December 3, 2014 – RI Future

December 3, 2014December 4, 2014

PVD Ferguson protest solidarity firefighter is DJ Knockout

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The Providence firefighter who raised his fist in solidarity with protesters who burned an American flag outside the Providence Public Safety Complex is Khari O’Connor, who also works as a DJ for WBRU on Sundays under the name DJ Knockout.

Though O’Connor’s name has been being bandied about on various comment blogs, Marissa Lee, a Media Relations Coordinator/ Consultant working for O’Connor confirmed the firefighter’s identity in an email and subsequent phone call with RI Future.

O’Connor was sworn in as a firefighter in early 2014, and was listed as being 26 years old at the time.

O’Connor outed himself on his Facebook fan page, running the defense of his action that this author wrote for RI Future.

“Dj Knockout (Khari O’Connor) is being wrongfully prosecuted for his beliefs while being a civil servant(Providence Firefighter)! We need your help!! Please Share!”

Marissa Lee has confirmed that an exclusive interview has been promised to a television station she would not name.

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December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

PVD Police Dept.: one of least racially representative in the country

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A lot of American cities have police departments that don’t proportionally represent the racial mix of residents. And Providence is one of the worst.

According to data provided by the office of the Public Safety Commissioner, the 444-officer Providence Police Department is 76.3 percent White, 11.7 percent Hispanic, 9.0 percent Black, 2.7 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, and 0.2 percent American Indian. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city as a whole is 37.8 percent White, 38.3 percent Hispanic, 16.1 percent Black, 6.5 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, and 1.4 percent American Indian.

That means the white portion of the PPD is 38.6 percentage points overrepresentative of the city as a whole, while the Hispanic portion is 26.5 percentage points underrepresentative, the black portion is 7.1 points underrepresentative, the Asian/P.I. portion is 3.8 points underrepresentative, and the American Indian portion is 1.2 points underrepresentative.

These numbers seem vaguely interesting without context, but in the context of other cities, they’re far more troublesome.

On October 1, data journalism blog FiveThirtyEight.com published an analysis of the 75 largest municipal police forces in the country. Providence has approximately the 90th-most officers in the country, so was not included in that analysis. The main thrust of that analysis was examining the effectiveness of residency requirements (tldr?: They actually correlate with worse representativeness). However, there is an excellent visualization putting all 75 departments side by side, ranked in order of how racially misrepresentative they are of their cities. I highly recommend checking it out.

So Providence wasn’t included in that analysis, and there are about 15 other departments that also weren’t included and have bigger departments than we do. But how do we compare to the 75 cities included in the analysis?

Only three of the cities FiveThirtyEight looked at have police departments worse at representing their communities than Providence. So that’s a problem.

In a statement, Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré said, “Recruiting a diverse workforce is always a priority. We hired two recruit classes for the PFD and one recruit class for the PPD. It was one of the most diverse classes we’ve had in our history. Our goal is to mirror the community we serve. The challenge is to reach out to the available workforce in the region and recruit the best candidates.”

The new class of 53 police officers was the most diverse in 20 years, with 9 Hispanic recruits and 13 other minorities. But the class itself overrepresented white Providence by 20%, and barely budged the underrepresentation of Latinos.

When it comes to recruiting new and diverse officers, Paré said he’s “battl[ing] the perception that you need to have a connection to become a police officer,” he said. “It exists in the profession.” He acknowledged the fire department “can do a better job…recruiting more women. It is always difficult to get women interested in the fire services because of the physical demands that is required.” (What, because women have trouble doing physical work? *facepalm*)

Importantly, Paré welcomes ideas from the community. “We have invited community stakeholders to become part of the process for their input, ideas and recommendations to improve how we hire police and fire,” he said. “They have been critical partners in these last 3 training academies.”

There’s racial misrepresentation to address in Providence Public Safety, but with willing leadership and the active participation of community groups, maybe we can solve the problem together.

December 3, 2014

PrEP: Why aren’t you on it?

