permaculture

["Ben Martin Horst" <ben.martinhorst@gmail.com>]

Harmon Seaver wrote:
> But there's something else that cities have now that wasn't the case
> back in the Depression -- gangs. Sure you had bootleggers back then, but
> not that numerous. Gangs in the US already outnumber the entire US
> military and all police forces by a very large number. They are becoming
> very organized and networked, even internationally. They use cellphones
> and computers, and could, in most larger cities, effectively wipe out
> the police force almost overnight. Even now, look what's happening in
> Brazil, where gangs attack the police stations.
>
> When the times get really tough, gangs will rule the cities. They
> will move out from the ghettos and take over the better neighborhoods
> with impunity.
>


This statement smacks of white, privileged, middle-class paranoia
about poor people of color. Note that I'm not accusing Harmon in
particular of racism, but pointing out racist undercurrents in this
sort of reasoning. "We've got to guard our nice neighborhoods against
the brown people in the ghetto." Forget that the entire structure of
US society has conspired for centuries to oppress brown people and
ensure they stay poor. And why no concern about all the rural
right-wing Michigan Militia types who are going to go crazy and start
slaughtering all the hippies and gays as soon as times get really
rough? They scare me a lot more than any urban gangs ... and they're
at least as well armed.

If the collapse comes, I don't see any reason, practical or ethical,
to side with the cops over gangs. In many cities, the cops are at
least as dirty as the gangs they supposedly police, and depending on
what sort of government we end up with, the cops are as likely to end
up as agents of repression as they are to be protectors. Sure, gangs
are hardly composed of nice people... but if you've got global
economic collapse, then you're going to have at least a partial
collapse of the international drug trade, and most of the dirty money
goes out of the equation. For gangs to survive, they'll have to start
representing at least some of the interests of their communities.

Of course, the best option is to side with neither the cops, the
gangs, or the militias, but to build alternative structures based on
something other than the violent assertion and maintenance of power.

-Ben