truthout--2020-06-14--Trump HHS Scraps Protections for Transgender Patients and Those Seeking Abortion

In a move widely decried by LGBTQ , reproductive , and human rights advocates , the Trump administration late Friday finalized a health care rule that revokes Obama-era nondiscrimination protections for transgender and nonbinary people , patients seeking abortions , and those who do not speak English .
“ This is deadly and all of us should be outraged , ” declared ACLU deputy legal director Louise Melling .
“ This is beyond heartless.
” “ While people are facing alarming rates of unemployment , a loss of health insurance , and a global pandemic , the Trump administration has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not turned away from healthcare because of who they are or what language they speak , ” she said .
“ The Trump administration , ” Melling added , “ has made a mission out of putting politicians and religious beliefs above a patient ’ s healthcare.
” Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women ’ s Law Center ( NWLC ) said in a statement that the administration “ should be ashamed of itself for finalizing a rule that puts the lives of the most marginalized in danger during a global @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ put at risk by this rule.
” Mara Keisling , executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality , also issued a warning Friday , saying that “ the new rules released today are hateful and cruel , and will keep people from being able to get the care they need to live happy , healthy , and productive lives.
” “ Even as the death toll and catastrophe of the Covid-19 pandemic grows and people take to the streets , the Trump administration remains focused on denying equal access to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ The Trump administration has waged a non-stop campaign against transgender people , taking every opportunity to deny us the ability to live our lives as who we are.
” Dr. Susan Bailey , president of the American Medical Association , also weighed in , the Associated Press reported .
Bailey said that “ the federal government should never make it more difficult for individuals to access healthcare—during a pandemic or any other time.
” The rule , announced in a statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1557 of the Affordable Care Act ( ACA ) , or Obamacare , which prohibits discrimination against patients in line with federal civil rights statutes .
Those statutes include Title IX , which outlaws discrimination on the basis of sex .
“ In 2016 , the [ Obama ] administration issued a regulation implementing Section 1557 ( the 2016 rule ) that redefined sex discrimination to include termination of pregnancy and gender identity , which it defined as ‘ one ’ s internal sense of gender , which may be male , female @ @ @ @ @ @ @ male and female , ” HHS said Friday .
“ HHS will enforce Section 1557 by returning to the government ’ s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘ sex ’ as male or female and as determined by biology , ” the department said .
“ The 2016 rule declined to recognize sexual orientation as a protected category under the ACA , and HHS will leave that judgment undisturbed.
” According to the AP : “ This sanctioning of discrimination in healthcare is unlawful and immoral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loses thousands of lives daily and health inequities across the board persist is especially egregious , ” Goss Graves said .
“ No one should fear being turned away by a medical provider because of who they are or the personal health decisions they have made , ” she added .
“ This is beyond unacceptable , and we are prepared to take whatever action is necessary to ensure patients come first.
” The NWLC has teamed up with the Transgender Law Center , Harvard Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to challenge the rule .
The Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) announced in a statement Friday that it also intends to file to a lawsuit .
“ We can not and will not allow Donald Trump to continue attacking us , ” said HRC president Alphonso David .
“ LGBTQ people get sick .
LGBTQ people need healthcare .
LGBTQ people should not live in fear that they can not get the care they need simply because of who they are.
” “ It is clear that this administration does not believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communities , deserve equality under the law , ” he added .
“ But we have a reality check for them : we will not let this attack on our basic right to be free from discrimination in healthcare go unchallenged.
” As David put it : “ We will see them in court , and continue to challenge all of our elected officials to rise up against this blatant attempt to erode critical protections people need and sanction discrimination.
” The HHS announcement came not only during LGBTQ Pride Month but also—as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anniversary of a mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando in which 49 people were killed and dozens more were injured , the deadliest attack on the LGBTQ community in American history .

In a move widely decried by LGBTQ, reproductive, and human rights advocates, the Trump administration late Friday finalized a health care rule that revokes Obama-era nondiscrimination protections for transgender and nonbinary people, patients seeking abortions, and those who do not speak English.
“This is deadly and all of us should be outraged,” declared ACLU deputy legal director Louise Melling. “This is beyond heartless.”
“While people are facing alarming rates of unemployment, a loss of health insurance, and a global pandemic, the Trump administration has rolled back rules meant to ensure people are not turned away from healthcare because of who they are or what language they speak,” she said.
“The Trump administration,” Melling added, “has made a mission out of putting politicians and religious beliefs above a patient’s healthcare.”
Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) said in a statement that the administration “should be ashamed of itself for finalizing a rule that puts the lives of the most marginalized in danger during a global pandemic” and warned patients will be “put at risk by this rule.”
this will kill trans people
this will kill trans people
this will kill trans people
this will kill trans people
this will kill trans people
this will kill trans people
this will kill trans people https://t.co/tEeEUeGW4T — Evan Greer (@evan_greer) June 12, 2020
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, also issued a warning Friday, saying that “the new rules released today are hateful and cruel, and will keep people from being able to get the care they need to live happy, healthy, and productive lives.”
“Even as the death toll and catastrophe of the Covid-19 pandemic grows and people take to the streets, the Trump administration remains focused on denying equal access to healthcare to transgender people,” Keisling said. “The Trump administration has waged a non-stop campaign against transgender people, taking every opportunity to deny us the ability to live our lives as who we are.”
Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the American Medical Association, also weighed in, the Associated Press reported. Bailey said that “the federal government should never make it more difficult for individuals to access healthcare—during a pandemic or any other time.”
The Trump admin has issued a rule that will embolden health care discrimination against transgender people, those seeking reproductive health care, and many other individuals who need health care — all while a global pandemic is occurring. — ACLU (@ACLU) June 12, 2020
The rule, announced in a statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), focuses on Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, which prohibits discrimination against patients in line with federal civil rights statutes. Those statutes include Title IX, which outlaws discrimination on the basis of sex.
“In 2016, the [Obama] administration issued a regulation implementing Section 1557 (the 2016 rule) that redefined sex discrimination to include termination of pregnancy and gender identity, which it defined as ‘one’s internal sense of gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female,” HHS said Friday.
“HHS will enforce Section 1557 by returning to the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology,” the department said. “The 2016 rule declined to recognize sexual orientation as a protected category under the ACA, and HHS will leave that judgment undisturbed.”
This is what it feels like even for many of us who are the most privileged. The Trump administration is claiming health care discrimination is "unlikely" to happen to trans people. They know that is a lie. https://t.co/tX7rk4gRFW — Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) June 12, 2020
According to the AP:
The new rule would also affect the notices that millions of patients get in multiple languages about their rights to translation services. Such notices often come with insurer ‘explanation of benefits’ forms.
“This sanctioning of discrimination in healthcare is unlawful and immoral, and doing so while our country loses thousands of lives daily and health inequities across the board persist is especially egregious,” Goss Graves said.
“No one should fear being turned away by a medical provider because of who they are or the personal health decisions they have made,” she added. “This is beyond unacceptable, and we are prepared to take whatever action is necessary to ensure patients come first.”
The NWLC has teamed up with the Transgender Law Center, Harvard Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund to challenge the rule. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced in a statement Friday that it also intends to file to a lawsuit.
More BREAKING: Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign both plan to sue the Trump administration over a rule finalized today that would remove women seeking abortions and LGBT people from the ACA’s non-discrimination protections. https://t.co/tGC3XGYTee — Shira Stein (@shiramstein) June 12, 2020
“We cannot and will not allow Donald Trump to continue attacking us,” said HRC president Alphonso David. “LGBTQ people get sick. LGBTQ people need healthcare. LGBTQ people should not live in fear that they cannot get the care they need simply because of who they are.”
“It is clear that this administration does not believe that LGBTQ people, or other marginalized communities, deserve equality under the law,” he added. “But we have a reality check for them: we will not let this attack on our basic right to be free from discrimination in healthcare go unchallenged.”
As David put it: “We will see them in court, and continue to challenge all of our elected officials to rise up against this blatant attempt to erode critical protections people need and sanction discrimination.”
Neither a global pandemic, nor national uprisings over racist violence, nor Pride month will stop the Trump administration from doing everything in its power to discriminate, divide, and reduce access to health care. https://t.co/oxe9GIyFAk — Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) June 12, 2020
The HHS announcement came not only during LGBTQ Pride Month but also—as David and other critics noted—on the fourth anniversary of a mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando in which 49 people were killed and dozens more were injured, the deadliest attack on the LGBTQ community in American history.
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truthout--2020-06-14--Hospital’s COVID-19 Policy Separated Native American Mothers From Their Newborns

Albuquerque , New Mexico — A prominent women ’ s hospital here has separated some Native American women from their newly born babies , the result of a practice designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 that clinicians and health care ethicists described as racial profiling .
