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Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Symbolism & Incrementalism Are No Longer Enough
Another week--another half dozen or more local protests in support of Black Lives Matter and against police brutality and militarization. A local group of Muslim activists and allies stand on a busy street corner and receive many positive honks and waves from passers-by. It seems more and more ordinary Americans feel that we can no longer wait and simply hope things get better. Now is the time for change, and now is the time to take action!
Our special guest blogger has a lot to say to those who think little (or no) change to our current corrupt system is what Americans need to survive and thrive in 2020. He's not afraid to lay it out in no uncertain terms, either.
The
current protests are not only a condemnation of police brutality, but a
condemnation of everyone who has been in power who have opted to kick
the can down the road as opposed to truly reforming this entire system.An Open Letter to the DNC, Corporate Media and The People: Why Symbolism and Incrementalism Are No Longer Enough! By The Independent Reformist
To the Democratic Party:
Recently, the House Democrats (led by
House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi) unveiled their bill to address police
reform. According to Vox, the key details are as follows:
The Justice in Policing Act
of 2020 contains a number of measures that make it easier to prosecute
police misconduct and demilitarize police departments around the
country.
The bill’s biggest provision seeks to end
qualified immunity, a thorny legal issue that gives police officers and
other public officials broad immunity from civil lawsuits. The US
Supreme Court, which has upheld the qualified-immunity doctrine in past
rulings, is currently deciding whether to hear arguments next term in a
case challenging qualified immunity.
The legislation also
incorporates a proposal from Sen. Cory Booker that would create a new
national registry to track misconduct as a way to prevent repeat
offenders from being rehired at other police departments.
In
addition, the bill seeks to ban the use of chokeholds and certain
no-knock warrants at the federal level, as well as to incentivize state
and local governments to do the same. Both tactics have been factors in
police killings of unarmed black people: A no-knock warrant used by
police in Kentucky in March ended in the death of Breonna Taylor, a
26-year-old EMT who died after officers broke down her door without
warning and fatally shot her.--Vox: “Democrats' Sweeping New Police Reform Bill, Explained” by Ella Nilsen and Li Zhou
There
is some decent legislation in this bill, but before we get too excited,
let’s take a step back for a moment. This bill will likely never make
it into law as long as Mitch McConnell and the Republicans hold the
Senate, and Donald Trump is president. At present, Mitch McConnell and
other Republicans have avoided criticizing Barr’s authorization of force
used to peaceful protesters for Trump’s recent photo op in front of a
church.
If Republicans can’t criticize their leaders
when excessive force is used on non-violent protestors, how can we
expect that they will support a meaningful police reform bill?--MSNBC, MTP Daily: “GOP Senators Avoid Comments On Trump’s Photo-Op, Use Of Tear Gas On Protestors”
Assuming that this is the case, then the
question becomes, “What will happen if Democrats gain power?” It would be
their responsibility to push this and a couple of other tweaks and get
it done early into the new term. If history is a guide, the push for
reforms stop as soon as the cameras stop. This cannot happen.
Understand that if Democrats end up taking power it will be because a
lot of leftists and independents held their nose to get rid of Trump as
opposed to supporting Biden.
Part
of the disconnect with the left and left-leaning independents is that
the Democrats are as guilty of serving the wealthy and the powerful as
Republicans are. Also, Democrats sometimes act as though they are about
reform when they are out of power, but only do the smallest reforms (if
any) when they gain power. Years of this tired strategy has made people
less aligned with parties and helped to increase the percentage of
independent voters and non-voters.
After their announcement, Democrat took a
symbolic knee to show solidarity with protesters of the murder of George
Floyd. If there is anything that politicians are good at, it is using
symbolism to score political points and sometime hijack the purpose of a
movement. Symbolism is fine and dandy, but symbols aren’t the same as
real reform. The lack of real reform is the reason that people are out
in the streets in great numbers across the nation and around the world.
People are tired of seeing the same game
played. This is why you have the AOCs, Rashida Tlaibs and Ilhan Omars
winning elections. This is why insurgent candidates are mounting real
challenges to the seats of long entrenched power-brokers within the DNC.
People are done with symbols. It’s all about results and quality,
tangible reforms now. If you are not truly interested in fighting for
and bringing about the reforms that the people in the streets want, it
is time for you to step aside for someone who is willing to do so. If
that’s you, then you too are culpable for the police violence and the
protests in our streets right now. Do better, resign, or be ready to be
voted out of office.
To The Corporate Media:
Recently, you have been covering and
complaining rightfully about the abuse of fellow members covering
protests. Your journalists have been shot at and arrested live on TV and
on the internet. You have every right to be unhappy about the
injustices that your members have experienced.
