Parole Office Coming To Gowanus. Predictable NIMBY Reactions Ensue.

DNAinfo/Nikhita Venugopa

Last week a public meeting was held about the new parole office being opened in Gowanus, not too far from the Whole Foods. The office’s relocation was announced in July, many complaining that the process was kept secret for too long and demanding answers. To which I say: you actually aren’t entitled to even that. See, parolees are no longer in jail because they’ve served their time; they don’t owe you any more explanation for conducting their business in your neighborhood than you’d expect from anyone else.

According to DNAinfo, people were left "shocked and worried about their safety." "The sheer numbers of traffic — 40 [parolees] an hour and 400 day — is terrifying, really," said Freida Lim of the Eight Street Block Association. I'm not going to pretend there's even a possiblity she is merely concerned by the amount of people as a matter of infrastructure. We're not naive and we know what she means by "terrifying." This fear is not based on fact but pure stereotyping. To address it in a forum meant to discuss tangible issues is to grant legitimacy to another narrow minded way of marginalize a group of people because you don’t like them. 

Yes, there was a shooting outside the parole office in August. One parolee shot another in the knee cap. But in August there was a double murder-suicide on the street in Park Slope, not far from DiBlasio’s home (which is certainly still selling for an exorbitant price). So, based on any actual things that have happened in reality, it would seem the parolees should be worried. Their place of business is moving into a neighborhood that’s shown more propensity for violence than the one they’re in now.

“For this to have any credibility, there have to be really solid written answers to those questions," said City Councilman Brad Lander. But this is, of course, a double standard so fuck him. How about Lander provide a solid written answer to this question: on what do they base any concern? Why are you shocked and scared for your safety? How can you justify the use of social and/or political status (and money) demand answers with no justification other than your ill-defined feelings based on fear?

Make no mistake about it, whenever you’re qualifying a group as large as 4,000 under one stereotype and start using social influence to question where they can do business and possible even limit those freedoms, you are being a segregationist. You really may as well just say you want them all to stay in jail because, once they’ve been in there, you clearly will never trust them again. Which of course touches on the other elephant in the room: racism. If you’re the type to immediately disclaim any count of racism (especially coming from a Hispanic male) or if you’re generally squirmy on the subject when it involves people who could be your friends and neighbors, put on some earmuffs. 

The judicial system has proven itself to be racist time and time again. We know they target minorities, especially blacks, and regularly give them extended sentences for minor, non-violent crimes. A lot of these are the so-called dangerous parolees -- black men. To buy into them as a dangerous group is to validate that judicial system. In fact, people like Lim and Lander are taking it one step further: the judicial system has deemed that these people are safe enough to be released into society and that’s apparently not enough. If you really believe these people pose a threat or their presence in your neighborhood is questionable, then what you are saying is that they probably all still belong in jail. Or, at the very least, SEGREGATED from so-­called “decent” people.

This kind of attitude and use of social force is how ghettos are created. Because these parole offices have to go somewhere. And when the well-off people use their influence to keep them out of their neighborhoods, they end up in low-income ones. Whereas Park Slope and Gowanus have or are in the process of building an infrastructure to support that influx of people, poor neighborhoods do not. We need our space in Park Slope for our umpteenth overpriced supermarket. That the low income neighborhoods need the space for schools or that parolees need the space for programs that help reintegrate them into society as productive members doesn’t matter to us.

All that matters is alleviating unfounded fears at the cost of others, and about maintaining the delusion that you live in a perfectly hip little utopia. People in Park Slope want to talk about how important social issues are and helping the needy but they don’t actually want to see the needy, and they certainly don’t want them congregating in the neighborhood. I, for one, say fuck that, deal with it.