thenation--2020-06-17--The First Wave of Covid-19 Isn’t Over Yet

One consequence of the global uprising against police violence is that Covid-19 has been shoved off the front pages in recent weeks .
Yet the pandemic has not really gone away , especially in the United States .
In contrast to many comparably wealthy countries in Europe , the United States hasn ’ t seen a steep decline in confirmed Covid-19 cases or confirmed deaths .
Rather , America has experienced a slight decline from the peak and then a long plateau that resembles , at best , a gently sloping hill .
But even that gentle decline is deceptive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ third of a billion people , the United States didn ’ t have a uniform experience of Covid-19 .
While New York and neighboring states were hit hard , many other parts of the country had much lower rates .
To date , New York has had 1,593 deaths per million .
Texas , by comparison , has had only 71 deaths per million .
On June 7 , Texas Governor Greg Abbott even boasted about all the traffic passing through Dallas/Fort Worth Airport .
“ The busiest airport in the WORLD for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own DFW , ” Abbott exalted .
“ COVID or Non-COVID , Texas will always be an economic leader.
” A little over a week later , the AP reported that Texas was facing a “ record-high number of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.
” According to the Covid Tracking project , when Abbott made his first statement about the busy airport , Texas had just over 1,250 new Covid cases confirmed ; by June 16 , there were over 4,000 .
The geography of Covid-19 in America is shifting .
Former hot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are seeing a steep decline , but 22 other states , mostly in the South and West , are experiencing a surge of new cases .
Aside from Texas , Covid-19 is on the rise in California , Florida , Georgia , and Arizona , among others .
“ As of Saturday , ” The New York Times reported , “ the daily number of new coronavirus cases was climbing in 22 states , shifting course from what had been downward trajectories in many of those places.
” This new surge is all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a time when the lockdown is being lifted in most states and social distancing practices are relaxing .
Mask wearing made only a partial inroad in American society during the peak of the lockdown .
As the federal government and many states have started spreading the message that America is open for business , mask wearing is likely to become even less pervasive .
On Tuesday , the city council of Montgomery , Ala. , held a debate on mandatory mask wearing .
Despite the advocacy of doctors , who waited for hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mask wearing failed on a tie vote .
The drama in Montgomery echoes much of the debate across the country , as those warning of the resurgence of Covid-19 meet with resistance and denial .
The Trump administration is exacerbating the problem .
Speaking to governors on Monday , Vice President Mike Pence tried to dismiss the surge in confirmed Covid-19 cases in many states as a statistical illusion created by increased testing .
“ I would just encourage you all , as we talk about these things , to make sure and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ magnitude of increase in testing , ” Pence said .
“ And that in most of the cases where we are seeing some marginal rise in number , that ’ s more a result of the extraordinary work you ’ re doing.
” The New York Times noted that “ testing data has shown that such a claim is misleading.
” Politico was equally harsh , saying , “ Pence abruptly reinvented himself as a coronavirus skeptic this week , with comments and an op-ed article that stray into pandemic denialism.
” White @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same line in a Fox News interview .
“ I think it ’ s something we have to get used to , ” Kudlow said .
“ I think it ’ s controllable .
We have much more experience handling these hot spots , small metropolitan areas .
We are not intending to close down the economy.
” ( Remember , Kudlow is in the man who in February said of Covid-19 , “ We have contained this .
I won ’ t say [ it ’ s ] airtight , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Over 115,000 Americans have died of the disease since then . )
Kudlow went on to speak of the new surge as “ flare-ups ” and “ small bumps.
” This echoes Pence ’ s attempts to minimize the situation by referring to the new increases as “ embers.
” Both Kudlow and Pence created a straw man argument by saying there is no “ second wave.
” Talk about a second wave may indeed be premature .
As Anthony Fauci , the top infectious disease expert in the government , told The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talking about a second wave .
We ’ re still in a first wave.
” Fauci then made a point of refuting Pence ’ s lie that the surge is merely a statistical byproduct of increased testing .
Food for Hard Times and Pleasure—Kimchee Out of Anything Incarcerated , Infected , and Ignored : Inside an Arkansas Prison Outbreak More in this series Even if the Trump administration were somehow magically transformed into a competent and honest government , the United States would still be in serious trouble right now .
The nation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other country in the world .
Whatever achievement has been made in slowing down the pandemic has been through enormous sacrifices made by the American public , which bore the brunt of the economic and psychological cost of an extended lockdown .
While the lockdown was occurring , the federal government should have worked with the states to develop testing , tracing , and isolation capabilities .
Instead , it was left to the states to deal with tracing and isolation , with uneven results .
This has left the United States particularly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the social capital needed to call for a second lockdown is now exhausted .
The killing of George Floyd , followed by mass protests , has frayed the social fabric .
It ’ s unlikely that the trust and cohesiveness exists for the public to follow the government ’ s lead , even if there were a government worthy of trust .
Some models estimate that a true second wave will hit in late September .
It will be all the more severe if the current first wave doesn ’ t really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ away and is likely to keep getting worse for the foreseeable future—especially in the United States .
It may not be pretty , but it ’ s the truth .

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One consequence of the global uprising against police violence is that Covid-19 has been shoved off the front pages in recent weeks. Yet the pandemic has not really gone away, especially in the United States. In contrast to many comparably wealthy countries in Europe, the United States hasn’t seen a steep decline in confirmed Covid-19 cases or confirmed deaths. Rather, America has experienced a slight decline from the peak and then a long plateau that resembles, at best, a gently sloping hill.
But even that gentle decline is deceptive. As a continent-spanning country with a third of a billion people, the United States didn’t have a uniform experience of Covid-19. While New York and neighboring states were hit hard, many other parts of the country had much lower rates. To date, New York has had 1,593 deaths per million. Texas, by comparison, has had only 71 deaths per million.
On June 7, Texas Governor Greg Abbott even boasted about all the traffic passing through Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. “The busiest airport in the WORLD for the month of May was our very own DFW,” Abbott exalted. “COVID or Non-COVID, Texas will always be an economic leader.” A little over a week later, the AP reported that Texas was facing a “record-high number of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.” According to the Covid Tracking project, when Abbott made his first statement about the busy airport, Texas had just over 1,250 new Covid cases confirmed; by June 16, there were over 4,000.
The geography of Covid-19 in America is shifting. Former hot spots like New York and New Jersey are seeing a steep decline, but 22 other states, mostly in the South and West, are experiencing a surge of new cases. Aside from Texas, Covid-19 is on the rise in California, Florida, Georgia, and Arizona, among others. More From Jeet Heer The Indigenous Roots of Robbie Robertson’s Rock and Roll Revolution August 14, 2023 Why Does This Racist Keep Getting Silicon Valley Money? August 11, 2023 When Phallocrats Go Limp August 4, 2023
“As of Saturday,” The New York Times reported, “the daily number of new coronavirus cases was climbing in 22 states, shifting course from what had been downward trajectories in many of those places.”
