, or just sit and watch the sea with a picnic. The city has a very strong military presence, with a particularly big naval base. It is also extremely proud of this link and this pride is prominently visible, Americans overtly display their patriotism.

One of the many handsome structures built for the 1915 Expo

I’ve been speaking to Margaret Dooley-Samuli who is Director of Criminal Justice and Drug Policy with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in California. She tells me that I should do research into the US immigration service and their routine use of unnecessary violence. Because of the climate of fear around immigration, the government has been throwing money at border security for years. Consequently, the number of officers and agencies have increased greatly. There is a lack of oversight of their activities and this is exacerbated by these agencies working in collaboration with individual states and adopting dubious practices. The ACLU has brought a number of cases against these practices, but they’re struggling to get public support due to the broadly negative perception of immigrants in the US.

Having brought up the controversial subject of immigration and border security, I will use that to (attempt to) segue seamlessly into a discussion of the election. So far I’ve managed to avoid talking about it in these blogs, but the electoral machines are starting to really gear up and I think I’ve got to talk about the two ‘combatants’. The public discourse tends to refer to the ‘future commander-in-chief’ and I really think this has to say something about the way the US looks at its role in the world, and about the link between patriotism and the military.

In the five or six weeks I’ve been in the US Trump has managed to insult, demean or belittle just about anyone who is not male or white. He has managed to say he now believes Obama was born in the US (but has not apologised for publicly doubting it for 5 years). He has mused aloud on more than one occasion about the possibility of his rival being assassinated. He’s insulted the parents of an army captain killed on US active service in Iraq. Still he seems relatively stable in the polls, he’s like some sort of radioactive monster that can’t be injured, no matter what he does. I think the following article (disclaimer: it’s written by my cousin) goes some way to explaining his popularity. The other major factor affecting his popularity is, of course, his rival’s lack of popularity.

Clinton has got her own problems. A significant portion of the electorate don’t trust her, the travails with her emails and the Clinton Foundation are examples of her apparent inability to see how badly these play to wider society. Bolted onto this is her refusal to give press conferences which makes it look as though she is sticking to a script rather than being subjected to public scrutiny. One of the more crazy facts to come out recently is that the US government sent a plane to Iran with $1.7bn IN CASH  at the same time as a number of US prisoners were released by the Iranian government. The US government says this money was in payment for a deal that fell through during the Iranian revolution in the 70s – everyone in the US believes it’s ransom money. And of course, Clinton is a key part of the current administration. I’ve seen and heard a number of incumbent Democrat senators decline to overtly say they trust her when questioned directly. The recent health scare reinforces it – not the fact that she has pneumonia, but that she and her team tried to cover it up.

There are 2 other candidates in the election. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate was doing quite well, polling at between 7 and 9% until he made the basic error in a press conference of honestly answering a question with ‘what is Aleppo?’ Gill Stein is the Green candidate and polling at 3-4%. She seems to be more switched on, but has also made the basic political error of actively doing something she actually believes in by getting arrested in the huge protests in North Dakota in support of Native Americans. I’ve mentioned before the way Native Americans appear to be written out of US history. The current stand-off in North Dakota effectively repeats history – it’s about land exploitation and environmental degradation. I’ll give you two guesses which side the Native Americans are on. The excellent ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’ fully documents the destruction of Native Americans during the expansion of the United States. One of the key sites that tribes attempted to protect at all costs was around the Missouri river – history is repeating itself more than one hundred years later. This article gives you an idea of the situation, please search the net for further articles.

To really make an impact – do something that disrespects THE FLAG – Native Americans protest in North Dakota

That’s me done on the west coast, the rest of the blog will be written from the eastern side of the US. Next week’s posting will come from Charlotte, North Carolina.

San Francisco

From Portland we head out towards the coast, stopping to see the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation and Space museum. The plane itself is truly breath-taking, but also a project driven by breath-taking hubris. It is still the largest plane in the world, after all these years. It flew only once. The museum is well worth a visit, it contains a huge number of planes and space craft. From there, we drive down I-101 (otherwise known as the Pacific Coast Highway) goggling at the amazing views of the Oregon coast as they unfold mile after mile. The beaches and coastline are pristine, beautiful and empty. At Depoe Bay we stop for coffee, and see grey whales right up against the shoreline – astonishing creatures. The whole coastline is teeming with wildlife, it’s extraordinary.

The Spruce Goose at its current resting place

 

Foggy city

The first view of San Francisco is breath-taking and classic – we emerge from a road tunnel to see the Golden Gate bridge directly in front of us, swarming with visitors. San Francisco is part of the Bay Area – essentially three cities (the other two are Berkeley and Oakland) which tend to be conflated as one (San Francisco). I’d never thought of SF as a foggy city, but apparently that is what it’s commonly called. And whaddaya know, it really is. Every morning we wake up to blanket fog which usually clears after a few hours. The city has a real micro-climate and it doesn’t really get that warm, despite being summer in California. There are a lot of distinct districts that are well worth a look. In Japantown we have a wonderful two and a half-hour space out at Kabuki spa, one of the few Japanese spas in the US. Across the road we have the best meal of our entire trip so far, and the best Japanese meal we’ve ever had – paradoxically it’s also one of the cheaper meals we’ve had. Mission and Castro are also great areas to visit – a fantastic buzzy vibe with loads going on. The city centre is a bit of a tourist hell-hole and probably best avoided, or maybe it’s just us?