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I’m a healthcare worker, Queer activist, and consider myself to be pretty well-informed and connected and yet if you had asked me about PrEP as recently as September, I would have wondered what you are talking about. I’m up here today because I feel that the word PrEP needs to be on the lips of every sexually active person and the people they love.

PrEP which stands for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis is a once a day dose of an anti-retrovirus drug called, Truvada; which is also used for people who are HIV Positive to help keep viral loads low, but in people who are negative, if exposed to HIV, kills the virus before it has the chance to infect you. Numerous studies have shown it to be pretty darn effective.

Being newly single, and sexually active, this naturally piqued my interest; if a one a day pill can help prevent an unwanted condition, why wouldn’t I be on it?

But for good measure, I took to social media to see if anyone in my extended networks had any thoughts or experiences with it. The results were somewhat unsurprising, but worth breaking down:

Two people reached out to me privately to tell me their stories, which were well-received and appreciated, but I wondered why they didn’t feel safe to say publically they were PrEP users. Until I saw some of the other public responses (most of which were positive), but there were a strong current of people who were telling me that I weren’t being “sleazy” I wouldn’t have to worry about this or that they felt that this pill will encourage “bad” behavior.

This line of thought is nothing new…54 years after the Birth-control Pill hit the market and 41 years after safe and legal abortion was won, people are still saying that contraception will encourage “bad” behavior.

Well I’ve got news for them. “Bad” behavior does not need encouragement. At all. And furthermore, there is nothing bad, dirty, or shameful about sex. We owe it to ourselves, our partners, and the people we love to first and foremost, enjoy ourselves, but also to do everything we can to protect ourselves and other.

We as a society need to come to grips with the fact that sex-positive and queer-inclusive sex education not being a part of our public school curriculum is nothing short of a public health crisis; creating a layer of young people with lots of misinformation and questions who are afraid to seek out answers for fear of judgment. This is dangerous. Silence, in this case, literally equals death.

I, along with my Doctor, Dr, Chan, did decide that going on PrEP was the right decision for the type of life I lead. I was very fortunate to thus far not experience and of the side effects (nausea, vomiting etc.). And if you’re wondering, it didn’t encourage and more or less “bad” behavior.

To conclude, I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss how equally important access to this drug is to it’s availability. I am lucky in that I have a good job with good health insurance, so access to PrEP was no issue for me. But there are so many people in vulnerable demographics (I think of sex-workers and IV drug users especially) may not be as lucky and cannot afford to pay the over $1500 out-of-pocket cost of a monthly supply of Truvada. PrEP has the potential to make new HIV infections a thing of the past, but it cannot do that if no one’s heard of it and people who need it the most cannot access it.

These are the facts, but our challenge as healthcare providers, law-makers, activists, and people who want to see a world without HIV/AIDS is to overcome them. We have come so far already; research in tandem with activism has taken HIV for a death sentence to a chronic, but mostly manageable condition, and now we have the capability to prevent it in the first place. We need to be screaming about this from rooftops, flyering every gay bar, I also liked Dr. Nunn’s idea about using sites like grindr and scruff as tools for outreach, and also making the phrase “ask your doctor about PrEP” as recognizable a slogan as “get tested” and “know your status” is now!

December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

Flow my tears, the fireman said

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I don’t know the firefighter who stood in the window, fist raised in solidarity with the protesters rallying outside the Providence Public Safety Complex a week ago. I don’t think anyone could tell who the figure was or what occupation the person might be employed in. All I could see was a silhouette, a literal shadow of humanity, demonstrating commonality with the protesters as a human being with emotions, thoughts and concerns.

What could I know about the figure in the window? I couldn’t be sure of the figure’s race or ethnicity. Medium build. Average height. Might be a man but in truth, until Commissioner Paré used identifying pronouns, I couldn’t be one hundred percent sure of gender.

All I could see was a human being, making contact, sharing the same pain and concern as those assembled below. I could have made up a thousand stories about the figure in the window, guessing at his or her reason for choosing to raise a fist in solidarity, but somehow, I never doubted the intentions of the act. Somehow the simple gesture of raising a fist in shadow communicated both solidarity and sincerity.

It was a meaningful, touching gesture.