Lovelace Women ’ s Hospital in Albuquerque implemented a secretive policy in recent months to conduct special coronavirus screenings for pregnant women , based on whether they appeared to be Native American , even if they had no symptoms or were otherwise at low risk for the disease , according to clinicians .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 with temperature checks and asks them whether they ’ ve been in contact with people who have the illness .
But for soon-to-be moms who appeared to be Native American , there was an additional step , according to clinicians interviewed on the condition they not be named .
Hospital staff would compare the expectant mother ’ s ZIP code against a list of Indian reservation ZIP codes maintained by the hospital , known informally as the “ Pueblos List , ” a reference to New Mexico ’ s Pueblo Indian tribes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ZIP code matched one on the list , she was designated as a “ person under investigation ” for COVID-19 , the clinicians said .
Lovelace does not use rapid COVID-19 tests , and babies were sometimes born before asymptomatic Native American mothers ’ test results came back from the lab , a process that can take up to three days .
As a result , the hospital separated Native American newborns from their asymptomatic mothers in at least a half-dozen cases , one clinician said .
Such separations deprive infants of close @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doctors recommend .
“ I believe this policy is racial profiling , ” one clinician said .
“ We seem to be applying a standard to Native Americans that isn ’ t applied to everybody else .
We seem to be specifically picking out patients from Native communities as at-risk whether or not there are outbreaks at their specific pueblo or reservation.
” The Navajo Nation and several Pueblo tribes in New Mexico have recorded some of the highest per capita rates of COVID-19 infection in the nation .
In response to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ counties as hot spots , including some that are home to tribes with large numbers of cases .
But 10 of the ZIP codes on the Lovelace Pueblos List reviewed by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica do not fall within those hot spot counties , nor do all tribes within those ZIP codes have a high rate of infection .
A Lovelace spokeswoman acknowledged screening patients by geography , but she would not confirm or deny the existence of a policy based on ZIP codes as described by staff .
Lovelace , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Health Services , is Albuquerque ’ s largest privately owned hospital system .
“ Part of our screening process includes identifying and testing patients who reside in high-risk areas such as nursing homes and regional hot spots of COVID-19 cases as recommended ” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Lovelace spokeswoman Whitney Marquez wrote in a May 21 email .
But CDC guidelines for evaluating COVID-19 risk among pregnant patients do not mention geography or ZIP code of residence .
The guidelines instead state that only pregnant patients with COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients should be treated as suspected cases .
“ Regardless of pending test results , pregnant individuals who are asymptomatic at the time of admission and have no history of high-risk contact should not be considered to be suspected cases , ” the CDC guidelines note .
In a follow-up email , Marquez said Lovelace ’ s residential geography screening applied to all patients : “ Any patient admitted to the hospital for any reason from a designated hot spot region is tested for COVID-19 as a PUI ( person under investigation ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s claim was disputed by several clinicians who work in the hospital .
Only ZIP codes with significant populations of Native Americans appeared on the list .
Patients who did not appear to be Native American were not subject to further screening based on the ZIP code list , they said .
The two other large hospitals in Albuquerque said they did not have a policy like the one described by clinicians at Lovelace .
Mothers are not determined to be suspected COVID-19 cases based only on their home ZIP code or their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the University of New Mexico Hospital said .
Nor are asymptomatic mothers ’ newborns separated for isolation pending test results at those other hospitals .
At Lovelace , only women who appear to be Native American were singled out for the additional examination , even if they showed no symptoms and had not been in contact with a person who has tested positive for the illness , clinicians said .
“ This isn ’ t about where you live or if you live in a hot spot — it ’ s about whether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a clinician explained .
“ The only people for whom we ’ ve been told to check ZIP codes are patients who appear to be Native.
” Health care ethicists said the practice described by the clinicians raises troubling questions about bias , trust and informed patient consent .
Saskia Popescu , a senior infection prevention epidemiologist at George Mason University in Fairfax , Virginia , said such policy decisions wouldn ’ t make sense from an infection control or epidemiology perspective , and they could create or exacerbate trust issues toward health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There is a lot of room for error and a lot of assumptions , ” she noted .
“ You ’ re assuming their mailing address is where they live , and they ’ ve been exposed or not exposed based on where they live .
It doesn ’ t match public health guidance.
” Popescu said she understood why the hospital might place someone under investigation if they came from high-risk settings like nursing homes , but she questioned how a case could be made for doing so based on a home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t really know how well you can make the case that if a mom is asymptomatic , if she is reporting no known exposures to sick people , how you can make the case for keeping that baby in the NICU , separated , ” Popescu said .
A copy of the Lovelace list reviewed by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica contains names of tribes next to each of 22 associated ZIP codes .
Native Americans have a much higher COVID-19 rate overall than other populations in New Mexico , but most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a low prevalence of the illness .
For instance , the ZIP code for Cochiti Pueblo had recorded zero cases as of Tuesday ; the ZIP code for Picuris Pueblo had just one .
An additional eight ZIP codes had 7 or fewer cases .
An internal communication reviewed by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica suggests the intent was to include all Indian reservations on the ZIP code list .
But if so , the list is inexplicably incomplete .
All 19 New Mexico Indian Pueblos and the Mescalero Apache tribe are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the list , and the Navajo Nation is named next to five ZIP codes .
( Several Pueblo Indian tribes share some ZIP codes . )
But missing from the list are the Jicarilla Apache tribe and three outlying Navajo communities : To ’ hajiilee , Ramah and Alamo .
Also missing are numerous ZIP codes in the northwest part of the state with significant Native populations — and COVID-19 outbreaks .
Marquez did not provide a list of “ designated hot spot ” regions or ZIP codes despite repeated requests , other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regions “ have been determined by the New Mexico Department of Health.
” But the state defines COVID-19 geographic hot spots by county , not ZIP codes , spokesman David Morgan wrote in an email .
“ Hospitals have the latitude to decide on who to test , but no testing decisions should be made arbitrarily solely on the basis of race or ethnicity , ” State Epidemiologist Michael Landen wrote in an email Thursday .
Referring to a map on the state Health Department ’ s online COVID-19 dashboard , Human Services @ @ @ @ @ @ @ counties of San Juan , McKinley , Sandoval , Bernalillo and Doña Ana as state-designated hot spots .
Twelve of the 22 ZIP codes , which are home to 14 tribes on the list , have very few positive COVID-19 cases , according to publicly available Health Department data .
Those ZIP codes are shaded green , or have no color , on the state data portal , signifying they have the lowest number of cases compared with other areas .
In other words , the Pueblos List contains low-risk ZIP code areas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ include other ZIP codes falling within counties deemed to be COVID-19 hot spots by the state — even those that contain large swaths of the heavily hit Navajo Nation .
Usually , Lovelace officials announce new policies by emailing links to staff .
But that was not done in this case .
Instead , supervisors read the policy aloud at the beginning of each shift , clinicians said .
The verbal readings didn ’ t mention that Native American mothers had to provide informed consent to be tested or separated from their newborn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appears to have caused confusion among staff .
One clinician said that Native American mothers were given an opportunity to decline separation from their infants .
But another clinician said some staff did not know patients had an option to do so for several weeks in April and May .
“ I don ’ t believe that patients were given an opportunity to decline testing or separation from their babies , ” that clinician said .
“ This is a violation of informed consent , which is a foundation of modern health care.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ disputed the claim .
She said that Lovelace provides all patients suspected or confirmed of having COVID-19 with information about the risks of remaining with their newborns .
“ Some patient [ s ] opt to keep their baby with them , ” she said .
At least part of the issue lies in the type of tests done to detect COVID-19 .
Several Albuquerque hospitals , including Presbyterian and the University of New Mexico , use new rapid COVID-19 tests that yield results as quickly as two hours .
Lovelace , however @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not explain why Lovelace did not deploy more rapid tests .
Nicolle L. Gonzales , a Navajo nurse midwife who worked at Lovelace for two years , first heard about the ZIP code policy from a colleague at the hospital last month .
Gonzales , who founded and directs the Changing Woman Initiative , a Native American women-led health collaborative in Santa Fe , New Mexico , said informed consent is an important concern for Native American patients “ You know , if you ’ re a Native person in an all-white setting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yourself ?
” she asked .
“ There is no way to measure whether you ’ re being racially profiled or racially excluded from a norm [ of treatment ] that ’ s happening or not happening with others.
” Several Lovelace clinicians voiced concern about newborn separations and delayed breastfeeding , which can reduce the odds of successful breastfeeding later on , denying health benefits to mothers and their babies .
For babies , breastfeeding can benefit immune system and brain development .
Mothers who breastfeed have lower risks of breast cancer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issue , we do not take babies from their moms , ” a clinician explained .
“ It is standard practice and policy for babies to be immediately put on the mother , before and during the cutting of the umbilical cord , and to leave them there for at least an hour.
” For some health care ethicists , the policy described by the Lovelace clinicians recalled the federal government ’ s long , troubling history of separating Native American infants from their mothers .