‘Say Her Name’

 

The issue of deaths after police contact has been in the media with depressing frequency in the last few years. Most of the focus has been on the deaths of black males. Eric Garner (New York), Mike Brown (Ferguson) and Alton Sterling (Baton Rouge) are names fixed in the memories of many people. But how many people recognise the names of Kayla Moore, Janisha Fonville or Jessica Williams? Hence the focus of the movement called ‘Say Her Name’. Black women are 5 times more likely to be killed by police in the US than white women. I’ve come over the bay to interview Maria Moore, sister of Kayla Moore who was killed by police in Berkeley in 2013. The interview takes place at Berkeley Copwatch, another fantastic volunteer group that actively monitors police in this part of the world. You can see some of their work on you tube, in general, and in relation to the death of Kayla Moore.

Kayla was born male, but identified as female. She had mental health issues which were usually controlled by medication. Maria describes her sister as a gentle soul, an extrovert, someone forever sending blessings out to people. On the night of her death, her room-mate called 911 saying Kayla had thrown him out, was becoming violent and needed to be ‘5150d’ (the British equivalent of being sectioned under the 1983 Mental Health Act). Kayla had been visited by police before, but usually by specialist police teams that have mental health professionals (in the bay area they are called ‘mobile crisis teams’) attached to them. On the day she died, she was visited by police who talked with her and left, satisfied nothing was out of order. Her room-mate called 911 later in the evening, stating that Kayla was being violent and aggressive. As Berkeley police only have mobile crisis teams during the day, this time a patrol car was despatched. Two officers arrived, checked outstanding warrants for Kayla and her room-mate and consequently decided to arrest them both. It subsequently turned out that the warrant for Kayla did not exist – it was for someone else. The two officers attempted to restrain Kayla on a mattress, they failed and called for back-up. Three to four other officers arrived, Kayla was cuffed by her wrists and ankles, and then put into a ‘wrap’ device. This is essentially a rigid restraint that prevents a person’s legs moving. Kayla stopped breathing, and died. Officers did not attempt mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Maria is convinced because Kayla was transgender and black. Months after the death, Copwatch and Maria were able to obtain audio recordings (at the insistence of the family’s lawyers) of the police in Kayla’s apartment after her death, one officer says: ‘what is it?’ The Moore family is still waiting for some sign of accountability from Berkeley PD – the officers involved are still serving officers. It is a story I am (unfortunately) hearing from many of the families I speak with.

Kayla Moore

Fear and loathing

I’ve commented before on the level of fearfulness that seems apparent (to me, at least) in the US. This is manifest in something we don’t see in the UK: advertisements for prescription medications. These are all over TV, magazine and radio adverts and I view them as targeting peoples fear of their health and capacity to live a ‘normal’ life. The idea behind this is that as a ‘customer’ you see the advert for the wonder-pill, then go and see your doctor (‘physician’) and ask them to prescribe it. This has some interesting side-effects (sorry, couldn’t help it) – not least in terms of the relationship between the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry. This article about a group of people from West Virginia suing doctors for ‘pill-pushing’ and effectively creating and maintaining people as addicts to prescription medication might give you an idea about how this type of system operates. The adverts for these pills are interesting for what they are legally obliged to say, each one begins with a list of side-effects and who should not take it. Consider this fairly typical one for Lyrica, which is targeted at people who suffer from arthritic type conditions. Here are the opening lines: ‘Prescription Lyrica is not for everyone. Tell your doctor right away about any serious allergic reaction that causes swelling of the face, mouth, lips, gums, tongue, throat, or neck, or any trouble breathing, rash, hive or blisters. Lyrica may cause suicidal thoughts in a very small number of people. These changes may include new or worsening depression, anxiety, restlessness, trouble sleeping, panic attacks, anger, irritability, agitation, aggression, dangerous impulses, or violence, or extreme increases in activity or talking.’ I read this and think: a) is there anything it doesn’t affect negatively?; and, b) what is positive about it?

We live in uncertain times dear readers, the next posting is from San Diego, more then.