This new surge is all the more troubling because it comes at a time when the lockdown is being lifted in most states and social distancing practices are relaxing. Mask wearing made only a partial inroad in American society during the peak of the lockdown. As the federal government and many states have started spreading the message that America is open for business, mask wearing is likely to become even less pervasive.
On Tuesday, the city council of Montgomery, Ala., held a debate on mandatory mask wearing. Despite the advocacy of doctors, who waited for hours to testify, the resolution for mandatory mask wearing failed on a tie vote. The drama in Montgomery echoes much of the debate across the country, as those warning of the resurgence of Covid-19 meet with resistance and denial. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Current Issue View our current issue
The Trump administration is exacerbating the problem. Speaking to governors on Monday, Vice President Mike Pence tried to dismiss the surge in confirmed Covid-19 cases in many states as a statistical illusion created by increased testing. “I would just encourage you all, as we talk about these things, to make sure and continue to explain to your citizens the magnitude of increase in testing,” Pence said. “And that in most of the cases where we are seeing some marginal rise in number, that’s more a result of the extraordinary work you’re doing.”
The New York Times noted that “testing data has shown that such a claim is misleading.” Politico was equally harsh, saying, “Pence abruptly reinvented himself as a coronavirus skeptic this week, with comments and an op-ed article that stray into pandemic denialism.”
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow took the same line in a Fox News interview. “I think it’s something we have to get used to,” Kudlow said. “I think it’s controllable. We have much more experience handling these hot spots, small metropolitan areas. We are not intending to close down the economy.” (Remember, Kudlow is in the man who in February said of Covid-19, “We have contained this. I won’t say [it’s] airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight.” Over 115,000 Americans have died of the disease since then.)
Kudlow went on to speak of the new surge as “flare-ups” and “small bumps.” This echoes Pence’s attempts to minimize the situation by referring to the new increases as “embers.”
Both Kudlow and Pence created a straw man argument by saying there is no “second wave.” Talk about a second wave may indeed be premature. As Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the government, told The Wall Street Journal, “People keep talking about a second wave. We’re still in a first wave.” Fauci then made a point of refuting Pence’s lie that the surge is merely a statistical byproduct of increased testing. Coronavirus Amid Partisan Politicking, Revelations on a Covid Origins Article Jimmy Tobias It’s Not “Unreasonable” to Want to Change Our Rotten Health Care System Gregg Gonsalves Covid Has Left Deep Wounds in America’s Rural Communities Anne N. Sosin
Even if the Trump administration were somehow magically transformed into a competent and honest government, the United States would still be in serious trouble right now. The nation has had more Covid-19 deaths than any other country in the world. Whatever achievement has been made in slowing down the pandemic has been through enormous sacrifices made by the American public, which bore the brunt of the economic and psychological cost of an extended lockdown.
While the lockdown was occurring, the federal government should have worked with the states to develop testing, tracing, and isolation capabilities. Instead, it was left to the states to deal with tracing and isolation, with uneven results.
This has left the United States particularly vulnerable to a new surge. Moreover, the social capital needed to call for a second lockdown is now exhausted. The killing of George Floyd, followed by mass protests, has frayed the social fabric. It’s unlikely that the trust and cohesiveness exists for the public to follow the government’s lead, even if there were a government worthy of trust.
Some models estimate that a true second wave will hit in late September. It will be all the more severe if the current first wave doesn’t really end. Covid-19 hasn’t gone away and is likely to keep getting worse for the foreseeable future—especially in the United States. It may not be pretty, but it’s the truth.


thenation--2020-06-17--7 Candidates You Should Know on New York and Kentucky’s Primary Ballots

Vital Democratic primaries , many of them with national consequences , will take place next on Tuesday , June 23 .
Nation Justice Correspondent Elie Mystal and National Affairs Correspondent John Nichols have identified a handful of races that they ’ re keeping their eyes on in New York and Kentucky—two states that delayed their primary elections because of the pandemic .
Here ’ s a roundup of seven candidates Mystal and Nichols think are making noteworthy runs .
Charles Booker , US Senate candidate , Kentucky “ Don ’ t you tell me Kentucky isn ’ t ready for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Charles Booker , a 35-year-old legislator who represents a predominantly African American district in Louisville , as he travels the country roads of rural Kentucky .
Booker has gained a lot of notice for joining # BlackLivesMatter marchers in his hometown , but he has also stood with out-of-work miners in coal country .
Challenging the D.C.–insider pick in the Democratic primary , retired Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath , Booker has built a movement campaign around the argument that only a multiracial , multiethnic coalition that champions economic , social , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ man in Washington : Mitch McConnell .
He ’ s persuaded the largest newspapers in the state , both of which have endorsed his candidacy , as well as folks in Eastern Kentucky towns like Prestonsburg—population 3,255—where he recently rallied with a crowd that chanted , “ From the hood to the holler !
” “ They say the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice , ” explains Booker .
“ Well , we are bending it in real time.
” Jamaal Bowman , House of Representatives candidate , NY–16 Eliot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 16th district of New York , the district where I live , and I wasn ’ t going to vote for him in the primary even before he was caught on a hot mic saying that he only cared about speaking at a Black Lives Matter rally because he had a primary .
That ’ s because the challenger forcing Engel to pretend to care , Jamaal Bowman , earned my vote before Engel told the truth about himself .
Bowman is a former middle school principal and made racial and social justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ George Floyd was murdered .
That couldn ’ t be more important in my majority-minority district , which has stunning wealth and school inequality between the largely white parts and the largely minority areas .
I live in the “ white ” part of town .
Bowman is committed to extending the suburban charm ( and services ) enjoyed by my area across the district .
And he pledges to make it a little bit safer for my two children to ride their bikes while black around their own neighborhood .
Jabari Brisport @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 25 “ Politicians have made cut after cut to our safety net , while the rich have gotten richer and refused to pay their fair share of taxes , ” declares middle school math teacher Jabari Brisport , who is mounting a “ people over profits ” campaign for an open state Senate seat representing Bedford-Stuyvesant , Fort Greene , Prospect Heights , Clinton Hill , and other Brooklyn neighborhoods .
He ’ s one of a number of candidates backed by Democratic Socialists of America in the June 23 Democratic primaries for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he brings a class-conscious sensibility to all the issues of the moment .
Regarding criminal justice reform , Brisport says , “ As a socialist , I believe that people should not have to endure the violence and coercion of a carceral system that props up the exploitation of the market by surveilling , caging , and killing those fighting to survive under capitalism.
” In response to Covid-19 , he reminds voters that the coronavirus “ has shown just how long there ’ s been a crisis for working-class New Yorkers.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the next state legislature , as is Brisport ’ s broader recognition of “ the importance of getting those who believe in a post-capitalist world to have legislative influence.
” Mondaire Jones , House of Representatives candidate , NY–17 The primary for NY–17 is loaded with quality candidates running for a seat that hasn ’ t been open since the 1980s .
But Mondaire Jones stands out from the crowded field .
If gold-plated résumés are your thing , Jones has got it : Stanford undergrad , Harvard Law School , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respected law firms in the country , Davis Polk & Wardwell .