For others , it appeared uncomfortably similar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ previous epidemics .
“ This raises the specter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s , ” said Barbara Gurr , associate professor of women ’ s , gender and sexuality studies at University of Connecticut and author of “ Reproductive Justice : The Politics of Healthcare for Native American Women.
” Gurr recalled a fear-driven bias against Haitian immigrants and gay men as HIV/AIDS spread .
“ Certain people were understood to be the bearers of the disease , in this kind of contaminating way , right ?
I think we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ again in the COVID pandemic.
” Ethicists also worried about the lingering effects of a policy based on ZIP codes .
It could deter Native Americans from seeking hospital obstetric care , said Ann Mongoven , associate director of health care ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California .
“ There ’ s a real concern that this policy could discourage people who absolutely should have hospital births , ” she said .

Pregnant Native American women were singled out for COVID-19 testing based on their race and ZIP code, clinicians say.
Albuquerque, New Mexico — A prominent women’s hospital here has separated some Native American women from their newly born babies, the result of a practice designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 that clinicians and health care ethicists described as racial profiling.
Lovelace Women’s Hospital in Albuquerque implemented a secretive policy in recent months to conduct special coronavirus screenings for pregnant women, based on whether they appeared to be Native American, even if they had no symptoms or were otherwise at low risk for the disease, according to clinicians.
The hospital screens all arriving patients for COVID-19 with temperature checks and asks them whether they’ve been in contact with people who have the illness. But for soon-to-be moms who appeared to be Native American, there was an additional step, according to clinicians interviewed on the condition they not be named.
Hospital staff would compare the expectant mother’s ZIP code against a list of Indian reservation ZIP codes maintained by the hospital, known informally as the “Pueblos List,” a reference to New Mexico’s Pueblo Indian tribes. If the pregnant woman’s ZIP code matched one on the list, she was designated as a “person under investigation” for COVID-19, the clinicians said.
Lovelace does not use rapid COVID-19 tests, and babies were sometimes born before asymptomatic Native American mothers’ test results came back from the lab, a process that can take up to three days. As a result, the hospital separated Native American newborns from their asymptomatic mothers in at least a half-dozen cases, one clinician said.
Such separations deprive infants of close, immediate contact with their mothers that doctors recommend.
“I believe this policy is racial profiling,” one clinician said. “We seem to be applying a standard to Native Americans that isn’t applied to everybody else. We seem to be specifically picking out patients from Native communities as at-risk whether or not there are outbreaks at their specific pueblo or reservation.”
The Navajo Nation and several Pueblo tribes in New Mexico have recorded some of the highest per capita rates of COVID-19 infection in the nation. In response to the pandemic, the state has designated several counties as hot spots, including some that are home to tribes with large numbers of cases. But 10 of the ZIP codes on the Lovelace Pueblos List reviewed by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica do not fall within those hot spot counties, nor do all tribes within those ZIP codes have a high rate of infection.
A Lovelace spokeswoman acknowledged screening patients by geography, but she would not confirm or deny the existence of a policy based on ZIP codes as described by staff. Lovelace, whose owner is Nashville, Tennessee-based Ardent Health Services, is Albuquerque’s largest privately owned hospital system.
“Part of our screening process includes identifying and testing patients who reside in high-risk areas such as nursing homes and regional hot spots of COVID-19 cases as recommended” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lovelace spokeswoman Whitney Marquez wrote in a May 21 email.
But CDC guidelines for evaluating COVID-19 risk among pregnant patients do not mention geography or ZIP code of residence. The guidelines instead state that only pregnant patients with COVID-19 symptoms or recent high-risk contacts with COVID-19 patients should be treated as suspected cases.
“Regardless of pending test results, pregnant individuals who are asymptomatic at the time of admission and have no history of high-risk contact should not be considered to be suspected cases,” the CDC guidelines note.
In a follow-up email, Marquez said Lovelace’s residential geography screening applied to all patients: “Any patient admitted to the hospital for any reason from a designated hot spot region is tested for COVID-19 as a PUI (person under investigation), per CDC guidance.”
Marquez’s claim was disputed by several clinicians who work in the hospital. Only ZIP codes with significant populations of Native Americans appeared on the list. Patients who did not appear to be Native American were not subject to further screening based on the ZIP code list, they said.
The two other large hospitals in Albuquerque said they did not have a policy like the one described by clinicians at Lovelace. Mothers are not determined to be suspected COVID-19 cases based only on their home ZIP code or their appearance, officials at Presbyterian Hospital and the University of New Mexico Hospital said. Nor are asymptomatic mothers’ newborns separated for isolation pending test results at those other hospitals.
At Lovelace, only women who appear to be Native American were singled out for the additional examination, even if they showed no symptoms and had not been in contact with a person who has tested positive for the illness, clinicians said.
“This isn’t about where you live or if you live in a hot spot — it’s about whether someone thinks you look Native,” a clinician explained. “The only people for whom we’ve been told to check ZIP codes are patients who appear to be Native.”
Health care ethicists said the practice described by the clinicians raises troubling questions about bias, trust and informed patient consent.
Saskia Popescu, a senior infection prevention epidemiologist at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, said such policy decisions wouldn’t make sense from an infection control or epidemiology perspective, and they could create or exacerbate trust issues toward health care among Native American patients.
“There is a lot of room for error and a lot of assumptions,” she noted. “You’re assuming their mailing address is where they live, and they’ve been exposed or not exposed based on where they live. It doesn’t match public health guidance.”
Popescu said she understood why the hospital might place someone under investigation if they came from high-risk settings like nursing homes, but she questioned how a case could be made for doing so based on a home ZIP code.
“I don’t really know how well you can make the case that if a mom is asymptomatic, if she is reporting no known exposures to sick people, how you can make the case for keeping that baby in the NICU, separated,” Popescu said.
The “Pueblos” List
A copy of the Lovelace list reviewed by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica contains names of tribes next to each of 22 associated ZIP codes. Native Americans have a much higher COVID-19 rate overall than other populations in New Mexico, but most of the tribes on the list have a low prevalence of the illness. For instance, the ZIP code for Cochiti Pueblo had recorded zero cases as of Tuesday; the ZIP code for Picuris Pueblo had just one. An additional eight ZIP codes had 7 or fewer cases.
An internal communication reviewed by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica suggests the intent was to include all Indian reservations on the ZIP code list. But if so, the list is inexplicably incomplete.
All 19 New Mexico Indian Pueblos and the Mescalero Apache tribe are named next to a ZIP code on the list, and the Navajo Nation is named next to five ZIP codes. (Several Pueblo Indian tribes share some ZIP codes.) But missing from the list are the Jicarilla Apache tribe and three outlying Navajo communities: To’hajiilee, Ramah and Alamo. Also missing are numerous ZIP codes in the northwest part of the state with significant Native populations — and COVID-19 outbreaks.
Marquez did not provide a list of “designated hot spot” regions or ZIP codes despite repeated requests, other than stating that New Mexico hot spot regions “have been determined by the New Mexico Department of Health.”
But the state defines COVID-19 geographic hot spots by county, not ZIP codes, spokesman David Morgan wrote in an email.
“Hospitals have the latitude to decide on who to test, but no testing decisions should be made arbitrarily solely on the basis of race or ethnicity,” State Epidemiologist Michael Landen wrote in an email Thursday.
Referring to a map on the state Health Department’s online COVID-19 dashboard, Human Services Department spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis Porter listed the counties of San Juan, McKinley, Sandoval, Bernalillo and Doña Ana as state-designated hot spots.
Twelve of the 22 ZIP codes, which are home to 14 tribes on the list, have very few positive COVID-19 cases, according to publicly available Health Department data. Those ZIP codes are shaded green, or have no color, on the state data portal, signifying they have the lowest number of cases compared with other areas.
In other words, the Pueblos List contains low-risk ZIP code areas that include particular tribes but do not include other ZIP codes falling within counties deemed to be COVID-19 hot spots by the state — even those that contain large swaths of the heavily hit Navajo Nation.
Separating Babies
Usually, Lovelace officials announce new policies by emailing links to staff. But that was not done in this case. Instead, supervisors read the policy aloud at the beginning of each shift, clinicians said.
The verbal readings didn’t mention that Native American mothers had to provide informed consent to be tested or separated from their newborn, a clinician said. That ambiguity appears to have caused confusion among staff.
One clinician said that Native American mothers were given an opportunity to decline separation from their infants.
But another clinician said some staff did not know patients had an option to do so for several weeks in April and May. “I don’t believe that patients were given an opportunity to decline testing or separation from their babies,” that clinician said. “This is a violation of informed consent, which is a foundation of modern health care.”
Marquez, the hospital spokeswoman, disputed the claim. She said that Lovelace provides all patients suspected or confirmed of having COVID-19 with information about the risks of remaining with their newborns. “Some patient[s] opt to keep their baby with them,” she said.
