Community Spoke Doesn't Want Police Help

The Community Spoke! bike shop experienced a burglary this past week forcing them to close. Though the organization has made efforts to tell the public via their blog and social media channels, they say they do not want police assistance in locating the missing items.

"We feel that the police will interfere with our mission to provide a free and important service to those who decide to use it," says a post on the co-op's website. "To us this is more important than recovering our stolen property or “bringing those responsible to justice.”

Here's more from the post:

"What service can the police provide? Do we actually want the police to target, question, and harass the youth of color of Jamaica Plain on behalf of the Spoke? Would that really help us build a community? Is punishing the people responsible what we want? Is TCS! still a safer space if there is a police presence? Questions like these must be asked when dealing with an event where a crime has been committed. It is, of course, a visceral reaction to call the police, but this could have dire consequences for the folks we serve. We’ve been taught to think that someone who chooses not to deal with the police is guilty of a crime or is hiding something. We need to shed this kind of thinking and understand that communities belong to the people that exist within them. We do not want to fracture the relationships we’ve built through suspicion, aggression, racism, and all the other things the police stand for. The concept of true justice extends far beyond the realm of law."

Representatives of The Community Spoke! emailed Jamaica Plain Patch noting they would like the incident to be referred to as a "burglary" as opposed to a "robbery."