Let's Define Reform/Defund/ Abolish Police

Hopefully before toddler tyrant Donald "Bunker Boy" Trump has completely altered the meanings of the terms "police reform," "defund police," and "abolish police," here are some brief attempts to define those terms that we found helpful.

Reform

...[E]ven as we try to shift resources from policing to programs that will better promote fairness and public safety, we must continue the work of police reform. We cannot stop regulating police conduct now because we hope someday to reduce or eliminate our reliance on policing. We must ban chokeholds and curb the use of no-knock warrants; we must train officers how to better respond to people in mental health crises, and we must teach officers to be guardians, not warriors, to intervene to prevent misconduct and to understand and appreciate the communities they serve. (Christy Lopez, Innovative Policing Program, Georgetown Law School)

House Democrats have also introduced the "Justice in Policing Act of 2020,"which contains a broad array of reforms "to hold police accountable, change the culture of law enforcement and build trust between law enforcement and our communities."  It likely awaits a Biden administration and a Senate not controlled by Moscow Mitch McConnell to be enacted. But it will be a significant step forward when that day comes.

Defund

Calls to defund police departments are generally seeking spending cuts to police forces that have consumed ever larger shares of city budgets in many cities and towns. Minneapolis, for instance, is looking to cut $200 million from its $1.3 billion overall annual budget, said Lisa Bender, the City Council president. The police budget in 2020 was $189 million. She hopes to shift money to other areas of need in the city...

Many activists want money now spent on overtime for the police or on buying expensive equipment for police departments to be shifted to programs related to mental health, housing and education — areas that the activists say with sufficient money could bring about systemic societal change and cut down on crime and violence. (Dionne Searcy, New York Times)

____________________ 

For most proponents, “defunding the police” does not mean zeroing out budgets for public safety, and police abolition does not mean that police will disappear overnight — or perhaps ever. Defunding the police means shrinking the scope of police responsibilities and shifting most of what government does to keep us safe to entities that are better equipped to meet that need. It means investing more in mental-health care and housing, and expanding the use of community mediation and violence interruption programs. (Lopez, WaPo))

Abolish

Leaders in different cities have advocated various specific plans, but generally speaking, the calls aim to reimagine public safety tactics in ways that are different from traditional police forces. Activists say their intent is to ensure safety and justice but to wind up with a different system. Years of consent decrees and investigations into human rights violations by police departments have yielded little change, they say, so a more fundamental shift is needed. (Searcy, NYT)

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Police abolition means reducing, with the vision of eventually eliminating, our reliance on policing to secure our public safety. It means recognizing that criminalizing addiction and poverty, making 10 million arrests per year and mass incarceration have not provided the public safety we want and never will. The “abolition” language is important because it reminds us that policing has been the primary vehicle for using violence to perpetuate the unjustified white control over the bodies and lives of black people that has been with us since slavery. That aspect of policing must be literally abolished. (Lopez, WaPo)

Other resources, such as Campaign Zero's "#8Can'tWait" reform campaign, are embedded in one or both of the articles for further information.

The problem that's arising is that, for many, these are loaded terms that don't convey the complexity of what is being proposed, thus lending themselves to misinterpretation by demagogues like Trump, his fascist factotum William "Low" Barr and the rest of the authoritarian right- wing mob (including police unions).  We have to make sure that somehow the true sense of what's being discussed prevails.

Tweets Of The Day

Count on a strong black woman to get under Cadet Bone Spurs' orange skin:

White House officials viewed the mayor’s Black Lives Matter installation as a serious escalation and said the mayor has done “irreparable harm” to her relations with Republicans on Capitol Hill. https://t.co/Gen3DQf8j6

— Fenit Nirappil (@FenitN) June 7, 2020

 

A serious escalation? He’s occupied her city with an anonymously accountability-free paramilitary force to terrorize unarmed civilians.
She changed a street sign and used some paint.

— Mariam Watt (@MariamWatt) June 7, 2020

Ergo, black lives do not matter to Republicans, on or off The Hill.

Messaging seems problematic for the GOP of late.

— Cynthia Will Vote (@Ab_Synthia2) June 7, 2020

If painting words is escalation...then what are the tactics police are using against protestors? Yikes.

— Aaron Lerner (@AaronCLerner) June 7, 2020

 

Some big letters on a street are seen as an existential threat. Tell me again about snowflakes?

— That Record Got Me High Podcast Cohost (@BusStationDrift) June 7, 2020

Thoughts and prayers 😂 😂 😂

— JRob (@shockjay) June 7, 2020

  

On #BlackLivesMatter Plaza, we said “no”

In November, we say “next” pic.twitter.com/CmoleZd1eT

— Muriel Bowser (@MurielBowser) June 6, 2020

 

Cartoon of the Day: Bullseye

(click on image to enlarge)

All of the warnings that African-American fathers sadly have to give their sons -- if stopped by police, be cooperative and obey their orders, keep your hands up, empty and in full sight, etc. -- go out the window when shootings like the ones in Tulsa and Charlotte occur. The assumption of wrongdoing that shrouds African-American males is resulting in their killing at the hands of police who either lack adequate training in community policing or who view them as disposable and subhuman.

UPDATE: The Tulsa police officer that shot Terence Crutcher has been charged with manslaughter.

(cartoon: Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Free Press, via Gocomics.com)

More Fallout From "Black Lives Matter" Disruption At Sanders Rally

(click on image to enlarge)

(Jeff Danziger, via gocomics.com)

Much has been made of the "Black Lives Matter" protest at Bernie Sanders' aborted rally in Seattle last week.  In fact, it seems to have spurred the Sanders campaign to issue strong policy positions on criminal justice reform and other BLM targets (and has gotten the attention of the Clinton campaign as well).  Well, so far, so good.

But we also need to consider the possibility that these disruptions, assuming they continue, might not always be what they seem. In that regard, Ben Cohen at Daily Banter has received a lot of heat in the past few days about an article he wrote exposing the background of one of the Seattle BLM disrupters, Marissa Jenae Johnson (the one with the crucifix earrings).  Specifically, Cohen wrote

Well, this doesn’t look good for Marissa Janae Johnson, the activist who disrupted a Bernie Sanders rally over the weekend in order to call his supporters racist and white supremacists. In a post on facebook page, the “Radical Christian Mullatinist”  (whatever that is) revealed she was at one point a Sarah Palin supporter:

We also did a little Googling on Ms. Johnson.  She seems to be somewhat of a featured student at Seattle Pacific University majoring in "Christian Scripture."  And what of Seattle Pacific University?  It's described as a "conservative evangelical" school linked to the Free Methodist Church.  Based on that and her youthful attraction to Sarah "Winky" Palin, we would guess Ms. Jackson's political interests align more with Dr. Ben "On Meds?" Carson than any Democrat. 

Of course, both women are entitled to whatever political views they choose.  But it should have been clear based on some of the authoritarian comments Johnson directed to Sanders' audience (Example from CNN:  "You are never going to hear Bernie speak if I don't hear silence now.  Now that you've covered yourself in your white supremacist liberalism, I will formally welcome Bernie Sanders to Seattle." ) that she had a very different ideological foundation.  "White supremacist liberalism?"  Sounds like those wingnuts that tell us the KKK was founded by a Democrat 150 years ago, as if the past 50 years hadn't happened.

To the extent BLM is an organized national operation, it's leadership has stepped back from the actions of Johnson and Mara Jacqueline Willaford at Seattle;  it seems they were "independent operators," and the BLM leaders want them to apologize to Sanders.  Don't hold your breath.