At least part of the issue lies in the type of tests done to detect COVID-19. Several Albuquerque hospitals, including Presbyterian and the University of New Mexico, use new rapid COVID-19 tests that yield results as quickly as two hours.
Lovelace, however, uses slower tests. Marquez would not explain why Lovelace did not deploy more rapid tests.
Nicolle L. Gonzales, a Navajo nurse midwife who worked at Lovelace for two years, first heard about the ZIP code policy from a colleague at the hospital last month.
Gonzales, who founded and directs the Changing Woman Initiative, a Native American women-led health collaborative in Santa Fe, New Mexico, said informed consent is an important concern for Native American patients
“You know, if you’re a Native person in an all-white setting, how do you speak up for yourself?” she asked. “There is no way to measure whether you’re being racially profiled or racially excluded from a norm [of treatment] that’s happening or not happening with others.”
Several Lovelace clinicians voiced concern about newborn separations and delayed breastfeeding, which can reduce the odds of successful breastfeeding later on, denying health benefits to mothers and their babies. For babies, breastfeeding can benefit immune system and brain development. Mothers who breastfeed have lower risks of breast cancer.
“Unless there is a life-threatening issue, we do not take babies from their moms,” a clinician explained. “It is standard practice and policy for babies to be immediately put on the mother, before and during the cutting of the umbilical cord, and to leave them there for at least an hour.”
For some health care ethicists, the policy described by the Lovelace clinicians recalled the federal government’s long, troubling history of separating Native American infants from their mothers. For others, it appeared uncomfortably similar to the disparate treatments of minorities in previous epidemics.
“This raises the specter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1980s,” said Barbara Gurr, associate professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at University of Connecticut and author of “Reproductive Justice: The Politics of Healthcare for Native American Women.” Gurr recalled a fear-driven bias against Haitian immigrants and gay men as HIV/AIDS spread. “Certain people were understood to be the bearers of the disease, in this kind of contaminating way, right? I think we’re running the risk of doing it again in the COVID pandemic.”
Ethicists also worried about the lingering effects of a policy based on ZIP codes. It could deter Native Americans from seeking hospital obstetric care, said Ann Mongoven, associate director of health care ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California.
“There’s a real concern that this policy could discourage people who absolutely should have hospital births,” she said.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-06-14--Protesters Take to the Streets in Atlanta After Police Kill Rayshard Brooks

Demands for accountability and sweeping reforms mounted Saturday after Atlanta police shot and killed Rayshard Brooks , a 27-year-old Black man , Friday night amid a wave of global protests against police violence and systemic racism sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis late last month .
In a message to Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Saturday , the Georgia NAACP tweeted that the city ’ s police department “ needs a serious overhaul .
The continuation of these kinds of actions require immediate resolution .
Instead of seeing an improvement , it continues to happen day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Atlanta Police Department ( APD ) “ has had a culture of excessive use of force ” and called for Police Chief Erika Shields to be “ relieved immediately.
” The group also demanded the release of “ body cam footage and all surveillance video from surrounding buildings ” to shed light on Brooks ’ killing .
Bottoms announced during a Saturday afternoon news conference that Shields offered her resignation , which she accepted .
The mayor also said that she does “ not believe this was a justified use of deadly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the immediate termination of the officer ” who shot Brooks .
Brooks died following surgery at a local hospital after APD officers were dispatched to a Wendy ’ s restaurant around 10:30 pm Friday to respond to “ a complaint of [ Brooks ] in a vehicle parked in the drive-thru asleep , causing other customers to drive around the vehicle , ” according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ( GBI ) , which is investigating the shooting .
The involved officers have not yet been publicly identified .
GBI initially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sobriety test , “ officers attempted to place the male subject into custody .
During the arrest , the male subject resisted and a struggle ensued ” involving a Taser .
In an updated statement Saturday , GBI said , “ An earlier account of this incident was based on the officer ’ s body cam which was knocked off during the physical struggle , preventing the capture of the entire shooting incident.
” Video footage of Brooks ’ encounter with APD circulated on social media and appears to show him running away @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The updated GBI statement said the bureau had “ obtained additional surveillance video from the Wendy ’ s restaurant , ” which was released to the public .
Agents have also reviewed video posted on social media , ” GBI added .
“ These new videos indicate that during a physical struggle with officers , Brooks obtained one of the officer ’ s Tasers and began to flee from the scene .
Officers pursued Brooks on foot and during the chase , Brooks turned and pointed the Taser at the officer .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Rev .
James Woodall , state president of the Georgia NAACP , told reporters Saturday that “ this is not the first time a Black man has been killed for sleeping.
” He added that “ while Atlanta is often called ‘ the Black Mecca , ’ the Atlanta Police Department has a continued history of antagonizing our communities.
” The Washington Post reported that during a call with journalists Saturday afternoon , According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , Woodall was asked if his group has been in contact with Bottoms or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he said , “ we have not heard from the mayor herself or the police chief , and the silence is deafening.
” Stacey Abrams , a Georgia voting rights activist who ran for governor as a Democrat in 2018 , took to Twitter Saturday to demand investigations and accountability in this case as well as broader reforms in local policing .
She declared : “ Sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death.
” Brooks ’ death added to the growing outrage over police violence toward people of color @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fueled # DefundPolice demands and demonstrations across the U.S. and in other countries for nearly three weeks .
Saturday also saw demonstrations in other U.S. cities including Washington , D.C. as well as in London , Paris , Prauge , and Perth , the capital of Western Australia .
Some events in Europe drew far-right counter-protesters who clashed with police .

Demands for accountability and sweeping reforms mounted Saturday after Atlanta police shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, Friday night amid a wave of global protests against police violence and systemic racism sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis late last month.
In a message to Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Saturday, the Georgia NAACP tweeted that the city’s police department “needs a serious overhaul. The continuation of these kinds of actions require immediate resolution. Instead of seeing an improvement, it continues to happen day after day.”
The Georgia NAACP said the Atlanta Police Department (APD) “has had a culture of excessive use of force” and called for Police Chief Erika Shields to be “relieved immediately.” The group also demanded the release of “body cam footage and all surveillance video from surrounding buildings” to shed light on Brooks’ killing.
Bottoms announced during a Saturday afternoon news conference that Shields offered her resignation, which she accepted. The mayor also said that she does “not believe this was a justified use of deadly force” and she has “called for the immediate termination of the officer” who shot Brooks.
Brooks died following surgery at a local hospital after APD officers were dispatched to a Wendy’s restaurant around 10:30 pm Friday to respond to “a complaint of [Brooks] in a vehicle parked in the drive-thru asleep, causing other customers to drive around the vehicle,” according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), which is investigating the shooting. The involved officers have not yet been publicly identified.
GBI initially said that after Brooks failed a field sobriety test, “officers attempted to place the male subject into custody. During the arrest, the male subject resisted and a struggle ensued” involving a Taser. In an updated statement Saturday, GBI said, “An earlier account of this incident was based on the officer’s body cam which was knocked off during the physical struggle, preventing the capture of the entire shooting incident.”
Video footage of Brooks’ encounter with APD circulated on social media and appears to show him running away from officers when he was shot. The updated GBI statement said the bureau had “obtained additional surveillance video from the Wendy’s restaurant,” which was released to the public.
Agents have also reviewed video posted on social media,” GBI added. “These new videos indicate that during a physical struggle with officers, Brooks obtained one of the officer’s Tasers and began to flee from the scene. Officers pursued Brooks on foot and during the chase, Brooks turned and pointed the Taser at the officer. The officer fired his weapon, striking Brooks.”
Rev. James Woodall, state president of the Georgia NAACP, told reporters Saturday that “this is not the first time a Black man has been killed for sleeping.” He added that “while Atlanta is often called ‘the Black Mecca,’ the Atlanta Police Department has a continued history of antagonizing our communities.”
The Washington Post reported that during a call with journalists Saturday afternoon,
Woodall stopped short of calling for Bottoms’ resignation, but said that it was her responsibility to ensure citizens have “the kind of police department the City of Atlanta deserves.” Woodall also called out the lack of public statements from the mayor’s office and police department as of early Saturday afternoon. Woodall said the Georgia NAACP has hired a private investigator and that a press conference would take place Tuesday morning.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Woodall was asked if his group has been in contact with Bottoms or APD. “At this present moment,” he said, “we have not heard from the mayor herself or the police chief, and the silence is deafening.”
Stacey Abrams, a Georgia voting rights activist who ran for governor as a Democrat in 2018, took to Twitter Saturday to demand investigations and accountability in this case as well as broader reforms in local policing. She declared: “Sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death.”
The killing of #RayshardBrooks in Atlanta last night demands we severely restrict the use of deadly force. Yes, investigations must be called for – but so too should accountability. Sleeping in a drive-thru must not end in death. https://t.co/LKsiwA48Ll — Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) June 13, 2020
Brooks’ death added to the growing outrage over police violence toward people of color, particularly Black Americans, that has fueled #DefundPolice demands and demonstrations across the U.S. and in other countries for nearly three weeks.