But he left that high-paying job to take a post in Barack Obama ’ s Justice Department , and then came back home to the district where he was born and raised to work in the public sector at the Westchester County Law Department .
Jones is a progressive who supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal .
If elected , he ’ d be the first openly gay , African American member of Congress .
Again , there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , some with high name recognition , some with personal wealth , some with establishment ties to Albany and beyond .
Combined spending in this primary race has already topped $ 7 million .
Out of that crowd , it ’ s Jones who has snagged the endorsements of people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , Bernie Sanders , and Elizabeth Warren .
And he still calls the newly renamed “ Mario Cuomo Bridge ” the “ Tappan Zee Bridge , ” which is the kind of thing you do when you are a local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in your mouth .
Nima Kulkarni , Kentucky House of Representatives candidate , District 40 Two years ago , Louisville immigration lawyer Nima Kulkarni challenged a senior Democrat in the Kentucky legislature in a party primary because , she said , “ fundamental democratic principles and institutions are under attack , and we need Democrats willing to show up and fight for them.
” Kulkarni won , and she has since shown up for immigrant rights and public education , criminal justice reform , and repeal of the state ’ s anti-labor “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she ’ s campaigning for reelection , against a primary challenge from the ex-legislator she beat in 2018 .
But Kulkarni ’ s thinking about more than the next election .
She just joined a working group on extending civilian oversight of the Louisville Metro Police in the aftermath of the Breonna Taylor shooting .
And she ’ s challenging racism and xenophobia in the way that legislators across the country should .
“ The only way that we can get through this is by working together , for each other and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kulkarni , whose family immigrated from India to Louisville .
“ Our president can only think to divide us and make us distrust each other .
It is a tactic that has been historically successful , but we do not have to repeat that history.
” Yuh-Line Niou , New York State Assembly candidate , District 65 Zephyr Teachout says that “ one of the biggest priorities in [ New York State ’ s June 23 Democratic primary ] election ” is reelecting State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou .
The two-term legislator has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , New York Public Advocate Jumaane Williams , City Comptroller Scott Stringer , Senators Sanders and Warren , the Working Families Party , and a long list of unions and community organizations in the Lower Manhattan district where Niou says she is “ working on building a movement in the State by bringing our community together to fight for transparency , accessibility , and accountability in our government.
” Niou faces a well-funded primary challenger this year .
But this energetic and engaged legislator has fought hard to protect immigrants , workers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that includes Chinatown , the Financial District , Battery Park City , and the Lower East Side .
And she has earned high marks in recent months as an official who has been in the forefront of fights to freeze rent for tenants who ’ ve lost income during the Covid-19 pandemic , and to advance the demands for police accountability that have been raised in protests since the death of George Floyd .
Mimi Rocah , district attorney candidate , Westchester County The murder of George Floyd has raised awareness about systemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local policing .
Progressive voters are more willing than ever to support leaders who promise to address police misconduct .
But most voters are looking in the wrong place .
Police reform will not come from the White House , and it won ’ t really come from Congress .
Local officials have the most impact on policing .
The county district attorney can hold police accountable for murder or other crimes they commit—or let them get away with it .
In Westchester , there is a contested district attorney primary .
Former @ @ @ @ @ @ @ progressive challenge against longtime DA Anthony Scarpino .
The primary takes place against a backdrop of police scandal : A whistle-blower recently came forward with recordings that he claims show corruption in the local police—one cop even admitted to planting drug evidence on suspects .
The current DA has known about this evidence for a year and done nothing .
Rocah pledges to do better .
If you care about holding the police accountable , if you ’ re in it for the structural reform and not just to get your steps in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care about your local district attorney , the only person who can put a cop in jail .
There is a good one running in my town , and she can win .
Find the good DA candidates running in your areas , and if there isn ’ t one , demand better options next cycle .

Vital Democratic primaries, many of them with national consequences, will take place next on Tuesday, June 23. Nation Justice Correspondent Elie Mystal and National Affairs Correspondent John Nichols have identified a handful of races that they’re keeping their eyes on in New York and Kentucky—two states that delayed their primary elections because of the pandemic. Here’s a roundup of seven candidates Mystal and Nichols think are making noteworthy runs.
Charles Booker, US Senate candidate, Kentucky
“Don’t you tell me Kentucky isn’t ready for change,” says US Senate candidate Charles Booker, a 35-year-old legislator who represents a predominantly African American district in Louisville, as he travels the country roads of rural Kentucky. Booker has gained a lot of notice for joining #BlackLivesMatter marchers in his hometown, but he has also stood with out-of-work miners in coal country. Challenging the D.C.–insider pick in the Democratic primary, retired Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, Booker has built a movement campaign around the argument that only a multiracial, multiethnic coalition that champions economic, social, and racial justice can beat the most powerful man in Washington: Mitch McConnell. He’s persuaded the largest newspapers in the state, both of which have endorsed his candidacy, as well as folks in Eastern Kentucky towns like Prestonsburg—population 3,255—where he recently rallied with a crowd that chanted, “From the hood to the holler!” “They say the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice,” explains Booker. “Well, we are bending it in real time.”
—John Nichols
Jamaal Bowman, House of Representatives candidate, NY–16
Eliot Engel is the US Representative for the 16th district of New York, the district where I live, and I wasn’t going to vote for him in the primary even before he was caught on a hot mic saying that he only cared about speaking at a Black Lives Matter rally because he had a primary. That’s because the challenger forcing Engel to pretend to care, Jamaal Bowman, earned my vote before Engel told the truth about himself. Bowman is a former middle school principal and made racial and social justice key to his congressional campaign long before George Floyd was murdered.
That couldn’t be more important in my majority-minority district, which has stunning wealth and school inequality between the largely white parts and the largely minority areas. I live in the “white” part of town. Bowman is committed to extending the suburban charm (and services) enjoyed by my area across the district. And he pledges to make it a little bit safer for my two children to ride their bikes while black around their own neighborhood. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
—Elie Mystal
Jabari Brisport, New York State Senate, District 25
“Politicians have made cut after cut to our safety net, while the rich have gotten richer and refused to pay their fair share of taxes,” declares middle school math teacher Jabari Brisport, who is mounting a “people over profits” campaign for an open state Senate seat representing Bedford-Stuyvesant, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill, and other Brooklyn neighborhoods. He’s one of a number of candidates backed by Democratic Socialists of America in the June 23 Democratic primaries for New York City legislative seats, and he brings a class-conscious sensibility to all the issues of the moment. Regarding criminal justice reform, Brisport says, “As a socialist, I believe that people should not have to endure the violence and coercion of a carceral system that props up the exploitation of the market by surveilling, caging, and killing those fighting to survive under capitalism.” In response to Covid-19, he reminds voters that the coronavirus “has shown just how long there’s been a crisis for working-class New Yorkers.” These perspectives are going to be needed in the next state legislature, as is Brisport’s broader recognition of “the importance of getting those who believe in a post-capitalist world to have legislative influence.”
