So I have to admit, I've been putting off sharing this sticker for a while now. Not because I don't like it, I find it really interesting in its composition and an important issue to share. But sharing that issue on here is... well rather daunting and intimidating. How exactly do I distill such a large and poignant topic down to a roughly three paragraph post? What exactly do I have to add to the conversation? Granted it doesn't have to be earth shattering, it is just a simple blog in the end, it's just where exactly do you start. Looking through my collection the other day though, I realized that if I keep pushing it to the side I probably would never share it which would be a shame. I can't guarantee this is going to be brilliant, or that I won't put my foot in my mouth, but here's my brief look into the story behind this sticker. One of the first things about this sticker that grabs your attention, or at least mine, is the fact that it's a police officer holding the sign. Obviously this is a nod to the presence of police brutality around the country, especially surrounding the African American community, and the recent examples that have hit the news. I wish I could say that there is clearly one particular attack that influenced this political statement but as I found this sticker back in 2016, and who knows how long it had been up before then, there are honestly too many to even try to pinpoint one. Which while this is probably a gross over-simplification of the issue, I feel like the fact I can't just name one is part of point of this sticker. Like #Black Lives Matter, this sticker is looking to pull more attention to the fact that racial inequality is a prevalent issue in society and deserves more attention than the occasional news bulletin. The phrase "criminalize the black community" alone is rather chilling when you think about it. A large focus on any news program's coverage of brutality are the statistics around the amount of African Americans currently imprisoned and the percentage of crime rates that are attributed to them. Often this is used as a justification for the violence that occurred, which really just furthers this idea of criminalizing a community and creating a greater divide. Stepping away from the larger portrait of the country's discussion around brutality and race, this sticker has much deeper ties to the area. I'm not sure how many of you will immediately recall local controversies from two years ago, but this image of the police officer holding a sign is actually a photo from 2015. On New Year's Eve Police Chief Cameron McLay posed for a photo holding a sign saying "I resolve to challenge racism @ work. #EndWhiteSilence." According to a piece published by WTAE shortly after the photo appeared on Twitter, he had stopped to get a coffee and entered a brief discussion with a group of people there about the issues of racial inequality and injustice. He wanted to show his support on confronting these issues and posed for the photo. This photo ultimately offended the local police union, believing that he was insinuating that the Pittsburgh police were racists. While he did end up apologizing to the union, stating that he never intended to offend them or imply anything, he still felt that this was a cause that needed to be addressed. The controversy did end up making national news though with Fox News and a couple of other outlets doing a brief piece on it that same week. Admittedly this photo was just a blip during his tenure as Police Chief. Chief McLay was hired in 2014 to reform the department and for two years did his best to address the issues he saw. In 2016 he decided to step down, feeling that he went as far as he could and that it was time for someone else to take the reins. Clearly Chief McLay was a man who wanted to make a difference. His willingness to try and start a discussion about the way racism affects our judgement is in many ways admirable. But clearly for the creator of this sticker, just holding a sign isn't enough. The sticker uses this image of McLay to great effect, creating that clear distinction between what is intended and how it is perceived. The phrase on the sticker harkens back to the sign he held and that idea of New Year's resolutions which tend to be broken quickly. And while he did a lot to reorganize the police department and to raise community awareness, the Post Gazette article I linked above does state that the statistics on killings in the area when he resigned were barely lower than they were when he started. Ultimately this sticker looks to remind people not only of the larger issue from around the country but how this is also still an issue here in Pittsburgh.
1 Comment
Teresa
4/8/2017 12:24:10 pm
Bold statement my friend.
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Maggie Ondrey
An amateur photographer and writer capturing a small portion of the city. Archives
August 2017
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