John Wade, a leader of the demonstration here at the Wendy’s on University Avenue, where Rayshard Brooks was killed overnight in an officer-involved shooting: “This is the new ground zero. Another man was taken right at this spot.”https://t.co/Kv1vwlbkwU pic.twitter.com/l9eT2b7ylT — Scott Trubey (@FitzTrubey) June 13, 2020
Saturday also saw demonstrations in other U.S. cities including Washington, D.C. as well as in London, Paris, Prauge, and Perth, the capital of Western Australia. Some events in Europe drew far-right counter-protesters who clashed with police.
Activists scuffled with police and protesters in London and Paris as more demonstrations unfolded across Europe in support of Black Lives Matter. In the U.S., people protested after a police shooting in Atlanta. https://t.co/yJ1jmvZuLa — The Associated Press (@AP) June 13, 2020
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-06-14--Defunding the Police Is Not the End Goal. It’s the First Step.

For many of us , this current moment is all too reminiscent of 2016 , following the deaths of Philando Castile , Alton Sterling and Korryn Gaines , when it seemed like social media had nothing to share but Black death .
However , instead of calls for increased police training , revised use of force policies and diversity in hiring , a new and important call has taken hold — defunding the police .
This could be because , for all intents and purposes , Minneapolis had a reformed police department .
The city had developed implicit bias training @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ build trust.
” They ’ d revised their use of force policies , implemented de-escalation training as well as early intervention systems to identify potentially “ troubled ” officers and a requirement for officers to intervene if they witnessed improper use of force .
Multiple years and millions of dollars later , what has the result been ?
Derek Chauvin , an officer with at least 15 conduct complaints , kneeling on George Floyd ’ s neck for almost nine minutes as he pleaded that he couldn ’ t breathe while three @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a reckoning with why these initiatives failed in the first place — because policing is not broken .
This anti-Black violence is exactly what it was designed to do .
Now the call for defunding the police has reached mainstream consciousness , but something has been lost in translation , for some pundits and politicians .
In a conversation with a friend recently , she provided me with a very important reminder : When it was threatened with decreased budget allocations due to a shortfall in taxes , Missouri ’ s Ferguson Police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ progressive entity — it simply funded itself by preying on Black residents through fines and fees .
I think we know how this story ends .
It is not enough to reduce police departments ’ funding .
We must dismantle police departments and utterly abolish their function in society so that their pleas for funding are nonsensical .
The abolition of police is not a new idea .
Black feminist theorists and activists like Angela Davis , Mariame Kaba and Ruth Wilson Gilmore , and organizations like Critical Resistance and INCITE !
( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been calling for the abolition of the carceral state in all its forms for decades .
As the abolitionists leading the current uprisings have reminded us , abolition is not just a divestment from policing , but the creation and resourcing of fundamentally different priorities .
Police abolition could look like Tanisha Anderson being met with community-based support instead of the police officers who killed her .
Police abolition could look like city workers replacing Philando Castile ’ s brake light and Walter Scott receiving mediation for how to best handle his unpaid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that selling loose cigarettes and CDs , switching lanes without signaling , possessing a potentially fraudulent $ 20 bill , being Black and trans , and sleeping in your own bed would no longer be a death sentence for Black people in the U.S .
In the words of Derecka Purnell , “ Rather than re-center police as a public good , the nation must become good and public.
” To be clear , police abolition does not mean a lack of accountability for those who cause harm .
Instead , it entails @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not only disproportionately kill Black , Indigenous and Latinx communities , but has also done little to keep anyone safe .
Detractors from police abolition always point to the same argument — what of violent murderers and rapists ?
In response , I have a very simplistic argument : Over the last few decades , the United States has built the most pervasive prison-industrial complex the world has ever seen and murder and rape still persist .
Not only does violent crime persist , but less than 60 percent of all murders are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assault are not reported to police and of the few that are , only 0.5 percent result in convictions .
Survivors of violence and families of victims often report feeling like the criminal “ justice ” system has failed and traumatized them .
We already live in a society that does not value the victims of violence , especially when those victims are Black and Indigenous .
Don ’ t we want that to change ?
Alternatives to the prison-industrial complex are playing out every day in our communities .
But their growth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
This process will require us to reimagine what safety , justice and freedom look like .
And , it will also require resources — the very monetary resources now allocated to police departments .
We must defund the police — as an essential first step .

Part of the Series The Road to Abolition
For many of us, this current moment is all too reminiscent of 2016, following the deaths of Philando Castile, Alton Sterling and Korryn Gaines, when it seemed like social media had nothing to share but Black death. However, instead of calls for increased police training, revised use of force policies and diversity in hiring, a new and important call has taken hold — defunding the police.
This could be because, for all intents and purposes, Minneapolis had a reformed police department. The city had developed implicit bias training and community outreach initiatives in order to “build trust.” They’d revised their use of force policies, implemented de-escalation training as well as early intervention systems to identify potentially “troubled” officers and a requirement for officers to intervene if they witnessed improper use of force. Multiple years and millions of dollars later, what has the result been? Derek Chauvin, an officer with at least 15 conduct complaints, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe while three other officers assisted.
There has been a reckoning with why these initiatives failed in the first place — because policing is not broken. This anti-Black violence is exactly what it was designed to do.
Now the call for defunding the police has reached mainstream consciousness, but something has been lost in translation, for some pundits and politicians. In a conversation with a friend recently, she provided me with a very important reminder: When it was threatened with decreased budget allocations due to a shortfall in taxes, Missouri’s Ferguson Police Department didn’t transform into a progressive entity — it simply funded itself by preying on Black residents through fines and fees. I think we know how this story ends.
It is not enough to reduce police departments’ funding. We must dismantle police departments and utterly abolish their function in society so that their pleas for funding are nonsensical.
The abolition of police is not a new idea. Black feminist theorists and activists like Angela Davis, Mariame Kaba and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and organizations like Critical Resistance and INCITE! (to name only a few) have been calling for the abolition of the carceral state in all its forms for decades.
Abolition is not just a divestment from policing, but the creation and resourcing of fundamentally different priorities.
As the abolitionists leading the current uprisings have reminded us, abolition is not just a divestment from policing, but the creation and resourcing of fundamentally different priorities. Police abolition could look like Tanisha Anderson being met with community-based support instead of the police officers who killed her. Police abolition could look like city workers replacing Philando Castile’s brake light and Walter Scott receiving mediation for how to best handle his unpaid child support. Police abolition would mean that selling loose cigarettes and CDs, switching lanes without signaling, possessing a potentially fraudulent $20 bill, being Black and trans, and sleeping in your own bed would no longer be a death sentence for Black people in the U.S. In the words of Derecka Purnell, “Rather than re-center police as a public good, the nation must become good and public.”
To be clear, police abolition does not mean a lack of accountability for those who cause harm. Instead, it entails an understanding that police and prisons do not only disproportionately kill Black, Indigenous and Latinx communities, but has also done little to keep anyone safe.
Detractors from police abolition always point to the same argument — what of violent murderers and rapists? In response, I have a very simplistic argument: Over the last few decades, the United States has built the most pervasive prison-industrial complex the world has ever seen and murder and rape still persist. Not only does violent crime persist, but less than 60 percent of all murders are solved. The vast majority of sexual assault are not reported to police and of the few that are, only 0.5 percent result in convictions. Survivors of violence and families of victims often report feeling like the criminal “justice” system has failed and traumatized them. We already live in a society that does not value the victims of violence, especially when those victims are Black and Indigenous. Don’t we want that to change?
Alternatives to the prison-industrial complex are playing out every day in our communities. But their growth and multiplication won’t happen overnight. This process will require us to reimagine what safety, justice and freedom look like. And, it will also require resources — the very monetary resources now allocated to police departments. We must defund the police — as an essential first step.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-06-14--Spiraling Eviction Crisis Threatens More Renters With Homelessness

Tonya Cooper grew up on the south side of Newark , Ohio .
Her dad suffered from alcoholism and severe personality disorders , ultimately landing him in a mental hospital .
Her mom took odd jobs in the city when she could , but raising 17 kids — only eight survived — didn ’ t leave much spare time for work .
The family moved frequently between shanty houses and shacks , and Cooper didn ’ t have running water until she was in high school .
She recalls vividly being teased at school for wearing dirty , misfitting clothes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what you got , and that was life , ” Cooper says .
“ It always felt like we would have a place to go because our community was strong and the people were good.
” Her husband , Charles , is a dyed-in-the-wool manufacturing man who spent much of his post-military career working in Newark ’ s old industrial park .
Rarely , though , was his salary enough to support Tonya , who suffers from severe depression and anxiety , their four kids and growing number of grandchildren .
The Coopers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four times before moving into their current home .