—John Nichols
Mondaire Jones, House of Representatives candidate, NY–17
The primary for NY–17 is loaded with quality candidates running for a seat that hasn’t been open since the 1980s. But Mondaire Jones stands out from the crowded field. If gold-plated résumés are your thing, Jones has got it: Stanford undergrad, Harvard Law School, and time working at one of the most respected law firms in the country, Davis Polk & Wardwell. But he left that high-paying job to take a post in Barack Obama’s Justice Department, and then came back home to the district where he was born and raised to work in the public sector at the Westchester County Law Department. Jones is a progressive who supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. If elected, he’d be the first openly gay, African American member of Congress.
Again, there are tons of candidates in this race, some with high name recognition, some with personal wealth, some with establishment ties to Albany and beyond. Combined spending in this primary race has already topped $7 million. Out of that crowd, it’s Jones who has snagged the endorsements of people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. And he still calls the newly renamed “Mario Cuomo Bridge” the “Tappan Zee Bridge,” which is the kind of thing you do when you are a local who will not let Albany put words in your mouth.
—Elie Mystal
Nima Kulkarni, Kentucky House of Representatives candidate, District 40
Two years ago, Louisville immigration lawyer Nima Kulkarni challenged a senior Democrat in the Kentucky legislature in a party primary because, she said, “fundamental democratic principles and institutions are under attack, and we need Democrats willing to show up and fight for them.” Kulkarni won, and she has since shown up for immigrant rights and public education, criminal justice reform, and repeal of the state’s anti-labor “right-to-work” law. This spring, she’s campaigning for reelection, against a primary challenge from the ex-legislator she beat in 2018. But Kulkarni’s thinking about more than the next election. She just joined a working group on extending civilian oversight of the Louisville Metro Police in the aftermath of the Breonna Taylor shooting. And she’s challenging racism and xenophobia in the way that legislators across the country should. “The only way that we can get through this is by working together, for each other and the most vulnerable among us,” argues Kulkarni, whose family immigrated from India to Louisville. “Our president can only think to divide us and make us distrust each other. It is a tactic that has been historically successful, but we do not have to repeat that history.”
—John Nichols
Yuh-Line Niou, New York State Assembly candidate, District 65
Zephyr Teachout says that “one of the biggest priorities in [New York State’s June 23 Democratic primary] election” is reelecting State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou. The two-term legislator has also earned enthusiastic support from Representative Ocasio-Cortez, New York Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Senators Sanders and Warren, the Working Families Party, and a long list of unions and community organizations in the Lower Manhattan district where Niou says she is “working on building a movement in the State by bringing our community together to fight for transparency, accessibility, and accountability in our government.” Niou faces a well-funded primary challenger this year. But this energetic and engaged legislator has fought hard to protect immigrants, workers, and struggling small-business owners in a district that includes Chinatown, the Financial District, Battery Park City, and the Lower East Side. And she has earned high marks in recent months as an official who has been in the forefront of fights to freeze rent for tenants who’ve lost income during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to advance the demands for police accountability that have been raised in protests since the death of George Floyd.
—John Nichols
Mimi Rocah, district attorney candidate, Westchester County
The murder of George Floyd has raised awareness about systemic bias, brutality, and violence in local policing. Progressive voters are more willing than ever to support leaders who promise to address police misconduct. But most voters are looking in the wrong place. Police reform will not come from the White House, and it won’t really come from Congress. Local officials have the most impact on policing. The county district attorney can hold police accountable for murder or other crimes they commit—or let them get away with it.
In Westchester, there is a contested district attorney primary. Former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah is running a progressive challenge against longtime DA Anthony Scarpino. The primary takes place against a backdrop of police scandal: A whistle-blower recently came forward with recordings that he claims show corruption in the local police—one cop even admitted to planting drug evidence on suspects. The current DA has known about this evidence for a year and done nothing. Rocah pledges to do better.
If you care about holding the police accountable, if you’re in it for the structural reform and not just to get your steps in on the Fitbit, you have to care about your local district attorney, the only person who can put a cop in jail. There is a good one running in my town, and she can win. Find the good DA candidates running in your areas, and if there isn’t one, demand better options next cycle.
—Elie Mystal


thenation--2020-06-17--Change Comes to the Streets of Philadelphia

As of this week , I am a Philadelphian once again .
I returned here after a two-and-a-half-year interval in Brooklyn , which even in the midst of a pandemic is both a stimulating garden of eclectic delights and a horror show of metastasizing gentrification .
The timing of my return , I ’ ve been told , couldn ’ t have been worse , coming as it did barely two weeks after a tidal wave of serial vandalism that laid waste to Center City shopping districts west of Broad Street and spread across the Schuylkill River to storefronts as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Upper Darby .
More than 100 arrests were reported , with 13 police among those injured .
Civilian casualty figures have not yet been disclosed , and the total damages are still being assessed .
Our new home is in the West 40s , about four blocks south of where the wave crested , broke , and eventually trailed off .
All of which , of course , was part of the widespread , more variegated reaction to the May 25 strangulation of an unarmed African American man named George Floyd by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chauvin .
Days and nights have passed since the destruction , and there remains some question as to the degree to which the carnage here was provoked—and by whom .
The shock of the Center City mayhem yielded to a calm that was not , in the parlance of journalese , “ uneasy ” so much as resigned , as masked-against-Covid-19 citizens with brooms , barrels , and boards pitched in to help begin the cleanup process .
Affected blocks in West Philadelphia will likely take a longer time to recover ; even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neighborhoods beyond the campuses of Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania are more economically challenged than the streets nearer to Rittenhouse Square .
Yet here , too , there is more resignation than rage , the kind of dazed-and-weary reaction akin to the aftermath of a hurricane , flood , or other natural disaster .
Riots aren ’ t extraordinary events after racial injustice .
What has been extraordinary are some of the other things that have happened here in Philadelphia since George Floyd ’ s murder .
Begin with the uprising @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but in the newsrooms shared by The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News , onetime competitors merged into a two-paper single entity by staff contraction and ownership upheavals over the past decades .
In the immediate wake of the rioting , the Inquirer ’ s architecture columnist Inga Saffron wrote a dissection of the short- and long-term impact of the damage to the city ’ s landscape provoked by a legacy of racism .
The headline above her column read , “ Buildings Matter , Too , ” which was , to say the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Inquirer ’ s editors apologized for the implicitly disrespectful reference to the Black Lives Matter movement .
But as far as black , brown , and other minority journalists working for both papers were concerned , the apology wasn ’ t enough .
For many , the misstep was yet another example of racial insensitivity that , according to an African American colleague from my own years ( 1981–89 ) as a Daily News writer , had apparently worsened .
In response , the company ’ s “ journalists of color ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ characterized as a collective “ sick-and-tired ” day off on June 4 , addressing an open letter to their editors and publishers with more than forty signatures : We ’ re tired of hasty apologies and silent corrections when someone screws up .
We ’ re tired of workshops and worksheets and diversity panels .
