Reflections - COVID-19 and police

I haven't written much here of late: that's not so much because of the lockdown in response to the pandemic as being busier than normal - which others at work have also mentioned (at least, in my area of work - others aren't). It's been both ironic and pleasing how much work practices have improved - the price is terrible, but it appears many companies and industries have been forced to move away from the workers-on-the-factory-floor-with-boss-looking-down-at-them thinking of the 1800s and catch up with the late 20th Century, and now use remote working, online meetings, and a stack of other issues are going the way of dodo (such as one executive's admitted love of being a jet setter - which says there is no business need to stuff up the world's environment by ego-driven flights).

On the terrible price, one of my sisters pointed out last night that, not that long ago, she was aware that the global death toll was the same as the major regional (Australian) city she lives in.

It personalises and helps make the death toll more comprehensible.

So do some of the personal accounts I've read.

Going back to the plus side, the world has been forced to see, acknowledge and consider the utter evil that is neoliberalism, and the valid arguments for what is derisively referred to by neoliberals as "big government".

The assassination of Robert Kennedy is when the world chose to eschew big government, and we have all been paying the price ever since of the small-vision economics driven insanity (like this) that idiots have kept voting for, probably in a foolish belief that they too can be rich.

However, the world will not automatically continue down a slower paced, less destructive lifestyle after the pandemic: strong, determined and well organised activism will be required, directed with intelligence, to counter the emotional, selfish neoliberal agenda.

I'd also like to briefly consider the measures that have been taken to address the pandemic.

My home state has, overall, been fairly good, in my opinion (see here for the latest measures). Our curve has been flattened, with a reproduction number now below 1. The rest of Australia has followed suit, and is mostly in a relatively good position compared to places like the idiot-led USA (and, no matter that he is politically savvy, he is an utter fool).

My main criticisms have been:

• the failure to talk about being able to get groceries when driving home the message of "stay home, stay alive and wash your hands" and lockdown, which directly led to panic buying, in my opinion (the lack of clarity around what each stage means hasn't helped either); 
• not taking obvious, common sense measures that were ahead of the evidence - such as monitoring at borders and quarantining travellers immediately; and 
• reluctance to advocate for use of PPE, and using messaging that might need to be walked back later - such as wearing face masks are difficult, etc. I am of the view that the main reason wearing of face masks was not introduced was so that our inadequate supplies could be focused on being made available for medical staff.

Some of the policing has been unnecessarily heavy handed, and the police have shown of late that they still have a long way to go.

I'm particularly thinking of the comments by the police union about a recent questionable decision by IBAC, who has been tone deaf to the point that I wonder if he is homophobic - and, given that he was elected by the police force, are they also hiding an underlying homophobia/transphobia?

I'm confident in the higher echelons of the police and the younger police who have grown up in a less intolerant world, but I'm not so confident about the older police at lower levels. I'll start feeling safer and think about calling the police for support when the police union has a female and/or minority group secretary who makes statements that are inclusive - at that stage, the majority of police will likely be at least tolerant, if not actively inclusive.

The public face the union movement should also keep in mind, as with a formerly blatantly homophobic union for shop workers and the stupid statements by a senior union figure about domestic violence, the actions of the police union cast doubt about the entire union movement.

Anyway, I'll let this post at that for now. We're safe and working at keeping that way, and in many ways my connectivity is better than it has been for years, but my largely work and age related exhaustion is worse than usual, and I wonder how I will get to retirement, which is when I hope to be able to study and write and do all the other things that I haven't been able to.