The oldest daughter , who was previously addicted to heroin , is now eight years sober and working at the downtown Wendy ’ s during the day while her fiancé works the night shift at a distribution center .
The youngest daughter works at a gas station .
The Coopers ’ situation is not uncommon in Newark .
Between 30 and 80 families face eviction in the county every two weeks , according to the Newark Advocate .
Nor are they unique nationally , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ eviction crisis ” on our hands .
The Princeton University Eviction Lab , a non-partisan research non-profit that tracks eviction data and policy , describes an eviction record as the “ scarlet E , ” aptly named for the permanent mark it leaves on a person ’ s ability to secure housing , find a job , boost credit or access federal assistance .
Before COVID-19 arrived and ravaged any semblance of normalcy , 300,000 evictions were filed in courthouses across the United States every month , according to the Eviction Lab @ @ @ @ @ @ @ renters were spending more than fifty percent of their income on housing , a Harvard University study released earlier this year shows .
So when statewide stay-at-home mandates forced non-essential businesses to close and left 33 million residents jobless or with reduced hours , those already living on the brink of eviction were at risk of losing the very home they were told to use as shelter .
A patchwork of solutions has emerged at the state and city level to protect tenants from eviction during the most critical phase of the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scorecard reveals jarring holes in these policies which won ’ t adequately protect renters once recovery begins .
The result could be a “ full-blown outbreak of homelessness ” and the spread of “ more poverty , sickness , and death , ” wrote Alieza Durana from the Eviction Lab in a Washington Post editorial last month .
The national eviction narrative has largely focused on urban cities like Milwaukee , Philadelphia or Baltimore , but alarming statistics reverberate throughout the every one of this country ’ s corners .
“ Eviction is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the U.S. We see it across red states and blue states , and across suburban , rural and urban areas , ” Durana told Truthout in an email .
A report from the Department of Agriculture estimated nearly one-quarter of children growing up in rural areas are poor , as compared to 20 percent in urban centers , and data show concentrated job growth in urban areas .
Meanwhile , in the vacuum left behind in the U.S. ’ s post-industrial suburban heartland , full-time factory jobs have given way to hourly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working conditions and no benefits , and medium-sized cities see jobs and businesses moving to coastal poles .
Though the country ’ s rural or suburban poor are harder to find , they ’ re ever-present , says Lesha Farias , co-founder of the local nonprofit Newark Think Tank on Poverty .
Diane Yentel , president and CEO of the Washington , D.C.-based National Low Income Housing Coalition , agrees .
These communities “ must often grapple with disinvestment in addition to the same issues of wage stagnation and housing affordability faced by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yentel .
According to Tonya Cooper , it ’ s become nearly impossible to live in poverty in Newark .
Today , they rent a $ 1,500-per-month two-bedroom house in a rough neighborhood .
It ’ s across the train tracks demarcating development and disinvestment .
They house four adults ( sometimes five if their homeless son sleeps over ) , one grandson and three dogs .
Most of the city ’ s newer facade — like the downtown square with a renovated movie theater and working cooperative space — is off-limits to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vouchers , a veteran pension and occasional part-time work at fast food chains .
“ People who have lived in Newark a long time can ’ t afford to live here anymore .
We say gentrification is when rents go up so high that locals can ’ t stay , ” says Nancy Welu , a housing advocate at Newark Homeless Outreach .
For those barely making it , rent makes up a disproportionate amount of monthly costs .
Princeton ’ s Eviction Lab found that nationwide , most poor renting families spend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ housing , while a quarter of those spend over 70 percent of their income on rent and utilities .
In Virginia , home to five of the nation ’ s cities with the highest eviction rates , nearly half of low-income renters are cost-burned , meaning they spent more than the Housing and Urban Development Department-recommended 30 percent of monthly income on rent , according to 2018 data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition .
That number is over 80 percent for very low and extremely low income families .
These people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ car or job loss away from missing a rent payment .
According to Yentel , most of the time , indebted tenants usually owe relatively small amounts of money , often less than one month ’ s rent .
When an eviction notice gets brought to court , it can end up on someone ’ s record permanently , even if it ’ s dismissed , says Rivkah Meder , who coordinates eviction policy for Virginia ’ s housing department .
“ An eviction can be a major roadblock to getting housing in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Meder notes there are few legal levers to pull to mandate landlords accept tenants with evictions , many of whom receive federal aid through housing subsidy vouchers .
“ The ironic thing is that it ’ s a dependable source of income for landlords because it ’ s guaranteed rent as long as the tenant remains eligible , ” said Pam Kestner , deputy director of the same department , referring to Section 8 applicants .
Landlords who take formerly evicted tenants often offer ramshackle units in low-income neighborhoods , Farias says .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ court described mold , termites and bed bugs as typical .
The Cooper family left its most recent place because , according to Charles Cooper , the landlord kept asking him — a 62-year-old with knees bad enough to warrant surgery a few years back — to do house repairs for free , and because someone was shot two doors down .
Charles has been frustrated by the court ’ s lack of holistic evaluation of their reasons for having fallen behind on rent .
“ The rent wasn ’ t paid , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Cooper says .
“ But it ’ s not like I was being reckless or putting money away just to keep for myself .
I just didn ’ t have it.
” Poverty , eviction and homelessness are all part of the same cycle .
Losing a home destroys credit , makes finding a new apartment more difficult and increases a person ’ s likelihood of losing a job , according to research from Harvard University .
It ’ s also tied to mental and physical health declines for the whole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same research found .
These factors together contribute to greater chances of ending up trapped in poverty .
Many experts tie the housing crisis to a nationwide affordability crisis .
A Harvard study from 2018 showed that , when adjusted for inflation , the median rent has risen 61 percent since 1960 , while the median wage has only increased by 5 percent .
Post-industrial towns have been especially hard hit .
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released June 2017 showed a 29 percent decrease in monthly employment in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country ’ s manufacturing output increased 85 percent over the same time , powered more by technology than by people .
Meanwhile , the costs of services like tuition , health care and transportation continue to rise , the data show .
In places like Newark , the jobs that do remain are often filled by workers hired on a temporary contract basis rather than as full-time employees , according to Welu .
This means they lack benefits or the ability to put money away to save for an emergency .
“ All @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dried up , ” Welu says .
Charles Cooper was first evicted 10 years ago after he was laid off from Constar Plastics for fighting with management .
In the aftermath , Cooper struggled to find permanent work as Newark ’ s industrial park emptied out and factories left town .
Eviction law varies by state , making a one-size-fits-all solution challenging .
In every case , it ’ s complex and rife with loopholes and exceptions .
Most tenants face eviction because of failure to pay rent , according to Yentel .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” and state laws dictate how much time the landlord must provide tenants to pay rent or remedy a different lease violation before moving out voluntarily or going to court .
In Ohio and Mississippi , landlords are only required to give the tenant a three-day notice .
Virginia law is similar , though it provides a five-day grace period .
However , Mississippi permits landlords to execute an eviction without a court order or without notice if the lease reserves them the right .
Indiana is considered to be one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when it comes to eviction law , despite providing the tenants with 10 days — not even a full pay period — to repay rent in full before vacating or litigating .
Many renters advocates say these laws favor the landlord , as three or five days is likely not nearly enough for vulnerable , low-income tenants to put the money together .
It ’ s this “ unequal playing field ” that makes it so hard for a housing-vulnerable person to avoid an eviction , Kestner says .
The Coopers have never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ judge — a common occurrence among tenants facing eviction , Farias says .
A complex web of legalese and the intimidation of a courtroom can overwhelm even the most savvy and , according to Welu , the vast majority of eviction-vulnerable tenants don ’ t know their rights and protections .
A number of jurisdictions are experimenting with possible mitigation techniques : free legal representation , right to counsel laws like the one Philadelphia passed in November , and diversion programs to fund mediation and subsidies between landlords and renters .
But the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ altogether .
“ By the time a tenant gets to court , they may be in a financial hole so deep that they ’ re beyond what assistance can provide , ” Kestner says .
Sylvester Gaston Jr. is a truck driver who was also served an eviction at the same courthouse as the Coopers in April 2019 despite offering to pay back-due rent by the end of the week .
“ Not everyone who falls behind on one bill is screwing up , ” Gaston Jr. says .
“ Hardships happen — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way .
”

The patchwork of legal protections for renters that emerged at the start of the pandemic is unlikely to stem the crisis.
Tonya Cooper grew up on the south side of Newark, Ohio. Her dad suffered from alcoholism and severe personality disorders, ultimately landing him in a mental hospital. Her mom took odd jobs in the city when she could, but raising 17 kids — only eight survived — didn’t leave much spare time for work.
The family moved frequently between shanty houses and shacks, and Cooper didn’t have running water until she was in high school. She recalls vividly being teased at school for wearing dirty, misfitting clothes or smelling bad.
“You took what you got, and that was life,” Cooper says. “It always felt like we would have a place to go because our community was strong and the people were good.”