Even those who believe that the firefighter’s actions were completely unwarranted and somehow a betrayal of his duty do not doubt the sincerity of the action. This was obviously not an act of mockery but an act of solidarity, and this came through even though the figure was only a silhouette, a shadow in the window, visually more symbol than human. The humanity of the act was palpable, almost psychic.

Commissioner Paré recognized the humanity of the action immediately. It was the sincerity of the gesture and the humanity expressed that made a silhouette with raised fist so dangerous. For the system to work, one side must be strong, powerful and monolithic and the other side must be weak, compliant and diverse. When the strong show tenderness and tolerance or the weak demonstrate strength and solidarity, the system strains to breaking, and punishments must be meted out.

I feel sad that my footage has caused the firefighter censure and official punishment. Commissioner Paré says the firefighter should have remained neutral, but were the disdainful looks or dismissive chuckles of other figures in the windows neutral? Dismissive attitudes also lack neutrality, yet it never occurred to me or the protesters to note such attitudes, because they are common. It seems neutrality is only neutral when it serves those in power.

If in the future I film police officers at protests laughing or taking a dismissive attitude towards the activists, will Commissioner Paré take them to task for their lack of neutrality? Perhaps the police should wear helmets to hide their emotions and mask their humanity. No one can see the tears of a stormtrooper as the trigger is squeezed.

Neutrality über alles.

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December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

Condition of PVD schools: ‘a kind of slow, horrible violence’

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I recently wrote a short op-ed for Providence Journal about the state of Gilbert Stuart Middle School demanding action be taken with regard to the physical state of our local schools.

A recent RI Future article published pictures from inside of this school, which show – even if only in part – how poor the conditions of the physical school buildings actually are in urban Rhode Island.

Having been inside this school in particular, I’d say these are just an additional glimpse at the many physical problems the school has.

Beyond the asbestos curtain, peeling paint, and falling roof tiles, I find myself concerned about the prospect of the leaky roof and the resultant mold, as well as the state of the school’s potable – or perhaps non-potable – water.

The photos do provide a much more accurate depiction than Linda Borg’s Aug. 23 article for Providence Journal (“Superintendents say deferred maintenance in Rhode Island schools is driving up costs”) I wrote the critical op-ed in response to an article that seemed more like acquiescing political coverage and a public relations stunt than an honest consideration of how bad the schools are. These are public buildings occupied by students and teachers and they are being left to rot because of poor budgetary management.

The RI Future article also was beneficial for pointing out the school’s score on the 2013 RIDE report, where Gilbert Stuart received 2 out of 5, on a scale where 5 is the lowest score (2 being considered “generally good condition, some system needs. Minor renovations.”).

Looking at the photos, and having actually been inside of the building itself, makes me question the report itself, and how honest it is being about the living conditions inside of schools. I tend to think leaking roofs, likely mold, and an asbestos curtain puts the school in a category that’s much worse than just being in need of “minor renovations.” One wonders if the people grading the schools have looked at so many bad schools, so many schools so much worse than Gilbert Stuart, that their sense of what is acceptable has become clouded.

gilbertstuart8 — Click for more pictures.

What struck me the most about the report, is that the average condition of schools in urban and rural locations is worse than the condition of Gilbert Stuart according to the organization’s grading scale. Urban schools received an average condition rating of 2.25, and rural schools received an average rating of 2.19. Suburban schools were only slightly better on average than Gilbert Stuart, receiving an average rating of 1.85. In other words, Rhode Island has many schools in just as bad, if not substantially worse, condition than Gilbert Stuart.

It is also worth noting that these schools are worth a lot of money (the report values Gilbert Stuart at $18,466,300) and they’re being left unrepaired in ways that are detrimental to the buildings themselves. But that feels besides the point, as these are public buildings being occupied by people, and I tend to think that moldy buildings with asbestos in them are detrimental to the people occupying them.

There is a kind of slow, horrible violence being done against the students and teachers expected to occupy these buildings. This is not just some minor budgetary hiccup: something drastic needs to be done about the condition of these schools for the sake of the children and teachers who spend their days inside the schools.