We ’ re tired of working for months and years to gain the trust of our communities—communities that have long had good reason to not trust our profession—only to see that trust eroded in an instant by careless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of being told of the progress the company has made and being served platitudes about “ diversity and inclusion ” when we raise our concerns .
We ’ re tired of seeing our words and photos twisted to fit a narrative that does not reflect our reality .
We ’ re tired of being told to show both sides of issues there are no two sides of .
Things need to change .
By Friday of that week , “ things ” did change with the resignation of Inquirer Executive Editor Stan Wischnowski @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any published accounts what specific differences Wischnowski ’ s departure will make .
I can easily imagine , however , from my 30-year career in newspapers how burned out one could get from sitting in on dozens of in-house panels on improving “ diversity ” in staffing , management , and coverage and watching those in power do their best to acclimate minority concerns without doing much of anything about them .
As with any other virus ( including the one that ’ s keeping us all from hugging each other right now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ somehow circumvented , avoided , or adapted to until some manner of cure or vaccine is found—though , unlike Covid-19 , the potential cure hasn ’ t exactly been hidden from view , just hard for some to swallow .
What ’ s been even more amazing—as in blue-snow-pigs-in-flight amazing—has been the erasure of Frank Rizzo from the city ’ s physical and ( it would seem ) political landscape .
On June 3 , the 10-foot statue of the former police commissioner and mayor that stood in front of the Municipal Services @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been a target for protesters ’ anger—was removed by city workers .
Just as incredibly—at least for those of us who lived in Rizzo ’ s domineering shadow for years—no one seems terribly interested in putting it back .
The following week , the front pages of both the Inquirer and the Daily News displayed photos of Rizzo ’ s similarly overpowering portrait mural in South Philly ’ s Italian Market being painted over with little more than a “ good riddance ” or variations thereof gathered from passers-by .
Symbols and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been going down and out for a couple weeks now .
But a Confederate general or official is far removed from our present day in ways that Rizzo , who died at 70 in 1991 while preparing for yet another mayoral run , isn ’ t .
Throughout the latter half of the 20th century , Rizzo was the unapologetic embodiment of reactionary and racist ideology who gained national repute—and , I would argue , the mayor ’ s job—for leading a police department that regularly deployed “ excessive force , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he ran for reelection , he urged his constituency to “ vote white.
” NBA Players Face the Question : To Boycott or Not to Boycott More in this series By the time I showed up to work at the Daily News in 1981 , Rizzo was two years removed from being mayor .
And yet the city ’ s racial polarization he helped stoke continued to smolder for years afterward .
( On my first day on the job , I was practically run out of a white Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to make a “ racial thing ” out of the demolition of an abandoned building .
Most of them , as with Rizzo , were against the idea of integrated public housing in neighborhoods like theirs . )
In the 40 years since Rizzo left office , three of his six successors have been African American .
The current incumbent , Jim Kenney , who is white , says he is glad the Rizzo statue is gone , calling it “ a deplorable monument to racism , bigotry and police brutality.
” In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for some time after , Philadelphians grew accustomed to hearing even a few local political voices raised on his behalf .
But such voices are all gone now , and it feels like neither they nor Rizzo ’ s legacy are returning any time soon .
Rizzo used to continually deny in his post-mayoral life that he was a racist ( which I remember him pronouncing “ raych-ist , ” much like the word “ fascist ” ; since it is far too easy to make too much of this , I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) .
But he had plenty of chances to prove it up until the end of his life , and he never took any of them .
Someone should probably tell the incumbent president that history ’ s a harsh arbiter for such behavior , even if it ’ s unlikely he ’ ll listen .

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As of this week, I am a Philadelphian once again. I returned here after a two-and-a-half-year interval in Brooklyn, which even in the midst of a pandemic is both a stimulating garden of eclectic delights and a horror show of metastasizing gentrification.
The timing of my return, I’ve been told, couldn’t have been worse, coming as it did barely two weeks after a tidal wave of serial vandalism that laid waste to Center City shopping districts west of Broad Street and spread across the Schuylkill River to storefronts as far west as 69th and Market Streets in Upper Darby. More than 100 arrests were reported, with 13 police among those injured. Civilian casualty figures have not yet been disclosed, and the total damages are still being assessed.
Our new home is in the West 40s, about four blocks south of where the wave crested, broke, and eventually trailed off. All of which, of course, was part of the widespread, more variegated reaction to the May 25 strangulation of an unarmed African American man named George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer named Derek Chauvin. Days and nights have passed since the destruction, and there remains some question as to the degree to which the carnage here was provoked—and by whom. The shock of the Center City mayhem yielded to a calm that was not, in the parlance of journalese, “uneasy” so much as resigned, as masked-against-Covid-19 citizens with brooms, barrels, and boards pitched in to help begin the cleanup process.
Affected blocks in West Philadelphia will likely take a longer time to recover; even in flusher times than this, the neighborhoods beyond the campuses of Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania are more economically challenged than the streets nearer to Rittenhouse Square. Yet here, too, there is more resignation than rage, the kind of dazed-and-weary reaction akin to the aftermath of a hurricane, flood, or other natural disaster.
Riots aren’t extraordinary events after racial injustice. What has been extraordinary are some of the other things that have happened here in Philadelphia since George Floyd’s murder. Current Issue View our current issue
Begin with the uprising that took place not on the streets but in the newsrooms shared by The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, onetime competitors merged into a two-paper single entity by staff contraction and ownership upheavals over the past decades. In the immediate wake of the rioting, the Inquirer’s architecture columnist Inga Saffron wrote a dissection of the short- and long-term impact of the damage to the city’s landscape provoked by a legacy of racism. The headline above her column read, “Buildings Matter, Too,” which was, to say the least, problematic. Almost immediately, the Inquirer’s editors apologized for the implicitly disrespectful reference to the Black Lives Matter movement. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
But as far as black, brown, and other minority journalists working for both papers were concerned, the apology wasn’t enough. For many, the misstep was yet another example of racial insensitivity that, according to an African American colleague from my own years (1981–89) as a Daily News writer, had apparently worsened. In response, the company’s “journalists of color” announced that they would stage what they characterized as a collective “sick-and-tired” day off on June 4, addressing an open letter to their editors and publishers with more than forty signatures:
We’re tired of hasty apologies and silent corrections when someone screws up. We’re tired of workshops and worksheets and diversity panels. We’re tired of working for months and years to gain the trust of our communities—communities that have long had good reason to not trust our profession—only to see that trust eroded in an instant by careless, unempathetic decisions.… We’re tired of being told of the progress the company has made and being served platitudes about “diversity and inclusion” when we raise our concerns. We’re tired of seeing our words and photos twisted to fit a narrative that does not reflect our reality. We’re tired of being told to show both sides of issues there are no two sides of. Things need to change.
