Feedback on RIP’ing (Re-Imagine Policing) on WHYY

Keeping the momentum going on race issues will require a division of labor to get things done.  That’s not easy to do without money to hire and assign jobs, but there may be other ways.  One of them is an Information Gathering Tool (IGT) to find, filter and move useful information.  It’s a pretty simple game but it can be used to challenge people in ways that are more effective than simply selling a point of view.  Real social learning requires a series of attempts followed by feedback and re-adjustment, but the feedback must be balanced and useful.   In the long run, good feedback may be more important than funding because groups with good feedback systems have the potential to learn.  One must assume that useful ideas and information are out there.  We simply need to create ways to find those ideas.  IGT’s can be fun and challenging and give many people a reason to get out of bed in the morning.  Pick some neighborhood to focus on for a few weeks.  See what can be done with a variety of competitive games for finding useful ideas and information.  The division of labor issue will sort itself out once the games have started.  

You may be familiar with what Gandhi did to get the British out of India.  One of his tactics was to have people walk to the sea and make their own salt.  Up until that time, salt making had been a monopoly of the British.  (As seen in the movie “Gandhi”).  A similar tactic could be used in Philadelphia for neighborhoods that pay for garbage collection but don’t get the service. Give the city 48 hours to collect and if they don’t, then bag the trash and deliver it to city hall. It is important to help other neighborhoods with their trash collection too in order to gain outside support.  

City council may be too fearful of change or fear of imagined reactions of their own constituents.  They may need help to show them how to change.  Nonviolent confrontation and actions can force change or force actions that lay bare their real intent.  In the case of Gandhi, he wanted the British out of India and the British were too proud and stubborn to let it go.  In Philadelphia I’m not sure we want all the police out, but certainly a change in the way police interact and do their job. 

If racism is structural, then looking at other structures might also be helpful in finding solutions, even on the issue of guns.  On the drug issue, it is probably naïve to think that drug use can simply be ignored.  Maybe each neighborhood can have a safehouse where police are not allowed to go but people who have a drug habit can take care of their habit at that place.  All other places are fair game for arrest.  In the long run, we must push to get harmful drugs out of the community for our children’s sake.   

Recent reports about Chicago’s high homicide rate included descriptions of assailants who were mostly shooting from cars.   We might try looking at one neighborhood where no cars are allowed except for people who live there and the police.  This is a structural change but could make safer streets. It is also something that can be enforced by local people if they put their minds together.  

IGT is a structural change in how we talk and gather information. A big step can be taken when average people invite a policeman or woman over for a meal.  Get to know them.  Act as if you have power. This too is a temporary structural change but it can change the conversation.    

IGT can be applied to education to improve the schools.  Don’t wait for an expert to give statistics on an “average” student.  Pick a real student who might be underperforming and use an IGT to ask teams of teachers to make suggestions to get that specific student (or that type of student) more engaged and involved in their own education.  Parents who have similar children will be interested and pass those ideas on to their child’s teacher. Initial rounds of IGT’s might be teachers only, but then add students and parents for later rounds. Follow-up with an IGT process.