And yet, normal in this nation means routine, incessant unmitigated killing - of each other and of ourselves. In a sense, T.S. Eliot was closer to correct than he might have imagined. April this year is as cruel as any other April.
“Normal” the past few weeks includes the following: In a Minneapolis suburb - barely 10 miles from where a Minneapolis police officer is on trial for the death of George Floyd - a young man trying to elude a traffic stop for a minor offense dies when a veteran police officer fires a bullet into his chest, which she has called an accident, claiming she meant to fire her Taser.
"Every child deserves to grow up in a healthy and safe environment," program director Joy Holliday said. "I know that we can achieve this as a community working together."
THRIVE Gary! will provide the city’s youth with the tools, skills an experience they need to avoid violence all together. The program will provide support, job training, mentorship and much more.
The solution was twofold. First, commissioners passed a $6 million emergency budget package to fund $4.1 million in grants for organizations that support communities impacted by gun violence, with the rest going to the hiring of new crime data analysts and seasonal park rangers to surveil city parks. Second, Wheeler instructed the PPB to reinstate the controversial GVRT under the new name “Focused Intervention Team” without giving PPB any additional funding. Instead, Wheeler asked Lovell to pull officers off their current assignments to staff the 12-person team. The only significant difference between the GVRT and this new team is, for now, a vague promise of a citizen board that could oversee the unit’s work.