By Friday of that week, “things” did change with the resignation of Inquirer Executive Editor Stan Wischnowski, though it’s unclear from any published accounts what specific differences Wischnowski’s departure will make. I can easily imagine, however, from my 30-year career in newspapers how burned out one could get from sitting in on dozens of in-house panels on improving “diversity” in staffing, management, and coverage and watching those in power do their best to acclimate minority concerns without doing much of anything about them. As with any other virus (including the one that’s keeping us all from hugging each other right now), racism is something to be somehow circumvented, avoided, or adapted to until some manner of cure or vaccine is found—though, unlike Covid-19, the potential cure hasn’t exactly been hidden from view, just hard for some to swallow.
What’s been even more amazing—as in blue-snow-pigs-in-flight amazing—has been the erasure of Frank Rizzo from the city’s physical and (it would seem) political landscape. On June 3, the 10-foot statue of the former police commissioner and mayor that stood in front of the Municipal Services Building across the street from City Hall—and had been a target for protesters’ anger—was removed by city workers. Just as incredibly—at least for those of us who lived in Rizzo’s domineering shadow for years—no one seems terribly interested in putting it back. The following week, the front pages of both the Inquirer and the Daily News displayed photos of Rizzo’s similarly overpowering portrait mural in South Philly’s Italian Market being painted over with little more than a “good riddance” or variations thereof gathered from passers-by.
Symbols and statues celebrating America’s racist past have been going down and out for a couple weeks now. But a Confederate general or official is far removed from our present day in ways that Rizzo, who died at 70 in 1991 while preparing for yet another mayoral run, isn’t. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, Rizzo was the unapologetic embodiment of reactionary and racist ideology who gained national repute—and, I would argue, the mayor’s job—for leading a police department that regularly deployed “excessive force,” especially toward suspects of color. When he ran for reelection, he urged his constituency to “vote white.” Black Lives Matter Sinead O'Connor Began Singing Her Black Lives Matter Anthem in 1990 John Nichols This New Magazine Aims to Be a Home for the Black Left Dani McClain It’s Time to End the Outrageous Militarization of America’s Police Force Katrina vanden Heuvel
By the time I showed up to work at the Daily News in 1981, Rizzo was two years removed from being mayor. And yet the city’s racial polarization he helped stoke continued to smolder for years afterward. (On my first day on the job, I was practically run out of a white Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood by surly citizens who thought I was there to make a “racial thing” out of the demolition of an abandoned building. Most of them, as with Rizzo, were against the idea of integrated public housing in neighborhoods like theirs.) In the 40 years since Rizzo left office, three of his six successors have been African American. The current incumbent, Jim Kenney, who is white, says he is glad the Rizzo statue is gone, calling it “a deplorable monument to racism, bigotry and police brutality.”
In Rizzo’s lifetime, and likely for some time after, Philadelphians grew accustomed to hearing even a few local political voices raised on his behalf. But such voices are all gone now, and it feels like neither they nor Rizzo’s legacy are returning any time soon. Rizzo used to continually deny in his post-mayoral life that he was a racist (which I remember him pronouncing “raych-ist,” much like the word “fascist”; since it is far too easy to make too much of this, I’m choosing to leave it at that). But he had plenty of chances to prove it up until the end of his life, and he never took any of them. Someone should probably tell the incumbent president that history’s a harsh arbiter for such behavior, even if it’s unlikely he’ll listen.


thenation--2020-06-18--Who Really Was Roy Cohn?

Who Really Was Roy Cohn?

“ This is my grandfather Julius Rosenberg , and this is Julius and Ethel Rosenberg together , ” says a blonde child in pigtails , pointing to family pictures in a home movie from the 1970s at the beginning of the new documentary Bully .
Coward .
Victim .
The Story of Roy Cohn .
“ My father and my uncle were around 10 and 6 when [ their parents ] were electrocuted.
” The young girl is Ivy Meeropol , the film ’ s director ; its subject , Roy Cohn , was a prosecuting attorney in the Rosenberg @ @ @ @ @ @ @ story of the Rosenbergs , who were tried for espionage in 1951 and executed in 1953 for allegedly passing atomic weapons secrets to the Soviet Union .
The Rosenbergs ’ children , Michael and Robert Meeropol ( who took the last name of their adoptive parents ) , have long held that the Rosenbergs were victims of the Red Scare and McCarthyism .
Since the 1970s , the Meeropol brothers have publicly sought an acknowledgment from the US government to that effect .
As for Ivy , Michael Meeropol ’ s daughter , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when she wasn ’ t aware of this part of her family history , and she found herself wanting to know more about her grandparents , as something more than just political martyrs .
Her first film , Heir to an Execution ( 2004 ) , deals with this head-on as it tells a sensitive account of their life and death .
Now , with Bully .
Coward .
Victim.
, Meeropol aspires to tell a more complicated and nuanced story about Roy Cohn as well .
Cohn was only 24 when he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chair .
He came from a Jewish family of proud Democrats , yet he soon became Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy ’ s chief counsel , hunting down and prosecuting American communists .
But Cohn ’ s career in Washington , D.C. , was short-lived : After his friend G. David Schine ( who was rumored to be his romantic partner ) was drafted into the Army , Cohn went out of his way to procure special treatment for him , which became the subject of a congressional investigation .
Cohn resigned following the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ private law practice in New York , where he soon began representing a wide variety of the wealthiest , most powerful individuals and institutions in the city—among them , mafiosi Tony Salerno and John Gotti , the owners of Studio 54 , the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York , Rupert Murdoch , and Donald Trump .
To get a sense of who Cohn was as a person , Meeropol interviewed dozens of his former friends and associates as well as journalists and activists , many of whom refer to him as “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Meeropol ’ s film , though , reveal not how others saw Cohn but rather how Cohn saw himself , as exemplified in archival interviews , particularly a series of taped conversations between him and journalist Peter Manso in the 1980s .
In addition to the tapes , Manso kept a trove of documents on Cohn , from mountains of unpaid bills to records of money laundering and tax evasion—much of which he discovers for the first time in Meeropol ’ s film , as he goes through boxes upon boxes of files @ @ @ @ @ @ @ examine before .
After making a name for himself in Manhattan as a fixer , Cohn would spend his summers in Provincetown , Mass.
, a prominent vacation spot for the LGBTQ community , while publicly insisting on his heterosexuality and denouncing gay rights .
When he was diagnosed with AIDS in the 1980s , Cohn maintained that it was liver cancer , continuing his dalliances while receiving experimental treatments of AZT at the National Institutes of Health .
Cohn was disbarred in 1986 for unethical conduct .
He died later that year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Quilt on the National Mall in Washington , D.C. , in 1987 .
The first panel she saw was for Cohn .
On it were the words “ Bully .
Coward .
Victim.
” I interviewed Meeropol earlier this year about her new film , available now on HBO .
Below is a transcript of our conversation , which has been edited for length and clarity .
lena oukassian : You interviewed such a variety of people for your film—Cohn ’ s friends and relatives , his landlady in Provincetown , even Alan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to all these people ?
How did you get Dershowitz to talk to you ?
vy eeropol : It was surprisingly easy .
I made it very clear from the get-go that I ’ m not doing a hatchet job .