Welcome to the rest of us. You have only
experienced a taste of what people of color have
experienced their entire lives. It is only recently that your employees
have had to look over their shoulders for police with their media
credentials in full display. You have been “safe” and “protected”.
Imagine
for a moment that you did not have your media credentials to protect
you. Imagine that you did not have a multi-million dollar corporation
and its multi-millionaire owner available to make a call to the police
and demand your release--and it actually worked. Think about that for a
moment. One phone call by a wealthy tycoon and press credentials were
the only things that separate you from being treated like the rest of
us.
Imagine it is you or someone you love who was going about their life and had the life choked out of them by police.
Imagine
it is you or someone you love who is shot in a car by police just
because you informed them you had a weapon in your glove box, and the
officer claimed you reached for it.
Imagine it is you or someone
you love who is going for a run and gets chased and gunned down by a
couple of people in pickup trucks who claim you were stealing.
Now
imagine that this happens (and many of these cases were recorded on
video) but the police are never charged and never convicted!
How
would you feel if this happened to you and your family repeatedly for
decades? Each time no substantive reforms are made to policing, and the
rest of society only cared for two or three weeks. How would that make
you feel about the people around you? What would you think about the
people who only paid lip service to your plight while continuing to arm
police with more military grade equipment? Would you not be angry?
Part of the problem is that media only
follows the flavor of the moment and quickly moves on. The families of
the victims don’t get to move on after two weeks. The people who
constantly have to live in fear of racists in society don’t get to move
on after two weeks. They don’t have that luxury.
Your job is to be the watchdog of
democracy and justice. This is the entire reason that you are protected
by The First Amendment. It is your job to hold all facets of government
accountable and keep the light shined on their wrong doing even after
the news cycle has ended. Now that you have had a taste of what a police
state could look like perhaps now you will pay closer attention to
what the police and the government are doing. That being said, I’m not holding
my breath.
This is why independent online media is
growing so quickly. No one, left or right, trusts you to actually do your
job. Being part of the DNC’s “McResistance” is not the same as accuracy
in reporting and being an advocate for justice. Take time to think on
this, and don't say you’ll do better but actually do better.
To The People:
First, thank you to the people who are
protesting the injustices that happen every day to people of color. It
can be difficult to understand what it is like to be in another persons
shoes until you have walked a mile in them. The fact that you have done
so is truly appreciated. Secondly, this solidarity that we see right now
is what needs to happen everyday. The conditions that brought this
about are entrenched and systemic. This is a long term fight, and we will
need every ally to overcome it.
For those who don’t understand what people
are calling for when they say “Defund the police,” let’s start by what
the majority are not calling for.
It is NOT having absolutely a lack of law enforcement in the community.
It is NOT throwing more money toward the police departments for “training.”
It is NOT leaving the structure in place as it is.
Here is what the idea is:
Completely rebuild the police department from the ground up. You
can’t expect to reform an institution that is corrupt all the way to
its foundation with the same foundation in place. It must be demolished
and rebuilt!
The new institution will allow for applications
from everyone and include former police officers, but there will be no
favoritism and past records of violent tendencies will disqualify
applicants.
The current system that protects police from being
prosecuted and convicted for unwarranted violent actions will be
abolished. Being a representative of the law does not exempt you from
the consequences of breaking those laws. We must have equal justice
under the law. Period.
The current amount of money spend on
policing will be reduced. The remained of what would be previously
budgeted would be allocated towards other programs for the city such as
education, job training, mental health and other social programs.
One of the many reasons offered to justify
increasing police funding is the argument “more police equals less
crime.” While there are some publications that support this argument,
there are others that indicate that it may not be accurate. According to
Statista:
Cities across the United States
have been setting larger amounts of money aside in recent years in order
to fund their police departments. Collectively, the country spends
approximately $100 billion on policing as well as a further $80 billion
on incarceration. Crime levels have dropped substantially over the past
three years, in tandem with larger police budgets. A report published
last month argues that the drop off in crime is not directly related to
the larger budgets, however. --Statista, “How Much Do U.S. Cities Spend On Policing?” by Niall McCarthy https://www.statista.com/chart/10593/how-much-do-us-cities-spend-on-policing/
If
the increase in police funding is not what is lowering overall crime,
what is? A link references a second article stating the following:
The analysis of crime in the
United States is generally split into two broad categories, violent
crime and property crime... A tracking of crime rates over the last 20 years shows that
violent crime in the United States has been on the decline. In 2018,
reported violent crime was down almost 50 percent from 1990. However
Americans still perceive a crime problem in their country, despite
evidence to the contrary. Some 60 percent of the population felt there
was more crime in 2018 than the year prior. --Statista, “Crime in the United States – statistics & facts” Published by Statista Research Department, Oct 29, 2019 https://www.statista.com/chart/10593/how-much-do-us-cities-spend-on-policing/
Brookings, which references a research
paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, suggest a different
idea. Providing health care may have a big impact on lowering both
violent and financial crime rates.
