While I believe that City Council believes it did something significant by passing a law outlawing ski masks in public places, this doesn’t solve the real problem of gun violence. At all.
These days, memes are how we communicate with each other.
I have been known to use a meme or two to respond to something stupid I’ve seen on social media because taking the time to say something pithy to certain folks is more time than I want to spend.
But one of my favorite memes is “Jesus Is Coming! Look Busy!”, which is a picture of an office to which the Son of God is allegedly paying a visit. While they were working hard, they wanted to make sure that they were seen doing something while Jesus was paying a visit.
I thought about this during Thursday’s City Council meeting as I watched Council approve a bill outlawing ski masks, or balaclavas, in certain public spaces including public transit, day-care centers, parks, schools, and city owned buildings. The law has exceptions carved out for religious expression, and so-called “First Amendment activities”, like protests. Violators will be fined $250.
While I understand that Councilmember Anthony Phillips, the councilperson who introduced the bill, was probably hearing from constituents who wanted this legislation, I can’t help but think that it’s yet another example of the need to “look busy” because Jesus was on the way.
I say this because this bill is probably going to cause more problems than it solves because (a) I don’t know many kids who have the $250 fine for wearing a mask on hand, so you’re going to have young people locked up for non-payment of fines. (b) The Philadelphia Police Department still has a pretty significant “knucklehead contingent” that is just looking for a reason and (c) Civil liberties lawyers are about to get seriously paid over the next four years.
And most importantly, (d) Criminalizing clothing isn’t going to stop gun violence. Giving young people alternatives, opportunities and, most importantly, respect will do that.
Now because this column continues to celebrate Hip-Hop’s 50th birthday, I should explain the genre’s connection to this bill, because there is one. A rapper named Pooh Sheisty, which already tells you how he’s living in a lot of ways, is currently in a federal penitentiary on conspiracy charges connected to the kind of criminal activity that an up-and-coming rapper shouldn’t have time to do.
He committed his crimes while wearing a ski mask, which is why they started being called “sheistys” after a while.
When people started expressing fear of young people in groups wearing these masks, Phillips, currently the youngest member of City Council, answered their pleas with this legislation.
“We must do our duty and place the highest premium on restoring public trust by having safer communities,” he said. “This is what our neighbors have sent us to Council to do.”
But you kinda know where this legislation is headed when a bunch of defense attorneys sign up for public comment including an ACLU Pennsylvania staff attorney that starts with one of the best lawyer names ever.
Solomon Furious Worlds, the attorney in question, called the bill an attempt to get around the Constitutional protections that keep police from frisking people without cause.
“This proposal feels more like an attempt to criminalize young people of color,” he said. “This creates another low-level offense.”
And let’s be honest here. What does this ultimately do when it comes to solving the problem of gun violence, a problem connected to things like community disinvestment and a lack of opportunity?
That’s what made Councilmember Jamie Gauthier one of the “no” votes for the legislation, the other being Councilmember Kendra Brooks.
“I can understand objectively why we wouldn’t want people wearing ski masks,” she said. “However, at the same time I can’t in good conscious vote for something that I feel would further criminalize and marginalize young black men in our city, particularly when I don’t feel like as a city we’ve done enough to engage them, listen to them and support them.”
And that’s where the problem lies. When the young people who accidentally come into a recreation center from the cold with their ski masks on can’t pay the $250 fine because you’re going to see this more stringently enforced in the poorest sections of the poorest big city in America, what happens?
Other than sending more folks to jail, that is.
I get it. Nothing is more important in politics than looking effective. But it’s better to actually BE effective instead of just looking that way.
Even Jesus would tell you that…
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