Derailing the defund
July 21, 2023 7:45 AM Subscribe
I'm shocked, shocked.
posted by RakDaddy at 8:06 AM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by RakDaddy at 8:06 AM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
1312
posted by supermedusa at 8:41 AM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 8:41 AM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
Meanwhile, NYC just settled with protestors who the cops beat up or illegally arrested during the 2020 protests. So glad my tax dollars have to go to paying for the cops' misconduct.
posted by praemunire at 9:23 AM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 9:23 AM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
This is what radicalized me go a defund position during 2020 - police effectively take tax money from the city but have no civilian oversight by anyone in the city, and when they screw up they just draw more tax. The only way to exert any control over them is to stop giving them money in the first place.
posted by Artw at 9:31 AM on July 21, 2023 [27 favorites]
posted by Artw at 9:31 AM on July 21, 2023 [27 favorites]
Law Enforcement will just lie/cheat/steal their way to Uncle Sam's pockets.
Connecticut state police troopers may have falsified thousands of traffic tickets.
WFSB reports a recent audit found nearly 26,000 fake tickets.
According to an internal investigation, troopers falsified tickets for their own personal benefit as those who appear productive are often eligible for federally funded overtime.
posted by MonsieurPEB at 9:39 AM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
Connecticut state police troopers may have falsified thousands of traffic tickets.
WFSB reports a recent audit found nearly 26,000 fake tickets.
According to an internal investigation, troopers falsified tickets for their own personal benefit as those who appear productive are often eligible for federally funded overtime.
posted by MonsieurPEB at 9:39 AM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
> Artw: police effectively take tax money from the city but have no civilian oversight by anyone in the city
My understanding is that in the US armed forces, they take the doctrine of civilian control of the military fairly seriously. Like, it's not just lip service or an empty slogan but a real thing that many (most?) people up and down the chain believe in*. However, it has become quite apparent that US police departments largely do not believe in civilian control of police at all. Most of the time, people don't really notice because most of the time, the police and the civilians who are supposed to oversee them (e.g.: mayors, city councils, etc...) agree on most things. Yet, whenever there is some kind of material dispute, the cops will do whatever it takes to reassert that they, in fact, are the ones in charge (e.g.: NYPD's Patrolmen's Riot, LASD harassing one of the people who was investigating their sherriff, etc...). You can also see this in the way police departments react to reformist DAs being elected in places like Philadelphia or SF. I'm not sure how widely appreciated this phenomenon is but once you see it, you can't unsee it. Cops mostly behave as an independent, occupying paramilitary force without real external, civilian controls.
* I'm not sure how much of this may have changed during the Trump/QAnon era.
posted by mhum at 9:52 AM on July 21, 2023 [16 favorites]
My understanding is that in the US armed forces, they take the doctrine of civilian control of the military fairly seriously. Like, it's not just lip service or an empty slogan but a real thing that many (most?) people up and down the chain believe in*. However, it has become quite apparent that US police departments largely do not believe in civilian control of police at all. Most of the time, people don't really notice because most of the time, the police and the civilians who are supposed to oversee them (e.g.: mayors, city councils, etc...) agree on most things. Yet, whenever there is some kind of material dispute, the cops will do whatever it takes to reassert that they, in fact, are the ones in charge (e.g.: NYPD's Patrolmen's Riot, LASD harassing one of the people who was investigating their sherriff, etc...). You can also see this in the way police departments react to reformist DAs being elected in places like Philadelphia or SF. I'm not sure how widely appreciated this phenomenon is but once you see it, you can't unsee it. Cops mostly behave as an independent, occupying paramilitary force without real external, civilian controls.
* I'm not sure how much of this may have changed during the Trump/QAnon era.
posted by mhum at 9:52 AM on July 21, 2023 [16 favorites]
this is fun - we just had an article about how one of the scions of Cox Enterprises admits that the main source of news in Atlanta (the AJC) is a corporate entity that is fully invested in the building of Cop City, something that the rest of us have been saying for a while but hasn't gotten any coverage until it comes from someone who is, you know, official and recognized and powerful
this is, of course, something all activists in all cities have known for years - that corporate media will always maintain the status quo. that's why there alternative sources like the Atlanta Community Press Collective, Mainline, Scalawag, etc have started popping up en masse, covering actual City Council meetings, asking questions, diving into open records requests while the corporate media continues to do shit like straight up link to tickets for that one racist country singer in a front page article
it's in the margins that you see blatant corruption of this level reported on. that's the dystopian dream of a federal republic run on capitalism - you have free speech, of course, but your free speech will receive 0.00001% of the exposure that the free speech a billion dollar corporation produces. true freedom, willfully blind to the dynamics of power
* I'm not sure how much of this may have changed during the Trump/QAnon era.
I seem to remember Rodney King being murdered long before the Trump/QAnon era as my personal first memory and exposure to police brutality and a wholly corrupt justice system but ymmv
posted by paimapi at 10:00 AM on July 21, 2023 [7 favorites]
this is, of course, something all activists in all cities have known for years - that corporate media will always maintain the status quo. that's why there alternative sources like the Atlanta Community Press Collective, Mainline, Scalawag, etc have started popping up en masse, covering actual City Council meetings, asking questions, diving into open records requests while the corporate media continues to do shit like straight up link to tickets for that one racist country singer in a front page article
it's in the margins that you see blatant corruption of this level reported on. that's the dystopian dream of a federal republic run on capitalism - you have free speech, of course, but your free speech will receive 0.00001% of the exposure that the free speech a billion dollar corporation produces. true freedom, willfully blind to the dynamics of power
* I'm not sure how much of this may have changed during the Trump/QAnon era.