Her husband, Charles, is a dyed-in-the-wool manufacturing man who spent much of his post-military career working in Newark’s old industrial park. Rarely, though, was his salary enough to support Tonya, who suffers from severe depression and anxiety, their four kids and growing number of grandchildren.
The Coopers work hard, but still were evicted four times before moving into their current home. The oldest daughter, who was previously addicted to heroin, is now eight years sober and working at the downtown Wendy’s during the day while her fiancé works the night shift at a distribution center. The youngest daughter works at a gas station.
The Coopers’ situation is not uncommon in Newark. Between 30 and 80 families face eviction in the county every two weeks, according to the Newark Advocate. Nor are they unique nationally, where many experts say we have an “eviction crisis” on our hands.
Nationwide Eviction Crisis
The Princeton University Eviction Lab, a non-partisan research non-profit that tracks eviction data and policy, describes an eviction record as the “scarlet E,” aptly named for the permanent mark it leaves on a person’s ability to secure housing, find a job, boost credit or access federal assistance.
Before COVID-19 arrived and ravaged any semblance of normalcy, 300,000 evictions were filed in courthouses across the United States every month, according to the Eviction Lab. Nationwide, one out of four renters were spending more than fifty percent of their income on housing, a Harvard University study released earlier this year shows.
So when statewide stay-at-home mandates forced non-essential businesses to close and left 33 million residents jobless or with reduced hours, those already living on the brink of eviction were at risk of losing the very home they were told to use as shelter. A patchwork of solutions has emerged at the state and city level to protect tenants from eviction during the most critical phase of the pandemic, but the Eviction Lab’s scorecard reveals jarring holes in these policies which won’t adequately protect renters once recovery begins.
The result could be a “full-blown outbreak of homelessness” and the spread of “more poverty, sickness, and death,” wrote Alieza Durana from the Eviction Lab in a Washington Post editorial last month.
The national eviction narrative has largely focused on urban cities like Milwaukee, Philadelphia or Baltimore, but alarming statistics reverberate throughout the every one of this country’s corners.
“Eviction is an issue that transcends geography and politics in the U.S. We see it across red states and blue states, and across suburban, rural and urban areas,” Durana told Truthout in an email.
A report from the Department of Agriculture estimated nearly one-quarter of children growing up in rural areas are poor, as compared to 20 percent in urban centers, and data show concentrated job growth in urban areas. Meanwhile, in the vacuum left behind in the U.S.’s post-industrial suburban heartland, full-time factory jobs have given way to hourly warehouse jobs with low pay, poor working conditions and no benefits, and medium-sized cities see jobs and businesses moving to coastal poles.
Though the country’s rural or suburban poor are harder to find, they’re ever-present, says Lesha Farias, co-founder of the local nonprofit Newark Think Tank on Poverty.
Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based National Low Income Housing Coalition, agrees. These communities “must often grapple with disinvestment in addition to the same issues of wage stagnation and housing affordability faced by communities across the nation,” says Yentel.
Eviction’s Permanence
According to Tonya Cooper, it’s become nearly impossible to live in poverty in Newark. Today, they rent a $1,500-per-month two-bedroom house in a rough neighborhood. It’s across the train tracks demarcating development and disinvestment. They house four adults (sometimes five if their homeless son sleeps over), one grandson and three dogs. Most of the city’s newer facade — like the downtown square with a renovated movie theater and working cooperative space — is off-limits to a family that largely subsists on housing vouchers, a veteran pension and occasional part-time work at fast food chains.
“People who have lived in Newark a long time can’t afford to live here anymore. We say gentrification is when rents go up so high that locals can’t stay,” says Nancy Welu, a housing advocate at Newark Homeless Outreach.
Most poor renting families spend at least half of their income on housing, while a quarter of those spend over 70 percent of their income on rent and utilities.
For those barely making it, rent makes up a disproportionate amount of monthly costs. Princeton’s Eviction Lab found that nationwide, most poor renting families spend at least half of their income on housing, while a quarter of those spend over 70 percent of their income on rent and utilities. In Virginia, home to five of the nation’s cities with the highest eviction rates, nearly half of low-income renters are cost-burned, meaning they spent more than the Housing and Urban Development Department-recommended 30 percent of monthly income on rent, according to 2018 data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. That number is over 80 percent for very low and extremely low income families.
These people are one health care bill, broken-down car or job loss away from missing a rent payment. According to Yentel, most of the time, indebted tenants usually owe relatively small amounts of money, often less than one month’s rent.
When an eviction notice gets brought to court, it can end up on someone’s record permanently, even if it’s dismissed, says Rivkah Meder, who coordinates eviction policy for Virginia’s housing department. “An eviction can be a major roadblock to getting housing in the future,” she says. Meder notes there are few legal levers to pull to mandate landlords accept tenants with evictions, many of whom receive federal aid through housing subsidy vouchers.
“The ironic thing is that it’s a dependable source of income for landlords because it’s guaranteed rent as long as the tenant remains eligible,” said Pam Kestner, deputy director of the same department, referring to Section 8 applicants.
Landlords who take formerly evicted tenants often offer ramshackle units in low-income neighborhoods, Farias says. Multiple individuals in Newark’s eviction court described mold, termites and bed bugs as typical.
The Cooper family left its most recent place because, according to Charles Cooper, the landlord kept asking him — a 62-year-old with knees bad enough to warrant surgery a few years back — to do house repairs for free, and because someone was shot two doors down.
Charles has been frustrated by the court’s lack of holistic evaluation of their reasons for having fallen behind on rent. “The rent wasn’t paid, and I can’t contest that,” Cooper says. “But it’s not like I was being reckless or putting money away just to keep for myself. I just didn’t have it.”
Poverty, eviction and homelessness are all part of the same cycle. Losing a home destroys credit, makes finding a new apartment more difficult and increases a person’s likelihood of losing a job, according to research from Harvard University. It’s also tied to mental and physical health declines for the whole family and destabilization for entire communities, the same research found. These factors together contribute to greater chances of ending up trapped in poverty.
Post-Industrial America
Many experts tie the housing crisis to a nationwide affordability crisis. A Harvard study from 2018 showed that, when adjusted for inflation, the median rent has risen 61 percent since 1960, while the median wage has only increased by 5 percent.
The median rent has risen 61 percent since 1960, while the median wage has only increased by 5 percent.
Post-industrial towns have been especially hard hit. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released June 2017 showed a 29 percent decrease in monthly employment in the manufacturing sector since 1987. But the country’s manufacturing output increased 85 percent over the same time, powered more by technology than by people. Meanwhile, the costs of services like tuition, health care and transportation continue to rise, the data show.
In places like Newark, the jobs that do remain are often filled by workers hired on a temporary contract basis rather than as full-time employees, according to Welu. This means they lack benefits or the ability to put money away to save for an emergency. “All the good jobs in Newark have just dried up,” Welu says.
Charles Cooper was first evicted 10 years ago after he was laid off from Constar Plastics for fighting with management. In the aftermath, Cooper struggled to find permanent work as Newark’s industrial park emptied out and factories left town.
Eviction Law
Eviction law varies by state, making a one-size-fits-all solution challenging. In every case, it’s complex and rife with loopholes and exceptions.
Most tenants face eviction because of failure to pay rent, according to Yentel. That’s considered “with cause,” and state laws dictate how much time the landlord must provide tenants to pay rent or remedy a different lease violation before moving out voluntarily or going to court.
The vast majority of eviction-vulnerable tenants don’t know their rights and protections.
In Ohio and Mississippi, landlords are only required to give the tenant a three-day notice. Virginia law is similar, though it provides a five-day grace period. However, Mississippi permits landlords to execute an eviction without a court order or without notice if the lease reserves them the right.
Indiana is considered to be one of the country’s more lenient states when it comes to eviction law, despite providing the tenants with 10 days — not even a full pay period — to repay rent in full before vacating or litigating.
Many renters advocates say these laws favor the landlord, as three or five days is likely not nearly enough for vulnerable, low-income tenants to put the money together. It’s this “unequal playing field” that makes it so hard for a housing-vulnerable person to avoid an eviction, Kestner says.
The Coopers have never contested their case in front of a judge — a common occurrence among tenants facing eviction, Farias says. A complex web of legalese and the intimidation of a courtroom can overwhelm even the most savvy and, according to Welu, the vast majority of eviction-vulnerable tenants don’t know their rights and protections.
A number of jurisdictions are experimenting with possible mitigation techniques: free legal representation, right to counsel laws like the one Philadelphia passed in November, and diversion programs to fund mediation and subsidies between landlords and renters.
But the real goal is to avoid eviction court altogether. “By the time a tenant gets to court, they may be in a financial hole so deep that they’re beyond what assistance can provide,” Kestner says.
Sylvester Gaston Jr. is a truck driver who was also served an eviction at the same courthouse as the Coopers in April 2019 despite offering to pay back-due rent by the end of the week.
