Rock Banas ( - 1984)Banas Shooting A Tragedy
The shooting of Rock Banas by Buffalo Police last month underscores three great problems in American society: (1) the terrible inadequacy of our cities' deteriorating housing stock; (2) alienation, degradation and fear among society's "marginal citizens," namely, the mentally unbalanced, poor and elderly, and (3) the failure of law enforcement agencies.
There can be no doubt that Banas was a seriously disturbed, human being, dwelling in a filthy kingdom of darkness and degradation. Banas was a victim of his own eccentricity, and more tragically, a victim of a society which has increasingly less and less respect for human dignity. As one writer noted, "Millions of Americans live under starvation conditions; millions are desperate for work; millions are afflicted by one or another socioeconomic pathology. Millions live in crowded, dilapidated, poorly ventilated, ill-heated and hazardous domiciles."
Rock Banas was one of these unfortunate millions, driven to despair by an inner voice of pain, exacerbated by a City environment which is ugly, degrading and dehumanizing. Unfortunately, the shooting of Police officer Ulewski demonstrated that Banas had become desperate. There is no doubt he needed to be restrained for his own protection and the safety of others; yet his death at the hands of a police sharpshooter was both tragically excessive, and seemingly, motivated by revenge. A desperate, confused outcast is shot, while hordes of drug-pushers, rapists. Mafia kingpins and corporate criminals run rampant in our society. The Mafia kingpin lives in a huge, beautiful ranch house and ruins the lives of millions; a miserable outcast lives in a hovel and is exterminated. Where is the justice? The theory of American law is tragically simple: the person who steals $5 is a thief while the person who steals $5 million is called a financier. Good policeman are reduced to pinching "small fry," while others on the force have bowed to fat cat pay-offs, graft and corruption.
As a final word, the housing stock in Buffalo is rapidly becoming a crumbling, tragic embarrassment. Most new building is geared for quick profit, not use for people. As for public agencies, historian Daniel Parenti observes: "The billions spent by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) supposedly to provide homes for the poor have failed to do so because the real function of the FHA spending has been to guarantee profits for big developers, banks and speculators."
Source: Polish-American Voice, June 1984