June 7, 2004
Mandy Kendall, Editor
THE BULLETIN
5149 Penn Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15224

Letter to the Editor:

As residents of Bloomfield-Garfield, we are deeply distressed by the decision of the BGC Public Safety Task Force to print the names and addresses of those arrested in our area. The PSTF claims that the listing of these arrests will "act as a crime deterrent," although it is doubtful that those arrested for such crimes ever read The Bulletin. Such a statement could be easily dismissed as another example of the BGC’s lack of awareness of the real concerns of those who actually live in this neighborhood. However, the serious consequences of the BGC’s error in judgment require us to speak out.

To list just a few of the problems we have with this approach to "crime":

• The listings fail to respect the privacy of the arrestees and their families. Imagine that you are the mother of one of the individuals arrested and now the names are public in the "neighborhood paper." Unless the intent is to instill shame on the individuals and their families? What’s next, a scarlet "A" for all who commit adultery or a pink triangle for gay couples who live in Bloomfield-Garfield? History is filled with examples of where such mean spiritedness leads when rationalized in the name of "family values."
• An arrest does not equal a conviction and many who live in our neighborhood, based on experience, do not have such a naïve faith in the criminal justice system.
• Why only choose crimes committed primarily by those who are poor and already marginalized? What about corporate white collar crimes of the wealthy who profit off the misery of this neighborhood without giving anything back? Isn’t this a real threat to the development of Bloomfield-Garfield?
• This further promotes the perception that the real agenda of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation is to gentrify this area and make it more "attractive" to white professionals, to the detriment and shame of those who have lived in this neighborhood for many years. Do we really want to turn Penn Ave. into a playground for privileged artists rather than a vibrant place to live for families already rooted in this area?

Toni Bartone
Alex Bradley
Bridget Colvin
Stephen Donahue
Nia Edmondson
Canny Johnson
Josh Leonard
Noah Manion
Sithandazile Msimanga
Mongezi Nkomo
Brad Quartuccio
Nathan Shaffer
Jeremy Shenk
Tamisha Singletary
Marie Skoczylas
Mark Stamper
Tim Vining