She was killed by the police. Why are her bones in a museum?
October 19, 2022 6:33 PM Subscribe
Katricia Dotson’s remains were studied, disputed, displayed and litigated. Lost in the controversy was the life of an American girl and her family.
CN: state murder of children and others, subsequent shocking violations of human decency
The day Philadelphia bombed its own people
Saying Her Name
Meet Ramona Africa, The Last Survivor Of The 1985 Bombing Of Black Activists By Philadelphia Police
Michael Ward, Survivor of ’85 Bombing by Philadelphia Police, Is Dead at 41
The day Philadelphia bombed its own people
Saying Her Name
Meet Ramona Africa, The Last Survivor Of The 1985 Bombing Of Black Activists By Philadelphia Police
Michael Ward, Survivor of ’85 Bombing by Philadelphia Police, Is Dead at 41
This is so...
...
white people, nobody gives a shit just right now what racist intent is in your heart, it's what Black bones you've got in your office filing cabinet for wtfever ownership you're doing with these people.
I hadn't picked up that Michael '''Birdy''' Ward had died, so young. I was a child myself and it was an indelible fact: the adults bombed children, they burned children. I didn't understand race then.
.
posted by away for regrooving at 11:36 PM on October 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
...
white people, nobody gives a shit just right now what racist intent is in your heart, it's what Black bones you've got in your office filing cabinet for wtfever ownership you're doing with these people.
I hadn't picked up that Michael '''Birdy''' Ward had died, so young. I was a child myself and it was an indelible fact: the adults bombed children, they burned children. I didn't understand race then.
.
posted by away for regrooving at 11:36 PM on October 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
The forensics scientist inherited the problem, but at some point you have to say to yourself, "What am I doing here? These are the bones of a horribly murdered child who probably has family still living."
I, too, was a child when the bombing happened. It's one of a handful of political events from my childhood that stand out in my memory. Of course, at the time it was more abstract; as I got older, the horror became more real. But the number of people who don't realize that as recently as the mid-80s a major American city bombed one of its own city blocks and let it burn, killing almost everyone there, is...startling.
posted by praemunire at 8:39 AM on October 20, 2022 [4 favorites]
I, too, was a child when the bombing happened. It's one of a handful of political events from my childhood that stand out in my memory. Of course, at the time it was more abstract; as I got older, the horror became more real. But the number of people who don't realize that as recently as the mid-80s a major American city bombed one of its own city blocks and let it burn, killing almost everyone there, is...startling.
posted by praemunire at 8:39 AM on October 20, 2022 [4 favorites]
This is astonishing. I hadn't ever heard about it before (when it happened I was 11 and lived in another country but you would think it would have come up at some point in the 18 years I've been living here). Thank you for the links.
posted by joannemerriam at 1:14 PM on October 20, 2022
posted by joannemerriam at 1:14 PM on October 20, 2022
I hadn't heard of this before either. Chilling pictures in the vox link. Also from there :
Andrea Walls, writer and resident of the neighborhood: The building is on fire, with firemen on the scene, and everyone agrees not to fight the fire and to allow 60 homes to burn. How can this happen? How could no one say, wait, hold up, something’s not right. Y’all are serving misdemeanor warrants and this is where we end up at the end of the day?
posted by travertina at 1:18 PM on October 20, 2022 [3 favorites]
Andrea Walls, writer and resident of the neighborhood: The building is on fire, with firemen on the scene, and everyone agrees not to fight the fire and to allow 60 homes to burn. How can this happen? How could no one say, wait, hold up, something’s not right. Y’all are serving misdemeanor warrants and this is where we end up at the end of the day?
posted by travertina at 1:18 PM on October 20, 2022 [3 favorites]
I just read the VOX piece.
"And crown thy good, with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea"
Those bastards. Those sick bastards. Even if they had been thrown in prison -- and ever one of them should have gotten life, because they are mass murderers -- even if they'd been in prison, there is no way you can buy a life back. There's no way you can forget your children. There's no way that you can possibly believe that racism is not always close. Always.