 

 

 

 

Portland

From Astoria we’ve headed inland to Portland, which is Oregon’s largest city; more than 2 million people live in the metropolitan area. One of the startling things to me is how ‘new’ many of the towns and cities are in Oregon. It was the final state of the US to be settled, so Portland, for example, only existed properly from 1845 – its name being chosen on the toss of a coin.  Although the city has a short history, it’s clear that change is a significant part of its history. As a major port in the 19^th century it was infamous for widespread criminality, theft and violence. Since the 1960s it has worked hard to rebrand itself as a progressive and liberal city, partly driven by incoming hippies from San Francisco (down the coast) in the late 60s/early 70s. Whilst here we go to the district of Sunnyside to visit the Laurel Theater to watch a film, it costs $4 (about £3) per ticket, and $8 for a pitcher (about 3 pints of beer) – scarcely believable. We watch the documentary ‘Weiner’ – don’t laugh! It’s about an infamous Democrat politician in New York and his rise and fall. Words genuinely can’t do it justice, I urge you to see it if you get a chance, it illustrates so much about the nature of politics and the state of the world, here’s a taster

Deaths after police contact

I’m in Portland to meet Dan Handelman, spokesperson for Portland Copwatch. Similar to Seattle (see last post), Portland police have been under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for their persistent excessive use of force. There is a long history of controversial deaths, unfortunately there are so many examples it’s difficult to know which ones to draw your attention to. I’ve decided to pick one from each decade since the 1980s. In 1985 Lloyd Stevenson, a military veteran, died after being restrained by a choke hold, on the day of his funeral two police officers were suspended for selling T-shirts with the slogan ‘don’t choke ‘em, smoke ‘em’ (in this context, ‘smoke’ means shoot to kill).  In 1998 Dickie Dow died after being beaten with batons by up to eight officers as he lay cuffed at the wrists and ankles, they refused to administer CPR to him saying they were not trained to do so. In 2001,  Jose Poot was shot dead by police after being called to a psychiatric centre. Poot was not mentally ill, he was having a type of epileptic seizure, the reasons for him being detained in the first place, and more about his story are here.

An exemplary community organisation maintained on a shoe-string by committed and passionate volunteers

The officers involved were later given awards for exemplary service. In 2010 Keaton Otis was pulled over in a ‘routine’ traffic stop, he had no criminal record, he was not armed, he had no contraband in his car. He was tasered three times, then shot 27 times. The officers responsible are still active patrol officers for Portland police. In 2012 the Department of Justice concluded their investigations into Portland police, stating that they would sue the police force unless it pledged to make significant changes to its operations (in the US this is termed ‘settlement’). This appears to be a pattern in a number of US cities, it mirrors what occurred in Seattle. Since then, the police and DoJ have been engaged in negotiations about what changes should be undertaken. One change has been to set up a Police Review Board, which is notionally made up of independent staff (similar to Seattle’s Police Community Commission). Predictably, this has had a troubled short history. It has been criticised for being toothless, and a number of board members have resigned in frustration about its inability to make progress. The latest development is that the board wants to hear police misconduct cases in private (since its inception they’ve been held in public). Most academic authors on policing state that police rarely want reform, and actively organise to to resist it. One of the key tactics is to initially agree to change, then wait until the demands for change lose urgency. At this point police start to claw back what they originally gave up – it’s difficult to argue with this view given the story on Portland police.

Keeping Portland Weird

Portland is also home to ‘Voodoo Doughnut’ (see photo below), an outlet that has a messianic following which appears to stretch far beyond the city. Every time we go past it, the queue is way out the door – it doesn’t matter what time it is. In the UK we get excited about Krispy Kreme. Let me assure you, this is a whole different ballpark of doughnuts we’re talking about. I won’t list them all, but the doughnuts on offer range from the seemingly non-doughnut sounding ‘bacon maple bar’, ‘mango tango’, and ‘ain’t that a peach fritter’ through to the delightful sounding ‘triple chocolate penetration’, ‘cock-n-balls’, ‘dirty snowballs’, and ‘old dirty bastard’. We’re not in Kansas anymore Dorothy (younger readers, please ask an old person about the Wizard of Oz). The success of Voodoo Doughnuts appears to be partly an offshoot of the more offbeat nature of the city, which I suppose comes from the hippies and dropouts from the 60s and 70s. One manifestation of this is the official slogan of the city, which is ‘Keep Portland Weird.’

Voodoo Doughnut – it’s a Portland thing

One part of Portland society not buying doughnuts is the huge homeless population, which seems to be all over the city. There are a remarkable number of tents and semi-permanent tarpaulin constructions pretty much everywhere in the city. Last year Portland’s mayor declared a state of emergency on the issue, but on the basis of what we’ve seen, it doesn’t look like much has happened. There have been incidents where homeless encampments have been attacked, and in some cases set alight by angry residents. This short video gives an overview of the issue. Portland is certainly a vibrant city with a lot happening culturally, in many ways it feels like a quite affluent city. But I can’t help feeling that it’s a troubled city that has problems squaring its identity with reality. I also wonder about the way that Lewis & Clark (the US navigators who were the ‘first’ to reach the coast of Oregon in 1805) are accorded mythical status in American history, conveniently overlooking the fact that the Native American tribe ‘Nev Perces’ had lived there for centuries. We have seen very little evidence in Oregon of its Native American heritage. Combined with police deaths and homelessness, I find it all quite troubling.