I don ’ t try to pretend that I like Alan Dershowitz , and I ’ m not trying to hide who I am .
And anyone—especially someone like Dershowitz , who knows his history—wonders why I am doing a film about Roy Cohn if not to get some kind of revenge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ : A Q & A With Alex S. Vitale on Defunding the Police It was really important for me to have someone like Dershowitz saying the things he said about Cohn .
I think it deepens the story and allows for the complications .
Here we have Dershowitz , who ’ s out there supporting Donald Trump but who ’ s also willing to say that he thinks the Rosenberg trial was one of the greatest miscarriages of justice ever in this country .
And Cohn was a big part of why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : At one point , Dershowitz says , “ Every era has a Roy Cohn , an opportunist , somebody who will stretch the law and ethics to make the ends justify the means.
” What did you make of this comment ?
IM : Very true .
And it just got worse with Trump ’ s impeachment trial .
Dershowitz ’ s behavior was straight out of the Roy Cohn playbook .
That said , I knew going into this that if I wanted to tell an in-depth story of Cohn , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a lot of Cohn-like characters , like his friend and gossip columnist Cindy Adams .
EG : Speaking of Cohn-like characters , let ’ s talk about Trump .
It was his election that inspired you to make this film in the first place , right ?
IM : I had thought for a long time that Cohn would make a great subject for a documentary .
He is just so fascinating ; you can look at American history from the late 1940s until he died , and he was part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the center of them : the Rosenberg trial , McCarthyism , the AIDS crisis .
The morning after Trump was elected , I was devastated .
Knowing what little I did at the time about Cohn as his mentor , I knew enough to think to myself , “ Oh my God , it ’ s like Roy Cohn is moving into the White House.
” Trump learned a lot from Cohn .
Trump was connected to the mob through Cohn .
But I couldn ’ t have envisioned how bad the Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Trump has blood on his hands .
EG : What insight into Cohn ’ s worldview did you get from Peter Manso ’ s interviews with him ?
IM : I think he really thought of himself as a man on an important mission and that anybody who didn ’ t believe that the Soviet Union was a threat was living in a dream world .
This was a revelation for me , because I had grown up thinking that someone like Cohn just used anticommunist hysteria to his benefit .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exclusive , but Cohn was a true believer when it came to the dangers of the Soviet Union .
He would be spinning in his grave to think that the Trump administration is so friendly with the Russian government .
Cohn was also a huge name-dropper , and he loved being in the press , being a celebrity himself .
I think he cultivated a lot of friendships because it was like a favor bank .
He collected people from so many parts of society—especially people in the mob , who made him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some impunity .
He was so brazen ; he skirted the law so many times .
EG : It struck me that when Cohn talked about one of his clients , the mobster Tony Salerno , he called him “ a warm , decent human being.
” Do you think he really believed that ?
IM : He probably did .
I don ’ t want to psychoanalyze him too much , but I think Cohn lived such a dual life himself that he liked people who similarly had their own double life—like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who takes such good care of his family and the people in his neighborhood or the guys he grew up with , but will kill you in a heartbeat .
EG : Cohn started out as a Democrat , then he kind of turned Republican .
But he wasn ’ t really partisan—he just wanted power .
IM : For Cohn , even when he was older and looking back , he would say , “ I ’ m still a Democrat.
” I think it was a way of him being above @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and I think it had a lot to do with the Cold War , and as he says in the film , he was also against all kinds of civil rights : for gay people , women , and African Americans .
I try to imagine him in Provincetown .
He loved hanging out with people like Norman Mailer , who was a self-professed progressive .
Cohn could probably say “ I ’ m still a Democrat ” as a way to insert himself into that world , so he could have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hanging out with super right-wingers like Cardinal Spellman and then be taken seriously by someone like Mailer .
Being so fluid , being a changeling , served him in the way that he moved through so many different worlds .
For him , I think that was part of being a gay Jew who didn ’ t like being a member of either of those groups .
EG : What is the role of anti-Semitism in everything—your grandparents ’ fate , Roy Cohn ’ s life , and the era at large ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in my grandparents ’ trial .
It ’ s partly why Cohn was even there as an assistant prosecutor .
The judge was Jewish , the prosecution team was Jewish , and that was very calculated .
There was a big divide in the country at that time between the “ good Jews ” and the “ bad Jews.
” The so-called good Jews were the ones who were not socialists , communists , or union people ; they were people like Roy Cohn , who felt that he could divert that rampant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with all the people who were condemning these communist Jews .
And I ’ m not just talking about the Rosenbergs but many others , too .
I feel like he treated being Jewish in a similar way that he treated being gay .
He used it when he needed to , but he also downplayed and hid it .
I know when he talked to people like Alan Dershowitz , he was proud to be Jewish .
But when he was hanging out with these mobster clients or Donald Trump , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being their Jewish lawyer , you know ?
I think about him as a young man in Washington , D.C. , fresh off the Rosenberg trial , where he was so celebrated .
And then he got the job working for Senator McCarthy .
I picture him as a little bit clueless .
When he was traipsing around Europe with G. David Schine , he looked giddy and happy , fooling around and having a good time .
Washington at the time was so homophobic and so anti-Semitic , he had to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He got in trouble and brought down McCarthy with him .
I think that changed him .
He realized that he ’ d better be more careful , protect himself , build this bulwark of connections to make him almost invincible .
When Cohn first left Washington after the Army-McCarthy hearings with his tail between his legs , it was absolutely devastating for him , because he saw himself in Washington .
He was on his way to having a great political career .
He didn ’ t want to be Senator McCarthy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s ear—or whoever else he could work for , moving on up .
You see that when he comes back around later , behind the scenes with the Reagan administration .
EG : How do you think Cohn was affected by the homophobic and anti-Semitic environment of Washington , D.C. ?
IM : Do you know the story of Lester Hunt ?
He was a senator from Wyoming .
Around the time that Cohn was in Washington , Hunt was a very popular Democrat .
The Republicans , including McCarthy , were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get him out of the way , because he was powerful , beloved , and very progressive .
At one point , Hunt ’ s son was arrested for propositioning a male undercover police officer for sex , and this was discovered by McCarthy and some other senators .
They confronted Hunt , saying they ’ d go public with this story if Hunt didn ’ t pull out of his race for reelection .
Hunt tried to stay strong and fight back , but they threatened again , and rather than face @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his son , Hunt committed suicide .
This was the environment that Cohn was living and working in , probably desperately wishing he wasn ’ t gay .
But at the same time , he was brought up to be extremely confident and arrogant , an entitled young man .
So there ’ s that juxtaposition .
That ’ s the core of Cohn ’ s story , or at least the one that I was trying to bring out .
And that ’ s why I stand by the title Bully @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re not forgiving Cohn by recognizing that he was a victim .
If he had been allowed to be who he was , maybe he wouldn ’ t have ended up as this horrible person .

