Rice and beans, day 79: the birthday edition

Writer Man and I both turned 49 this week. I made him an apricot and mascarpone tart. Youngest Kid made me a chocolate cake with white butter frosting. (I prefer white frosting to chocolate frosting.)

In current events, it was a rough week. The US exceeded 100,000 deaths from COVID-19. George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. San Francisco tightened the rules about wearing masks and delivered a depressingly drawn-out reopening plan. 

My heart grieves. 

The protests in San Francisco over the murder of George Floyd turned into looting yesterday evening, mostly around Union Square and Market Street downtown. I haven't spent much time in Union Square, but Youngest Kid and I shop at the Old Navy and the Westfield Mall that were looted, and I used to walk past the CVS and Walgreens on my way to work, back when we lived at the first apartment.

Writer Man walked down that way this afternoon and saw some of the damage first-hand.

I did some reading on Campaign Zero's Police Scoreboard about the use of deadly force by police in San Francisco, and about the Department of Police Accountability. I'm troubled by the fact that although there is a department to investigate citizen complaints, the department rules in favor of the complainant only around 8% of the time. That seems suspiciously low. If you look specifically at deadly force complaints, that percentage drops to 2%. 

It would be nice to think that 98% of the time our police use force, they do so appropriately, but given that apparently in 86% of the shootings, police didn't attempt to use non-lethal methods first, I'm doubtful. 

I'd like to find a way to contribute to meaningful change in this area. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rice and beans, day 31

Image
There are a few pieces of good news, for which I am grateful. The Inspector Gamache novel revived my interest in reading, although I'm definitely happiest staying on the lighter side of my usual reading range. Mystery novels, witches and vampires, and fairy-tale-esque fantasy novels? Yes, please. Novels about suffering in the real world? Rain check, please. I spent the first week or so of quarantine bingeing TV shows, and reading feels much better. While we're on the topic of reading, thank heavens for Kindles and the ability to borrow ebooks from the library. We noticed hearts, peace symbols, and greetings on the windows of the buildings facing us half a block away, so Youngest Kid and I used pink sticky notes to post "HI" in the window facing them. Hopefully it brought a smile to someone's face. (Photo of the view through a window, showing sticky notes forming I and H.)  Due to my manager urging me to take Friday off, and church streaming the ser
Read more

Rice and beans, day 86: Ten Things of Thankful edition

Image
My sister, Kristi, introduced me to the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop several years ago, and she and my mom are both regular participants and current co-hosts (with others). I am not a regular participant because A) I post very infrequently, and B) I often have snarky or not-particularly thankful things I want to post about. But the blog hop is celebrating its seventh birthday this week, so I decided to join in this week. Of course, this week has been a tough week in a tough year, and so this list will reflect that. 1. I am thankful for the protests. Do I worry about large groups of people, many not wearing masks, increasing the number of COVID-19 cases in my city and potentially slowing down our reopening? Yes. Am I disgruntled by the vandalism and looting in my city? Yes. But I have seen how videos of the protests are changing the hearts and minds of some people in my life and making them more aware of the lived experience of others, and so I am thankful.  And some of the protests
Read more

Rice and beans, day 185

Image
 This is the week I discovered my 2020 breaking point: air. Breathable air. Wear a mask every time I set foot outside my apartment? Fine. Avoid public transportation and confine myself to places I can walk to in an hour or so? Fine. Keep shopping trips to a minimum? Fine. Read only ebooks because the library is closed?* Fine. Give up museums, and theaters, and restaurants? Fine. Stay inside with the windows completely closed because the air is trying to kill you? 2020 is the worst year ever.  It all started with an unusual lightening storm on a Sunday morning about a month ago. I sat on the balcony with my first cup of coffee and watched the storm. I was struck by the lack of rain--only a bit of light drizzle--but I didn't think of the danger inherent in lightening with no rain in a state with a Mediterranean climate that had a completely dry February. Not until a couple of days later, when I first heard about the fires. Hundreds of them. The air quality has been dicey ever since,
Read more