“Not everyone who falls behind on one bill is screwing up,” Gaston Jr. says. “Hardships happen — things come along that make it that way.”
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truthout--2020-06-14--House Dems’ Reforms Are Not Enough — Congress Must End Federal Policing Funding

The unending killing of Black people at the hands of police forces , and the sustained , relentless and highly visible police violence inflicted on protesters represent a grave and immediate national crisis .
The Justice in Policing Act put forth by House Democrats attempts to address this moment , but falls frighteningly short .
We will not see any end to this crisis until the federal government reckons with one of its most important roles in fueling police violence : money .
There are aspects of the Justice in Policing Act , including ending qualified immunity and establishing a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not harmful .
But the myriad ways in which it provides additional funds and legitimacy towards the current system of policing — whether through trainings , standards , data collection or accreditation programs — is neither responsive to the demands of the millions of people taking to the streets in protest , nor to the simple reality of what federal interventions would be most impactful — and most needed .
To begin , Congress must grapple with an uncomfortable truth : By sending billions of federal dollars to local policing over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ precipitate the policing crisis that we find ourselves in today .
In 1994 , Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act , which established the Community Oriented Policing Services ( COPS ) Program .
The program was designed to incentivize state and local law enforcement agencies to purchase new equipment , develop and distribute new technologies , and ultimately increase the number of officers deployed throughout the United States .
After an initial appropriation of $ 8.8 billion between 1995 and 2000 , the COPS Program has granted over $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since its establishment .
The program was successful in its mission — especially in flooding communities with policing .
In just the first few years of its existence , the COPS Program directly contributed to the hiring of 100,000 police officers nationwide .
Hiring of police officers has continued unabated over the last 25 years .
The COPS program has accelerated the school-to-prison pipeline — funneling billions of federal dollars to the expansion of policing and surveillance infrastructure in public schools , and the funding of thousands upon thousands of school police officers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ negative effects : Once federal funding ended , local communities were left to pay for policing without further support from the federal government , which meant cities were quickly forced to bear the burden of these costs .
And as a result today , police budgets in cities across the nation have exploded , resulting in the structural under-resourcing of community needs .
Despite designs to legitimize police forces through training and “ community policing , ” the COPS program has deepened the violence of policing .
“ Training ” is not inherently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the expansion of training in “ threat neutralization ” and combat skills techniques that police have used in the horrific killings of children like Tamir Rice .
Just recently , the COPS office announced nearly $ 400 million in grant funding through the COPS Hiring Program , which will fund 596 law enforcement agencies to hire 2,732 additional full-time law enforcement personnel .
Amid the COVID-19 disaster , the House of Representatives recently and bafflingly included an additional $ 300 million in funding to the COPS office in the “ HEROES Act.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contributed to the increased size , scope and role of policing across cities in our country , and subsequently the endless stream of killings and violence perpetrated by law enforcement .
If these facts are not enough , House Democrats should be particularly outraged that the COPS Program is currently being used to resource a disturbing pet project created by Donald Trump and Bill Barr , entitled “ Operation Relentless Pursuit ” — an initiative designed to deploy federal law enforcement agents to U.S. cities already grappling with extraordinary , and often violent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bureau of Justice Assistance and the COPS office recently awarded another $ 61 million in grant funding to support this dangerous and misguided initiative .
So what should Congress do now ?
It can begin by reversing its course of action , and permanently ending and ceasing any further appropriation of funding to local law enforcement , whether for trainings , equipment , hiring , re-hiring or overtime .
Congress allocating any resources , even with strings attached , toward policing — an institution that already receives over $ 100 billion in public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of our current economic crisis and police violence crisis , is both illogical and stands to inflame an already tense situation .
The Justice in Policing Act ’ s purported attempts to support community-led safety efforts are feeble and underwhelming at best .
They actually undermine social movement demands : Instead of federal funds to support community organizations developing and running alternatives to policing , it creates “ policing innovation grants ” to “ enhance community service and accountability of law enforcement officers.
” Congress should immediately disband all funding streams for policing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and redirect those and additional resources towards much needed community-led public safety efforts outside of policing , as demanded by the Movement for Black Lives .
If the last few days and months have shown us anything , it is the need for a nationwide reimagining of public safety that does not include further allocation of vital shared resources to police .
Millions of people across the nation are making this argument with their voices , signs , and moral outrage .
Why won ’ t Congress listen ?

The unending killing of Black people at the hands of police forces, and the sustained, relentless and highly visible police violence inflicted on protesters represent a grave and immediate national crisis.
The Justice in Policing Act put forth by House Democrats attempts to address this moment, but falls frighteningly short. We will not see any end to this crisis until the federal government reckons with one of its most important roles in fueling police violence: money.
There are aspects of the Justice in Policing Act, including ending qualified immunity and establishing a federal registry of police misconduct, that are not harmful. But the myriad ways in which it provides additional funds and legitimacy towards the current system of policing — whether through trainings, standards, data collection or accreditation programs — is neither responsive to the demands of the millions of people taking to the streets in protest, nor to the simple reality of what federal interventions would be most impactful — and most needed.
To begin, Congress must grapple with an uncomfortable truth: By sending billions of federal dollars to local policing over the last 25 years, it has helped precipitate the policing crisis that we find ourselves in today.
In 1994, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which established the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program. The program was designed to incentivize state and local law enforcement agencies to purchase new equipment, develop and distribute new technologies, and ultimately increase the number of officers deployed throughout the United States. After an initial appropriation of $8.8 billion between 1995 and 2000, the COPS Program has granted over $14 billion to state and local governments since its establishment.
The program was successful in its mission — especially in flooding communities with policing.
In just the first few years of its existence, the COPS Program directly contributed to the hiring of 100,000 police officers nationwide. Hiring of police officers has continued unabated over the last 25 years. The COPS program has accelerated the school-to-prison pipeline — funneling billions of federal dollars to the expansion of policing and surveillance infrastructure in public schools, and the funding of thousands upon thousands of school police officers.
Congress must grapple with an uncomfortable truth: By sending billions of federal dollars to local policing over the last 25 years, it has helped precipitate the policing crisis that we find ourselves in today.
The COPS Program has had compounding negative effects: Once federal funding ended, local communities were left to pay for policing without further support from the federal government, which meant cities were quickly forced to bear the burden of these costs. And as a result today, police budgets in cities across the nation have exploded, resulting in the structural under-resourcing of community needs.
Despite designs to legitimize police forces through training and “community policing,” the COPS program has deepened the violence of policing. “Training” is not inherently good: The COPS program led to the expansion of training in “threat neutralization” and combat skills techniques that police have used in the horrific killings of children like Tamir Rice.
Just recently, the COPS office announced nearly $400 million in grant funding through the COPS Hiring Program, which will fund 596 law enforcement agencies to hire 2,732 additional full-time law enforcement personnel. Amid the COVID-19 disaster, the House of Representatives recently and bafflingly included an additional $300 million in funding to the COPS office in the “HEROES Act.”
Federal programs such as COPS have directly contributed to the increased size, scope and role of policing across cities in our country, and subsequently the endless stream of killings and violence perpetrated by law enforcement.
“Training” is not inherently good: The COPS program led to the expansion of training in “threat neutralization” and combat skills techniques that police have used in the horrific killings of children like Tamir Rice.
If these facts are not enough, House Democrats should be particularly outraged that the COPS Program is currently being used to resource a disturbing pet project created by Donald Trump and Bill Barr, entitled “Operation Relentless Pursuit” — an initiative designed to deploy federal law enforcement agents to U.S. cities already grappling with extraordinary, and often violent, police presence and domination. The Bureau of Justice Assistance and the COPS office recently awarded another $61 million in grant funding to support this dangerous and misguided initiative.
So what should Congress do now?
It can begin by reversing its course of action, and permanently ending and ceasing any further appropriation of funding to local law enforcement, whether for trainings, equipment, hiring, re-hiring or overtime.
Congress allocating any resources, even with strings attached, toward policing — an institution that already receives over $100 billion in public resources annually — particularly in the wake of our current economic crisis and police violence crisis, is both illogical and stands to inflame an already tense situation. The Justice in Policing Act’s purported attempts to support community-led safety efforts are feeble and underwhelming at best. They actually undermine social movement demands: Instead of federal funds to support community organizations developing and running alternatives to policing, it creates “policing innovation grants” to “enhance community service and accountability of law enforcement officers.”
Congress should immediately disband all funding streams for policing, including programs under the COPS Program, and redirect those and additional resources towards much needed community-led public safety efforts outside of policing, as demanded by the Movement for Black Lives.
If the last few days and months have shown us anything, it is the need for a nationwide reimagining of public safety that does not include further allocation of vital shared resources to police.
Millions of people across the nation are making this argument with their voices, signs, and moral outrage. Why won’t Congress listen?
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.