YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE HEARD ABOUT THIS

There was a fire at an east side club last month and it burned to the ground. For those of you not familiar with Austins racial demographics, the east side is predominately black. Police responding to the fire had nothing good to say good about this club...somebody at the fire saw the computer screens in patrol cars saying things like "burn baby burn" and " I have an extra gallon of gasoline if they need it".
Apparently the police were not saddened by the demise of midtown, apparently midtown was a trouble spot.
Lets back up a bit, the police have been under fire for the last couple of years for killing some black folks on the east side. there have been some abuse allegations involving the cops that patrol 6th street ( austin's version of the quarter in NOLA for lack of a better description ). With the police being increasingly under fire for the events occuring on the east side coupled with the fire and the nasty comments made between officers and dispatchers regarding same fire, you have to wonder why the city manager would propose giving the owners of midtown a "forgiveable loan" of 750,000 dollars to rebuild and in almost the same breath ask the US justice department to review the police department regarding the problem they seem to have with the residents of east austin. The city manager insists the two are not connected, spouting some shit about an african american exodus from austin and the lack of city support for african american "cultural opportunities", so, to remedy the situation we should give a club that, while it was burning to the ground caused police to praise it's demise and be thankful they would no longer be responding to calls there, THREE QUARTERS OF A MILLION DOLLARS.
I call BULLSHIT. If these issues are not connected, why did the city council find out about it from local news sources and not from the city manager? Was the city manager trying to slip this one under the radar? I think so. Since the shooting deaths of Sophia King in June 2002 and Jesse Owen in 2003, the black community and its leaders in east austin have been hot on the heels of the APD and the city making all manner of accusations of abuse of power and racism. Do I think the cops here in austin are assholes and need to be reeled in? Yes. But the record shows that Sophia King was a nutcase with a long history of unstable and violent behavior. When she was shot by police she was attempting to stab some woman with a butcher knife. Jesse Owen was a thug who evaded arrest. The cops involved were no billed by the grand jury, but not after outcries from the leadership in east austin of racism and murder.
As you can imagine, this latest "event" has turned the heat up on the issue of race relations with the police in regard to east austin. Thers a word for it, and that word is "clusterfuck". The city manager is falling all over herself to prove that austin isn't a racist community. Having lived here most of my life and certainly longer than most of the members of the city council, I can tell you about east austin. I even lived there for awhile.
Poverty, drugs, prostitution, crime. I remember in high school a group of us in photo journalism wanted to do a shoot in east austin and our school came up with a special permissiom slip admonishing them from responsibility in the event that we got hurt or killed. East austin was regarded a dangerous place in 1976. The white people in austin didn't make it up...it was and is a dangerous place. That photo shoot was scarey. Living there was scarey. My ex scooped a 13 year old student of hers off of east 12th who had been recruited by pimps in '82...
Black people are leaving east austin because they are making enough money to do it...they are moving away from the crime because they can, out to the burbs, or to other cities that have more to offer.
The owner of midtown said the burning of the club and the comments made by police were reminiscent of the klan burning schools and churches back in the day. The reverend Jesse Jackson ( adulterer, all around asshat) has even gotten involved.
I'll say it again...clusterfuck.
East austin did it to itself a long time ago, the upwardly mobile members of that community are making enough money to get the fuck out, and they are. The predominantly white city management is falling all over itself to be correct when it doesn't have to be. East austin did it to itself and they are taking advantage of a bunch of spineless politicians who are more concerned with whitewashing the problem than dealing with it in a meaningful way. A bunch of outsiders and recent arrivals who pretend to know what's best for austin. A clusterfuck, and nothing else.
It's times like these that I hate this fucking city and the people who run it...currently into the ground.