Running Orders
2014Lena Khalaf Tuffaha 2014-08Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 3 →
The words are the paper's own, from its digital file; the division into articles was made by machine, so a box or caption can end up inside the article next to it.
Scan page 3
They call us now.
Before they drop the bombs.
The phone rings and someone who knows my first name calls and says in perfect Arabic “This is David.”
And in my stupor of sonic booms and glass shat tering symphonies still smashing around in my head I think “Do I know any Davids in Gaza?” They call us now to say Run.
You have 58 seconds from the end of this message.
Your house is next.
They think of it as some kind of war time courtesy.
It doesn’t matter that there is nowhere to run to.
It means nothing that the borders are closed and your papers are worthless and mark you only for a life sentence in this prison by the sea and the alleyways are narrow and there are more human lives packed one against the other more than any other place on earth Just run.
We aren’t trying to kill you.
It doesn’t matter that you can’t call us back to tell us the people we claim to want aren’t in your house that there’s no one here except you and your children who were cheering for Argentina sharing the last loaf of bread for this week counting candles left in case the power goes out. It doesn’t matter that you have children. You live in the wrong place and now is your chance to run to nowhere.
It doesn’t matter that 58 seconds isn’t long enough to find your wedding album or your son’s favorite blanket or your daughter’s almost completed college application or your shoes or to gather everyone in the house.
It doesn’t matter what you had planned. It doesn’t matter who you are Prove you’re human.
Prove you stand on two legs.
Run.
SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 2014 3
Scan page 4
John Minchillo / AP (Left) March to 120th precinct police station in New York demands justice for Eric Garner.
sued statements that angered the police union, and in general was not such an openly rabid supporter of police brutality as former New York mayors Giuliani or Bloomberg.
Even the notorious chief of police, William Bratton, got into the act and stated that he anticipates that the entire 35,000-member police force will be retrained, and that when it is complete, New York City will have “state of the art” training. Problem solved, right?
Don’t be fooled. These hacks believe in a robust po lice and surveillance presence; they just prefer for it to appear a tad friendlier. When de Blasio appointed William Bratton as police chief, it was a clear indica tion that de Blasio had no intention of really chang ing the NYPD. Among other things, Bratton is fully committed to the “Broken Windows” style of policing, which focuses on small quality-of-life offenses to re duce crime overall.
“My neighborhood is like it’s under martial law,” said Angel Garcia, 34, of East Harlem (quoted in the New York Daily News, Aug. 4, 2014). Whatever the polic ing style is called—stop-and-frisk, Broken Windows, quality of life offenses—it all boils down to Garcia’s eloquent appraisal of the lived experience: “martial law.” It means constant harassment, assault, and even