While this year’s National Night Out took on a special significance in much of the country amid an intense and racially charged debate over policing, as well as deadly, high-profile attacks on law enforcement, the event Tuesday on the Santa, N.M., Fe Plaza gave local residents an opportunity to do what organizers hoped — meet first responders outside the usual context of an emergency, when officers are not toting rifles and firefighters are not wearing masks.
“The evening should have a special feeling,” said Santa Fe Police Lt. Marvin Paulk. But building trust with the community, he added, is a regular duty.
Law enforcement agencies and fire departments from around Santa Fe parked equipment around the Plaza throughout the evening, giving the public a close look at vehicles or gear they may only see on other occasions illuminated by flashing emergency lights.
“It gives the public a chance to understand what we do,” Paulk said, standing near an armored vehicle used by the police department’s SWAT team but loaded at that moment with a group of young boys.
An annual event, National Night Out has evolved since its humble beginnings in the mid-1980s, when a neighborhood watch program in the Philadelphia area sought to bring a community outdoors on a summer evening as a symbolic protest against crime.
The events have evolved into block parties with law enforcement and first responders, partly intended to bolster neighborhood watch programs and community policing initiatives.
At the organization’s national headquarters near Philadelphia, former deputy director Allison Kostiuk said volunteers could hardly keep up with phone calls from around the country Tuesday as people sought out local events.
Amid a national debate on policing, she said, “that dialogue is happening, and people want to know where to go.”
Many, she said, want to show their support for law enforcement.
An alternative event emerged in New Mexico this year.
A coalition of civil rights and criminal justice reform groups launched a counter-event of sorts three years ago in Oakland, Calif. Night Out for Safety and Liberation, intended as a direct response to National Night Out’s message of “police-community partnerships,” expanded this year to include events in 27 cities, including Albuquerque.
Zaineb Mohammed, communications director at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, said the events are intended to broaden the discourse about safety beyond the criminal justice system. “We don’t think all these conversations about safety should center on policing,” she said.
Instead, the events included block parties with activists addressing issues such as the prison system.
In Albuquerque, the youth organizing group Generation Justice hosted a media literacy training for about 75 young people from around the state examining “how to deconstruct the mainstream and right-wing media’s narrative on police violence in New Mexico.”
“It’s an important conversation to have — reclaiming what safety means,” said George Luna-Pena, special projects coordinator for Generation Justice. “For a long time, safety oftentimes means that somebody’s watching you — neighborhood watch, more police.”
But with the Night Out for Safety and Liberation, he said, groups like Generation Justice hope to steer the conversation about security to include systemic issues such as economics and race.
Back on the Santa Fe Plaza, Paulk struck up conversations with passers-by, shaking hands and handing out plastic badges to children.
There may be heightened scrutiny of law enforcement, but, Paulk said, “We’re family. Family have disagreements. But I don’t want there to be any doubt we’re here to serve.”
Contact Andrew Oxford at 505-986-3093 or aoxford@sfnewmexican.com. Follow him on Twitter @andrewboxford.
———
©2016 The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.)
Visit The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.) at www.santafenewmexican.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
