Grace Whisler - "Issues": "The Window" Response

Superintendent O'Leary proposed a shoot-to-kill order in response to the civil unrest that

their city is currently grappling with. While I see what he means I think that the success of this

plan would just not be feasible. If these people are protesting because of a lack of institutions in

place to help these minorities prosper and instead are in place ultimately causing harm towards

them, a shoot to kill would most likely cause more upset and would not resolve anything. This

shoot-to-kill order would ultimately just back up the idea that government policies (like this one)

were instilled to cause harm to oppressed groups. I suggest that these civic leaders start by

changing their sole purpose away from causing harm and start to try to think for themselves why

these riots happened in the first place. These groups have had to deal with things in their lives

solely because of factors that they cannot control, things that you would never be able to fully

comprehend if you were not a part of this group. If police intervention is required, their primary

goal should be to make sure that things don't get out of hand.

The argument could be made that these rioters caused a lot of violent disturbances, and

while it is true that some were more aggressive than others all of them have very valid reasons to

be upset. It would be a poor choice to judge all of them based on the actions of a few as this

would further instill the idea that most government officials in places that matter don't care about

their well-being. It is instead important to acknowledge why they are upset and why that reason

is crucial to moving forward. Acknowledge that mistakes were made on the end of civic leaders

and ensure that steps are taken to revise them.

Looking at the quote from Martin Luther King Jr., "We know through painful experience

that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the
oppressed."This is one of the very reasons that these riots are occurring in the first place, people

are not just going to give minorities justice from them sitting and waiting for it to come to them

because unfortunately there are already institutions in place that negatively affects them based on

their socioeconomic status. You cannot expect people to constantly live their lives in constant

oppression and not expect any kind of backlash especially when there were empty promises were

made shown by Mr. White in the example of the promised "GREATER HORIZONS" program.

This program was announced with the intent to "clean up the ghetto, provide new housing, build

more recreational facilities, give better police protection, and create meaningful jobs to reduce

minority unemployment." These would all be things that would benefit the minority groups

living in this poverty-stricken area of their city but instead were never completed leaving people

upset and the trust in the government dwindling. As a civic leader that was elected by the people

of your city, you owe it to them to hold your promises that were intended to help them.

Some steps that could be taken to help in times of post-civil unrest are as follows: work

with people and help deepen the role that these minorities have in the collaboration and

influencing process while developing long term plans to help these groups that won't fall through

no matter the "current economic conditions" said by Paulson in response to Mr. White claim

about the "GREATER HORIZONS" program. Maintain interaction with the public to ensure that

they are addressing the issues the community is grappling with.