These have been particularly challenging days for our letter carriers. The Donald Trump administration has worked throughout his term to hinder the United States Postal Service. He appointed his mega-donor, Louis DeJoy, to be postmaster general. DeJoy gave orders to start dismantling and removing mail-sorting machines and wanted to require carriers to leave before trucks could be loaded. Through DeJoy, Trump tried to sabotage this institution that is enshrined in our Constitution.
Trump spends a great deal of his time spreading false claims that the long-standing practice of mail-in ballots is somehow fraudulent and makes no secret that he would prefer to tear down this pillar of American democracy that Benjamin Franklin first led in 1775.
As if the hostility of the current administration weren’t enough, some postal workers have endured personal hostility. I thought these attacks were already too close to home when a Chicago mail carrier was shot with paint balls earlier in the year. Then I heard about an Aurora letter carrier, Angelique Walker, who was attacked.
November 19, Walker was verbally and physically assaulted while delivering mail on North Farnsworth Avenue in Aurora. A man she identified called her names that I can’t repeat here, but I can tell you one started with the letter N and another with the letter B, which suggests his actions were motivated by racism and sexism. Walker said that he began pushing her and hitting her on the right side of her face.
“He also pulled my braids and pushed me against the mail boxes,” Walker said. “I screamed, begging him to stop hitting me.” The perpetrator finally stopped and ran upstairs after Walker announced that she would call the police, which she did. The police took her statement. They took pictures of her bruises. Later, she picked the man out of a lineup and he is in custody, awaiting a court hearing next week. She said she still has nightmares about the incident as she prepares to face her attacker in court.
Walker asked me to share what happened to her, “so that everyone in Aurora is made aware of what took place and [can] try to be safe not only while delivering mail, but being in public.”
It is my hope that anyone who sees such an attack immediately will call the police and stay to give a witness statement.
We are living in crazy times, where lies are repeated with impunity and the flames of hatred and division have been fanned by the president. It is up to all of us to look out for one another.
Our postal carriers work hard for us by making sure medicines, checks, and other important documents are delivered safely. They know where the most vulnerable among us live and sometimes do informal-wellness checks. They are out in public constantly, where they are exposed not only to attacks, but the COVID-19 virus, which some have contracted.
Let’s keep our eyes open and have their backs.