I’ve been incensed lately by the state of affairs in these United States. I’ve continued to chalk it up here in the City of Staunton.
I realized that it was essentially a matter of personal grudges and independent choices by sworn officers whether or not to pursue or prevent someone from writing upon city-owned surfaces. After all, this town has lots of graffiti, stickering, and assorted marks, appended by mysterious phantoms — whose work I, in many cases, admire aesthetically.
Regardless of my tastes, it doesn’t change the fact that adhesives, permanent markers, paint pens and spray paint are all much more difficult to remove from most city owned surfaces, and would require anywhere from more elbow grease to solvents or new city-approved paint to remediate, as opposed to ordinary white chalkboard chalk, which wipes off with either a dry or water-dampened towel. Obviously.
I am disabled. I have multiple sclerosis. I feel the effects of being out in the heat and in the sun very rapidly, and it causes problems that sometimes take days to wind down to something approaching baseline. Additionally, some of my medications even cause skin photosensitivity, making me more prone to sunburn. Because of this, I just can’t stand out and demonstrate on the street as much as I want to, like I used to, for as long as I’d like.
I’ve switched tactics.
I don’t need anybody to tell me how or give me their permission to exercise my nonviolent First Amendment rights when I see what is happening to the country I was born and raised in. I’m not going to haggle about terminology to appease left, right or center.
We are living now under fascism; perhaps it’s only the early days if the “silent majority” are squinting at history, but Native folks, Black folks, Latin American folks, non-christian folks, disabled folks, and LGBTQ folks, probably do not need much convincing these days.
So, when I go around town picking up screws and nails and sharp metal out of the road and bike lanes in my free time, I take chalk with me, too. I write “Fascism is HERE” on city-owned property. I figure, maybe some folks don’t know yet, so they can’t say they weren’t warned.
I was crossing the intersection of Johnson and Augusta today, walking west, around 1:15 p.m. or so, and paused briefly to write that slogan on the traffic light pole, when, mid-scrawl I hear, “Hey!”
I looked to my left, and it was a Staunton sheriff’s SUV with two old white deputies looking at me. The passenger continued, “We don’t do that around here, that’s destruction of city property!” I looked at him a moment, then went back to my slogan to complete the sentence, then I continued walking west along Johnson toward the police garage.
Sure enough, the brownshirts pulled ahead of me and parked lengthwise in the mouth of Central Avenue, nearly completely blocking southbound traffic. They turned on their flashers, and got out of their SUV.
I started to turn north up Central, but the fatter one said, “Stop.” I stopped. He asked to see my ID, which I produced; I asked why I was being stopped, and he said because they had seen me writing on the pole back there, and that was “destruction of city property.”
Long story short, no it isn’t, and I made sure two police agencies turned on their Axon bodycams, so the entire exchange should be recorded in 1080p from five different angles.
I was free to leave after two supervisors got tired of standing around sweating because two fat old deputies wanted to police my protected speech using CHALK.
In the spirit of fairness, however, I am going to hurry down to the courthouse, and do two things:
- File complaints against the deputies who stopped me, and demand release or review of their bodycam footage, largely because the first one to speak to me tried to tell his supervisor that I was writing profanity on the pole, so I spent the entire stop pointing out the idea that he couldn’t read, and was trying to tell a lie about me. The sheriff’s office supervisor who arrived seemed to realize his deputies were horses’ asses, and he was going to have more embarrassing paperwork to do because of them.
- Turn myself in for destruction of city property. If they charge me or arrest me, it will be worth it. Maybe that’s a wild move? I don’t know. I literally have brain damage. But it’s not like I’m going to stop chalking.
We’ll see what happens! I’ll try to generate a big fat paper trail, and I’ll keep you posted. I do have an ounce or two of privilege, so I am going to use it. I don’t know if the unintended consequences might outweigh my courage or my means to sustain my resistance to the tightening grip of fascist control in America, but people with much more on the line are speaking up and acting out in this perilous moment of global history.
I choose material solidarity with the people in harm’s way, even if it’s just this simple thing I do every day, I’m able to do it.
Aaron Barmer resides in Staunton.
Share
