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"The shooting was horrifying and unacceptable. BPD is increasing patrols in the area, my office will be exploring instillation [sic] of cameras and other security measures, and we will be convening a community meeting. We are limited in staffing but having a task force is a good idea." -- Mayor Jesse Arreguín, Sunday, August 19.

The San Pablo Park area where Saturday's shooting occurred is a complex, diverse, and from my standpoint, an increasingly fractious community.

A new wave of gentrifiers have brought with them a wave of racism and displacement. As Black-owned property is liquidated, often under duress, as Black-occupied apartments are relinquished and rents nearly double overnight, as elders leave because their networks of social support from family and friends moves away - in that context - we have new arrivals who openly, proudly boast of avoiding Black people "for safety". We have new neighbors for whom the process of gentrification and displacement is not some accidental market dynamic -- it is instead a playbook of strategies actively taken up colonizers like them. We have new community members who see police harassment of Black people as a community amenity. We have new neighbors for whom the sight of a large Black barbecue or a busy Black basketball game is a problem to be solved. 

When the shooting occurred, I braced myself, knowing what was coming next. I think I am probably not alone. Sure enough, it was perhaps all of 15 minutes before the racist gentrifiers began their whoops and hollers on social media. In less than half and hour Berkeleyside had breathlessly published pictures of an identifiable victim on the ground, his people with him. All the usual ugliness from the usual sources. 

It took less than 24 hours for our Mayor to join in the braying. On Sunday he took to twitter and announced his interest in placing the park under video surveillance. This park: the tennis players, the day care groups, the family parties, the basketball courts, the ball teams, the dogs -- this park, in this place, at this time, here where the pressures of gentrification and displacement are very high. Here, where the criminalization of a skin color is, for some, part of a real estate investment strategy. Here, less than 24 hours later, the Mayor found the latest way to run as fast as he can to the far, racist right. 

And now we have two problems. Where there were fault lines, the Mayor has unilaterally given us a fissure. 

God help us.