Tito: Hey man, you better put your gun away!
Juan: What the hell are you talking about?
Tito: We just entered a "gun and drug free zone".
Juan: Oh damn, I didn't realize it. Gotta get rid of my weed too...
I used to teach History and Grammar at a private local middle school. In this small school, there were enough students in the seventh and eighth grade to have two sets of classes in each grade. The year I taught, the Administration had decided that the students would be grouped in their respective classes of 20-25 kids according to their academic level. Well, throughout the year there was generally a stark contrast in the level of performance (and behavior) between the "lower level class" and the "achievers class". It seemed too that there was a latent frustration by the "lower class" seventh and eighth graders, so they would sometimes say things like, "we're the stupid class." They put this label on themselves of course, as I never told them that they were stupid (and they absolutely were not, for the record), but in a sense, the decision of the Administration to group them accordingly certainly catered toward thoughts as such.
I wonder what a label like the picture above does to a particular community. Let's be honest, we only see signs like this in more impoverished areas, and we would not expect to see signage as such in Beverly Hills, or to think locally, The Fab 40s, Folsom, Mather, or Anatolia. And the signs really say, "this is a place where crime is a problem." Maybe they say something else though too. Maybe they are a device used by the local government to say that drugs and guns are unacceptable and the Law will come down hard on folks who do otherwise. That is understandable, and in a paradigm as such, I suppose the ultimate goal then would be to create order and stability in the neighborhood so that these signs could one day be taken down. Could you imagine what a beautiful sight it would be to see signage as such no longer needed?
I wonder though if this is how it plays out in the real world.
When thinking about rightness coming into neighborhoods with drug and violence problems, there just might be some intense labeling that has occurred by the local government, neighboring cities, signs perhaps, law enforcement, and even the neighborhood residents themselves. And we too might have to overcome labels that we have given "them" in order to truly build solid mutually respectful relationships with people.
What do you think?
4 comments:
Are you sure about the signage placement only being in lower income or problem areas? I thought these signs were posted at a certain radius of every school (and other locations where children gather, i.e. parks, etc.) that are identified by either Federal or State legislation for the "War on Drugs." I don't know much about the laws; but I think that they post signs in school areas and the like since infractions in those "Drug Free" zones have higher penalties than other locations. Does anyone know more on this?
This is not to say that I think the sign is going to make Juan toss out his joint (and in truth, do we want it tossed at the 200 or 500 ft. radius point for the kid walking home from school to find?); but the premise of carving out drug protected locations where children gather is a nice idea. It's kind of like the Equal Employmenet opportunity (EEO) tracking laws that gov't employers and contracters of high $ amounts have to follow. Employers using large amounts of government funding have to report on how many people from the different ethnic groups are applying and hired for work. Organizations that have done formal studies can even implement affirmative action things to hire more minorities in unrepresented enthic groups even when they're not the top scoring candidate. Does all this legislation and the countless EEO reports mean more minorities get jobs funded by government money and put an end to the minority gaps? Probably not, or we wouldn't still have EEO stuff today. Another good idea that doesn't get played out well in gov't programming.
Hmm, I am not sure, and I could very well be wrong. I do tend to notice that these signs are posted in areas that have issues, wheras I don't tend to see them in other areas. I do not recall ever seeing one in Elk Grove, for instance, and I sure have spent alot of time there. But then again, their signs may be less visible because they are new and look nice as opposed to the blatant blue ones I see in the Del Paso area. Honestly though, these signs are about more than drugs because they say "GUN" and "drug free zone."
www.sacsheriff.com/crime_prevention/documents/school_safety_05.cfm
www.stopdrugs.org/drugfreezone.html
Great links K-Mo. I thought the second one was particularly informative with good ideas on how to eliminate drugs and such from a community.
I think that signs around a school can be a very good symbol to the community of the values of the community. I did drive around our local city today and found signs near both schools, parks, and a commercial/apartment area with "issues" (not located near a school). The signs all read "Drug Free Zone" as opposed to "Gun and Drug Free Zone." Maybe different cities or areas have different signs they put up. In Rancho Cordova, for instance, from my brief observance, the signs appear to all be the same in saying "Drug Free Zone," wheras the one yesterday was more elaborative with the addition of "guns."
Hmm, so maybe the sign I saw yesterday is a direct result of community members being fed up with the crap that goes on in their n-hoods. Maybe this is part of justice, and so it is interesting how I can interpret that as an outsider. Good stuff.
At the same time, let's not forget the power of labeling and how lower socio-economic areas can tend to stay that way. It is interesting too that in more affluent areas, the need for community members to band together to get signs up, just isn't as great a felt need. Now that's a conversation to have... And I wonder if an area has been labeled as such, that is, "a poor area", if it has an affect on the constiuents.
Post a Comment