Like in Europe through the ages, there was going to be a pogrom, it was part of being Jewish. Your friends are not your friends, not really, not ever.
I have a friend, here in good old progressive Austin, he lived on the streets of LA, a crackhead. He pulled himself out of that somehow, came here to Austin, put himself through UT business school. And he is successful. A reward for being successful is a nice new BMW, sixty grand or seventy. He gets pulled over -- driving while black. Once a cop pulled him over, went to the passenger window and asked my friends date if she was OK.
A gutsy football quarterback, very talented, any team would want him -- a gutsy athlete takes a stand by taking a knee. And taking a knee at the next game. And the next one, too. No football team has taken him on, and he a proven talent, a winner.* A black man adopted by a white family, it's all an impossible situation -- who is he, what is Next? He is An American Hero.
*I, personally, am very glad he's out of football, an extremely dangerous gig, brain injury is a part of the future of every player on the field, of every player who has ever been on the field.
Due to cell phones we -- white people too -- we all get to see black people shot. We get to see black people strangled. We get to see black people beaten. We get to see video of cops trying to get phones away from people who caught them in the act. We get to see videos taken by the people as they get murdered
I am from Chicago. Michigan Boulevard on a summer day, it feels wonderful. It is Home. I am Home. Memories, my father, my mother, my sisters and brothers. I'm on the lakefront, here are some wonderful buildings, here is The Art Institute. I will never go there again. The last time I was there I spent a lot of time with My Old Friends -- favorite buildings, favorite paintings. I spent a lot of time in The Art Institute -- I know that collection like the back of my hand, I know places in that museum that just to sit brings so much happiness. My favorite painting -- unbelievable beauty. That whole room is a happiness.
Why will I never Go Back Home? The last five times I was in the city I was harassed. Hated, and harassed. I am a big man, rare for me to get harassed. But the last five times I was in the city I was hated and harassed. By black men. I did all I could, I reached as far as I could, my hand out, my heart open. Nope. I think I understand ... No. I don't think I understand. I don't understand. When I moved to Texas I thought "Holy god, now I'm going to see racism." No. Maybe the heat just sears us all to be at least civil. In Chicago it is cold, hard, flat-eyed hatred. I didn't do anything to deserve it, and it's a foolishness to go back to it again and yet again. The worst parts of Houston are a picnic, compared. Dangerous as hell, but a picnic compared to Chicago.
A friend who got taken in by Trump tells me, when I speak of the courage of "Black Lives Matter" my friend tells me that "I'd have to see it." He, his wife, her son -- no vaccines for them. Trump told them "Don't let those fools who believe in science get you to let sickos inject poison into your body." We have been friends almost forty years. He lives in East Texas, a place of real beauty if you like towering pine and towering lile oaks. Turn East, get two miles off of I-59, pull off the road, turn off the ignition, get out of that pickup into the deep silences. Watch an owl drop out of the sky on a direct line and then swoop off in a silence that is amazing. So, I love East Texas, and western Louisiana also. I'd love to live there. Except if I moved there I would be a person who lives in East Texas, and that I cannot do. Their are confederate flags, casual as boots and jeans. Due to their not taking any vaccine poison into their body I am never going to visit him again...
I am not going to see it but you may, if you're young. The United States is going to go Brown. Skin color will fade in importance. I believe that it will happen. We are all brothers and sisters. Until then, there will be racism. Due to the color of skin -- it's ridiculous. But it's not at all funny.
1985, if you're young, it's forever ago. I was 30. More than half my life ago; having a few years gives a perspective on Time. 1985 is the blink of an eye. I am not going to see what you are going to see; what I can do is reach across the divide, any time I can, put my hand out, say that it's not all of us, and how it breaks my heart.
It breaks my heart.
posted by dancestoblue at 8:57 PM on October 20, 2022 [12 favorites]
"And crown thy good, with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea"
Those bastards. Those sick bastards. Even if they had been thrown in prison -- and ever one of them should have gotten life, because they are mass murderers -- even if they'd been in prison, there is no way you can buy a life back. There's no way you can forget your children. There's no way that you can possibly believe that racism is not always close. Always.
