People in poor and working class Philadelphia communities have long
known that the police and criminal justice system never have the
resources for them when they are victims of real crime. The war on
drugs, stop and frisk, and brutality against non-violent protesters use
up all police resources so that most crimes are legalized and under
counted, as long as the victims are unimportant to the 1%. Now, the
war on chess, the war on eaters, the war on volleyball, the war on
jugglers, etc., which are beginning in gentrified parks around the city,
will become the final tool for oppression and community destruction in
our police state.
The leaders of insular civic associations, like FOCP, are told that
these new permit wars will not be waged against the loyalists in their
gang, but instead, against all other people who dare enter the exclusive
zones that were once public parks. Civic associations loyal to
privatization and class war will be allowed permits to form fee based
leagues under their control and ban all other citizens from the park or
face arrest. The park permit becomes like a tazer or baton wielded
selectively based on class and race.
Why are fee based leagues fundamentally different from all the free and
open park activities, that at one time made Clark Park and the
neighborhood a great community?
Public parks were once valued as a type of community commons. All
diverse members of the diverse neighborhood were welcome to come and
join resident driven activities which were free and open to all. People
could join a league at a recreation center if they wanted a particular
activity like volleyball. But park volleyball functions as a community
first, with the human activity simply at the center of the vital
neighborhood gathering. (This role of public space is an important
topic for democratic societies.)
Until the FOCP fee based soccer league, all park leaders recognized that
park activities should remain free and open to all, and that the park
was the neighborhood commons. When the FOCP soccer league started, more
than half of the initial families came from other wealthy neighborhoods
around the city instead of primarily poorer neighborhood families who
lived here! The FOCP dues and league fees became a huge barrier for
many local families who found themselves unpermitted to join the local
activity.
What did FOCP leaders demand when their fee based soccer league first
started? Answer: That all other traditional park gatherings be barred
from their soccer field!
This invisible iron curtain is precisely what the new demand for park
permits, for virtually every single possible activity, is designed to
codify. Ever since I first had the unpleasant task of dealing with the
FOCP leaders, they have made it clear that they don't like us
undesireables having fun and building strong and democratic cultures in
their exclusive park. These permit oppressions were always at the heart
of the FOCP leader's secret deals to privatize Clark Park. And since
Penn controls the city, these permit oppressions called for by the
FOCP/UCD/CCD are now being extended to the entire city!
Exclusive suburban style leagues are never going to create the magical
culture that the diverse people of the neighborhood once brought to
Clark Park! When the civic leaders go back to their lairs after their
fee based leagues and after the first arrests, the park will be a
deserted barren wasteland covered with herbicides and pretty flowers.
The entire gentrification has always been based on an upper middle class
delusion. They were always perplexed that we animals in Clark Park
always seemed to have so much fun and community even though we had none
of their suburban riches. They were spiritually empty and miserable in
their fortified mansions and they believed that if they stole our park
and kicked out us working class animals out; they would somehow steal
our culture and quality of life!
It was never the park alone that made Clark Park a beloved sacred
place. It was us dirty animals, white and black, poor and middle class;
who made magic with our chess, volleyball, drummers, festivals, and
picnics all free and open to everyone. And it is our public squares
that draw the entire community, which provide the only hope for
democracy and community building. These permits, future arrests, and
iron fisted FOCP control are not some trivial matter!
Sincerely,
Glenn
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