I seem to remember Rodney King being murdered long before the Trump/QAnon era as my personal first memory and exposure to police brutality and a wholly corrupt justice system but ymmv
posted by paimapi at 10:00 AM on July 21, 2023 [7 favorites]
During the 2020 protests it was very clear that Jenny Durkan was not in control of them, and that Chief of Police Carmen Best who was allegedly in control of them was not either. They were either under the command of SPOG or just running riot on their own outside of any control.
Carmen Best would then, after being replaced by a different figurehead, show up on CNN commenting on things like the Jan 6th insurrection, which was a hilarious joke.
posted by Artw at 10:01 AM on July 21, 2023 [8 favorites]
Carmen Best would then, after being replaced by a different figurehead, show up on CNN commenting on things like the Jan 6th insurrection, which was a hilarious joke.
posted by Artw at 10:01 AM on July 21, 2023 [8 favorites]
Abolition is the only way forward.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:02 AM on July 21, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by ob1quixote at 10:02 AM on July 21, 2023 [8 favorites]
[In point of fact, Rodney King was beaten by police, not murdered.]
posted by mefireader at 10:40 AM on July 21, 2023
posted by mefireader at 10:40 AM on July 21, 2023
[In point of fact, Rodney King was beaten by police, not murdered.]
maybe one day when we change our understanding of proximate causes surrounding PTSD and it's longterm effects on health outcomes the 'fact' will change but yes, you're correct and my bad
posted by paimapi at 10:45 AM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
maybe one day when we change our understanding of proximate causes surrounding PTSD and it's longterm effects on health outcomes the 'fact' will change but yes, you're correct and my bad
posted by paimapi at 10:45 AM on July 21, 2023 [4 favorites]
> paimapi: "I seem to remember Rodney King being murdered long before the Trump/QAnon era"
Sorry about the confusing formatting. That was supposed to be a footnote regarding the military's deference to civilian authority (i.e.: I don't know if that deference has diminished since 2016).
posted by mhum at 12:22 PM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sorry about the confusing formatting. That was supposed to be a footnote regarding the military's deference to civilian authority (i.e.: I don't know if that deference has diminished since 2016).
posted by mhum at 12:22 PM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
The events discussed in the article are disgusting, but not at all surprising. I was hoping they had receipts for the work slowdown that was clearly part of the anti-defund strategy. I was living in Seattle at that time, and it was clear the cops took the attitude of, “we’ll show you what defunding means.”
posted by bluloo at 10:57 PM on July 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by bluloo at 10:57 PM on July 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
There was the thing where they just flat out stopped investigating sex crimes… Seattle police stopped investigating adult sexual assaults this year, memo shows
Really, defund movement or no defund movement, all of the things people typically think of as “good” uses to live don’t get much attention from that all - their primary thing they do spend time on is homeless sweeps.
posted by Artw at 11:15 PM on July 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Really, defund movement or no defund movement, all of the things people typically think of as “good” uses to live don’t get much attention from that all - their primary thing they do spend time on is homeless sweeps.
posted by Artw at 11:15 PM on July 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Great reporting. It's really depressing how little of the reforms the council passed in 2020 managed to stick.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:07 AM on July 24, 2023
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:07 AM on July 24, 2023
Sometimes I feel like nothing changes. In the early 1970's, some people tried to dissuade my parents from moving to a part of New Jersey that was "too close" to one of the areas that was part of the 1967 Newark Riots, which has been set off by white police beating and arresting a black cab driver. From an article on the riots in Plainfield (the town my folks were warned to avoid living 5 miles away from):
And then 2020, with George Floyd we had the police showing even less restraint and the protestors showing more, and I know we have a lot to show since 1967 and even 1991 but still, we are still doing this over and over.
posted by Karmakaze at 7:14 AM on July 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
"Even as far back as kindergarten I can remember policeman throwing kindergarten kids in the car for fighting and taking them to police headquarters," Plainfield High School student Robert Nelson, president of the Plainfield NAACP Youth Council told the Governor's Select Commission on Civil Disorder in the fall of 1967. "The officers never treated them like people. These were five and six-year-old kids. They would throw them into the car and talk to their mother like a dog."I was born after that, but there were still aftershocks. And then riots in all the same areas broke out in 1991 after the Rodney King beating.
The teen told the commission that no bond had ever been established between black youths and the police because the officers "never treated them like people."
And then 2020, with George Floyd we had the police showing even less restraint and the protestors showing more, and I know we have a lot to show since 1967 and even 1991 but still, we are still doing this over and over.
posted by Karmakaze at 7:14 AM on July 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
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Even before George Floyd was murdered the Minneapolis Police Union had a direct conduit to one of the local news stations via, wait for it, the Union Boss's wife!
Bob Kroll (EPIC POS) was married to one of the head reporters of the station and she provided verbatim copaganda reporting for YEARS.
ACAB
posted by djseafood at 8:04 AM on July 21, 2023 [18 favorites]