Like in Europe through the ages, there was going to be a pogrom, it was part of being Jewish. Your friends are not your friends, not really, not ever.
I have a friend, here in good old progressive Austin, he lived on the streets of LA, a crackhead. He pulled himself out of that somehow, came here to Austin, put himself through UT business school. And he is successful. A reward for being successful is a nice new BMW, sixty grand or seventy. He gets pulled over -- driving while black. Once a cop pulled him over, went to the passenger window and asked my friends date if she was OK.
A gutsy football quarterback, very talented, any team would want him -- a gutsy athlete takes a stand by taking a knee. And taking a knee at the next game. And the next one, too. No football team has taken him on, and he a proven talent, a winner.* A black man adopted by a white family, it's all an impossible situation -- who is he, what is Next? He is An American Hero.
*I, personally, am very glad he's out of football, an extremely dangerous gig, brain injury is a part of the future of every player on the field, of every player who has ever been on the field.
Due to cell phones we -- white people too -- we all get to see black people shot. We get to see black people strangled. We get to see black people beaten. We get to see video of cops trying to get phones away from people who caught them in the act. We get to see videos taken by the people as they get murdered
I am from Chicago. Michigan Boulevard on a summer day, it feels wonderful. It is Home. I am Home. Memories, my father, my mother, my sisters and brothers. I'm on the lakefront, here are some wonderful buildings, here is The Art Institute. I will never go there again. The last time I was there I spent a lot of time with My Old Friends -- favorite buildings, favorite paintings. I spent a lot of time in The Art Institute -- I know that collection like the back of my hand, I know places in that museum that just to sit brings so much happiness. My favorite painting -- unbelievable beauty. That whole room is a happiness.
Why will I never Go Back Home? The last five times I was in the city I was harassed. Hated, and harassed. I am a big man, rare for me to get harassed. But the last five times I was in the city I was hated and harassed. By black men. I did all I could, I reached as far as I could, my hand out, my heart open. Nope. I think I understand ... No. I don't think I understand. I don't understand. When I moved to Texas I thought "Holy god, now I'm going to see racism." No. Maybe the heat just sears us all to be at least civil. In Chicago it is cold, hard, flat-eyed hatred. I didn't do anything to deserve it, and it's a foolishness to go back to it again and yet again. The worst parts of Houston are a picnic, compared. Dangerous as hell, but a picnic compared to Chicago.
A friend who got taken in by Trump tells me, when I speak of the courage of "Black Lives Matter" my friend tells me that "I'd have to see it." He, his wife, her son -- no vaccines for them. Trump told them "Don't let those fools who believe in science get you to let sickos inject poison into your body." We have been friends almost forty years. He lives in East Texas, a place of real beauty if you like towering pine and towering lile oaks. Turn East, get two miles off of I-59, pull off the road, turn off the ignition, get out of that pickup into the deep silences. Watch an owl drop out of the sky on a direct line and then swoop off in a silence that is amazing. So, I love East Texas, and western Louisiana also. I'd love to live there. Except if I moved there I would be a person who lives in East Texas, and that I cannot do. Their are confederate flags, casual as boots and jeans. Due to their not taking any vaccine poison into their body I am never going to visit him again...
I am not going to see it but you may, if you're young. The United States is going to go Brown. Skin color will fade in importance. I believe that it will happen. We are all brothers and sisters. Until then, there will be racism. Due to the color of skin -- it's ridiculous. But it's not at all funny.
1985, if you're young, it's forever ago. I was 30. More than half my life ago; having a few years gives a perspective on Time. 1985 is the blink of an eye. I am not going to see what you are going to see; what I can do is reach across the divide, any time I can, put my hand out, say that it's not all of us, and how it breaks my heart.
It breaks my heart.
posted by dancestoblue at 8:57 PM on October 20, 2022 [12 favorites]
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…or perhaps I should have said the key problem was that they were perceived to be “owned” (by the city) but they were also definitely not “people”. So hey, bombs away!
[cue incoherent screaming]
posted by aramaic at 9:28 PM on October 19, 2022 [5 favorites]