Most people who cycle through our
criminal justice system have serious health care needs. Three out of
every five state prisoners and sentenced jail inmates have a substance
abuse problem. Half of state and federal prisoners and two thirds of
jail inmates are in serious psychological distress or have a history of
mental illness. Substance abuse and mental illness surely contribute to
the difficulty many individuals have escaping the criminal justice
system: two-thirds of those released from prison will be rearrested
within three years. Jails and prisons provide some treatment services,
but what if we increased access to treatment in communities, so that
people could get help before they get into trouble? New research shows
that offering broad access to treatment for these problems is not only
compassionate, but also a cost-effective way to reduce crime rates. One
way to increase access to care is to open more treatment facilities
throughout the country. Existing facilities often operate at capacity
because of limited funding, so that those who want treatment cannot
always find help. Sam Bondurant, Jason Lindo, and Isaac Swensen studied
what happened to crime when local substance abuse treatment facilities
opened or closed. Because facilities are likely to be located in
communities where the need is greatest, a simple cross-sectional
analysis might show that the presence of a treatment facility is
correlated with higher crime rates. Instead, the authors looked at
within-county changes over time in the number of facilities and crime
rates. This allowed them to see whether a change in access to treatment
led to a change in crime, after controlling for a variety of other
factors that might independently affect crime (like unemployment rates
and the size of the police force).The authors found that an
increase in the number of treatment facilities causes a reduction in
both violent and financially-motivated crime. This is likely due to a combination of forces:
reducing drug abuse can reduce violent behavior that is caused by
particular drugs, as well as property crimes like theft committed to
fund an addiction. Reducing demand for illegal drugs might also reduce
violence associated with the illegal drug trade.
Brookings, “New evidence that access to health care reduces crime” by Jennifer L. Doleac, Wednesday, January 3, 2018
The
protests we see are the expected result of years upon years of making
marginal changes. People have tried have tried body cameras, lawsuits
and peaceful protests that only went on for a week. Still things have
not improved enough to where this isn’t a concern. They are tired of
being ignored. They demand that this be taken seriously.
Bear in mind that the cases that are most
covered on the big news networks are mostly the one caught on camera.
How many more cases are occurring without being caught on video? How
many more have been swept under the rug? How long can you expect people
to put up with it before they snap? Everyone has a breaking point.
Kimberly Jones expresses the frustration in the black community extremely well in the video below.
Black people, people of color and others who
are protesting have good reason to be angry. It’s time to actually fix
the numerous problems instead of deploying more rhetoric, symbolism and
half measures. Source: ThinkLogical, Author Kimberly Jones Explains Why People Protest, Riot & Loot During Racial Distress https://youtu.be/tuxukAH3lk8
If you still don’t understand how this
effects you, consider this. During this period, the police have beaten,
maced, arrested or shot with rubber bullets people who were:
White
Black
Hispanic
Asian
Male
Female
LGBTQ
Relgious
Non-religious
In
other words, it doesn’t matter what you look like or how you identify. The militarized police have shown that they are willing to crush
dissent, nonviolent or otherwise. If you turn a blind eye, you will
potentially empowered a police state. If at some point you decide to
protest something, you may very well be a victim of the same
treatment that you may be cheering on.
David Doel shows video from numerous times when police have escalated and attacked non-violent protests. Source: The Rational National, Watch Police Instigate & Escalate All Across The U.S. , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3DX3SLGB34If your solution to that issue is the gun,
then it will be costly in terms of lives lost on both sides. The least
costly option is to deal with the issue now and prevent a police state
from ever taking hold. You may think that not doing so is to your
benefit, but ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away--it only further
empowers potential dictators to crush all opposition. Eventually, it
will come to your doorstep.
I will close this with a famous quote, First They Came, by Pastor Martin Niemöller:
First they came for the Communists, And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists, And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist Then they came for the trade unionists, And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews, And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew Then they came for me, And there was no one left To speak out for me
Video: WXYZ-TV Detroit | Channel, 7 VIDEO
ARCHIVE: Malice Green dies at the hands of Detroit police officers Larry
Nevers and Walter Budzyn, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HMYEgrv-ho
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Please feel free to share your thoughts with us. Just one rule: Be polite. This means no profanity or cursing. No shaming or hate speech. No threats or silliness. This is a family friendly blog. Thank you.