A thought

[sandy]

Hi all, I must say I feel like a bit of an imposter, as I do not
identify as a poet. But I was downtown yesterday and had a very
complex experience, full of beautiful synchronicity, confusion and
also a strange numb "just being". It occurs to me that a project
getting words from police officers could be powerful. I witnessed
both individual compassion and its inverse from police. It might be
helpful to give poetic voice to the words of members of the 99% who
also happen to be police. As I say just a thought.

[Allison Cobb]

Wow, that's an incredible idea, Sandy. I love it! I wonder how one
would go about it. Unless, you were collecting language as you heard
it . . .

Allison Cobb
ac...@allisoncobb.net

[sandy]

Thanks Allison, I'm willing to work with anyone interested in this
idea. I'm not sure how it would happen, but my usual approach is
direct. Perhaps to ask police if they have thoughts, words, ideas
they would like us to work with. This is perhaps not the most nuanced
of approaches, but I don't have any audio or specific direct
recollection of words from police, with the exception of one officer
who said to me as he had a club pressed up against me "mam, this is
not how you want your day to end" To which I replied somewhat stunned
"this is not how I wanted my day to begin."
In my own practice I feel it is important not to interpret other
peoples overheard speech if I am going to attribute it to them (or in
this case a group.) I prefer to work with speech that is freely and
knowingly given. But I am open to your ideas.

[Nicky]

Sandy,

I agree w/ Allison this is an idea you should pursue! Recording
frontline interactions with the police would be a great way to be more
than just typically oppositional. Directly engaging them with
questions or prompts in a non-condescending way is what I'd think to
do first as well. Developing more comprehensive records in general of
how activists are internally and externally communicating, and then
moving to alter these records in some way, to make "cuts" in them so
to speak, would help re-write the social scripts we're embedded in.

Much of my opinion on the value of this is drawn from <http://
www.scribd.com/doc/67480033/Ultra-Red-10-Preliminary-Theses-on-Militant-Sound-Investigation>,
which I do recommend checking out.

I have a digital recorder I'm happy to use for recording. The steps
would be gathering material, transcribing it, and then deciding how to
revise it? As cops are always observing GAs, they can be engaged
there. I believe there will be marches this weekend too; another
opportunity and in a more heated dynamic. If we can figure out a time/
place to meet in real life this could be a poetry initiative to
propose and move forward on in a more formal fashion! Let's make that
happen.

Nicky