“This is my grandfather Julius Rosenberg, and this is Julius and Ethel Rosenberg together,” says a blonde child in pigtails, pointing to family pictures in a home movie from the 1970s at the beginning of the new documentary Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn. “My father and my uncle were around 10 and 6 when [their parents] were electrocuted.” The young girl is Ivy Meeropol, the film’s director; its subject, Roy Cohn, was a prosecuting attorney in the Rosenberg trial.
Meeropol grew up with the story of the Rosenbergs, who were tried for espionage in 1951 and executed in 1953 for allegedly passing atomic weapons secrets to the Soviet Union. The Rosenbergs’ children, Michael and Robert Meeropol (who took the last name of their adoptive parents), long held that the Rosenbergs were victims of the Red Scare and McCarthyism. Though in 2008, it was revealed by Morton Sobell, a contemporary of Julius Rosenberg at City College and co-defendant, that Julius was indeed a Soviet spy and he “stole nonatomic military and industrial secrets,” according to The New York Times.
As for Ivy, Michael Meeropol’s daughter, she doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t aware of this part of her family history, and she found herself wanting to know more about her grandparents, as something more than just political martyrs. Her first film, Heir to an Execution (2004), deals with this head-on as it tells a sensitive account of their life and death. Now, with Bully. Coward. Victim., Meeropol aspires to tell a more complicated and nuanced story about Roy Cohn as well.
Cohn was only 24 when he helped send the Rosenbergs to the electric chair. He came from a Jewish family of proud Democrats, yet he soon became Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel, hunting down and prosecuting American communists. But Cohn’s career in Washington, D.C., was short-lived: After his friend G. David Schine (who was rumored to be his romantic partner) was drafted into the Army, Cohn went out of his way to procure special treatment for him, which became the subject of a congressional investigation. Cohn resigned following the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954 and opened a private law practice in New York, where he soon began representing a wide variety of the wealthiest, most powerful individuals and institutions in the city—among them, mafiosi Tony Salerno and John Gotti, the owners of Studio 54, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Rupert Murdoch, and Donald Trump.
To get a sense of who Cohn was as a person, Meeropol interviewed dozens of his former friends and associates as well as journalists and activists, many of whom refer to him as “evil.” The most fascinating parts of Meeropol’s film, though, reveal not how others saw Cohn but rather how Cohn saw himself, as exemplified in archival interviews, particularly a series of taped conversations between him and journalist Peter Manso in the 1980s. In addition to the tapes, Manso kept a trove of documents on Cohn, from mountains of unpaid bills to records of money laundering and tax evasion—much of which he discovers for the first time in Meeropol’s film, as he goes through boxes upon boxes of files he’d never had time to examine before. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
After making a name for himself in Manhattan as a fixer, Cohn would spend his summers in Provincetown, Mass., a prominent vacation spot for the LGBTQ community, while publicly insisting on his heterosexuality and denouncing gay rights. When he was diagnosed with AIDS in the 1980s, Cohn maintained that it was liver cancer, continuing his dalliances while receiving experimental treatments of AZT at the National Institutes of Health. Cohn was disbarred in 1986 for unethical conduct. He died later that year.
Ivy Meeropol remembers visiting the AIDS Quilt on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1987. The first panel she saw was for Cohn. On it were the words “Bully. Coward. Victim.”
I interviewed Meeropol earlier this year about her new film, available now on HBO. Below is a transcript of our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.
—Elena Goukassian
E lena G oukassian: You interviewed such a variety of people for your film—Cohn’s friends and relatives, his landlady in Provincetown, even Alan Dershowitz. How did you get access to all these people? How did you get Dershowitz to talk to you?
I vy M eeropol: It was surprisingly easy. I made it very clear from the get-go that I’m not doing a hatchet job. I don’t try to pretend that I like Alan Dershowitz, and I’m not trying to hide who I am. And anyone—especially someone like Dershowitz, who knows his history—wonders why I am doing a film about Roy Cohn if not to get some kind of revenge, right? The Nation Interview ‘Starve the Beast’: A Q&A With Alex S. Vitale on Defunding the Police Zachary Siegel
It was really important for me to have someone like Dershowitz saying the things he said about Cohn. I think it deepens the story and allows for the complications. Here we have Dershowitz, who’s out there supporting Donald Trump but who’s also willing to say that he thinks the Rosenberg trial was one of the greatest miscarriages of justice ever in this country. And Cohn was a big part of why it was such an injustice.
EG: At one point, Dershowitz says, “Every era has a Roy Cohn, an opportunist, somebody who will stretch the law and ethics to make the ends justify the means.” What did you make of this comment?
IM: Very true. And it just got worse with Trump’s impeachment trial. Dershowitz’s behavior was straight out of the Roy Cohn playbook. That said, I knew going into this that if I wanted to tell an in-depth story of Cohn, I was going to have to deal with a lot of Cohn-like characters, like his friend and gossip columnist Cindy Adams.
EG: Speaking of Cohn-like characters, let’s talk about Trump. It was his election that inspired you to make this film in the first place, right?
IM: I had thought for a long time that Cohn would make a great subject for a documentary. He is just so fascinating; you can look at American history from the late 1940s until he died, and he was part of so many major periods. And at the center of them: the Rosenberg trial, McCarthyism, the AIDS crisis.
The morning after Trump was elected, I was devastated. Knowing what little I did at the time about Cohn as his mentor, I knew enough to think to myself, “Oh my God, it’s like Roy Cohn is moving into the White House.” Trump learned a lot from Cohn. Trump was connected to the mob through Cohn. But I couldn’t have envisioned how bad the Trump administration has been in every possible way. Trump has blood on his hands.
EG: What insight into Cohn’s worldview did you get from Peter Manso’s interviews with him?
IM: I think he really thought of himself as a man on an important mission and that anybody who didn’t believe that the Soviet Union was a threat was living in a dream world. This was a revelation for me, because I had grown up thinking that someone like Cohn just used anticommunist hysteria to his benefit. I don’t think those are mutually exclusive, but Cohn was a true believer when it came to the dangers of the Soviet Union. He would be spinning in his grave to think that the Trump administration is so friendly with the Russian government.
Cohn was also a huge name-dropper, and he loved being in the press, being a celebrity himself. I think he cultivated a lot of friendships because it was like a favor bank. He collected people from so many parts of society—especially people in the mob, who made him feel protected so he could act with some impunity. He was so brazen; he skirted the law so many times.
EG: It struck me that when Cohn talked about one of his clients, the mobster Tony Salerno, he called him “a warm, decent human being.” Do you think he really believed that?
IM: He probably did. I don’t want to psychoanalyze him too much, but I think Cohn lived such a dual life himself that he liked people who similarly had their own double life—like Salerno, a “lovable mobster” who takes such good care of his family and the people in his neighborhood or the guys he grew up with, but will kill you in a heartbeat.
EG: Cohn started out as a Democrat, then he kind of turned Republican. But he wasn’t really partisan—he just wanted power.
IM: For Cohn, even when he was older and looking back, he would say, “I’m still a Democrat.” I think it was a way of him being above the fray somehow. He was conservative, and I think it had a lot to do with the Cold War, and as he says in the film, he was also against all kinds of civil rights: for gay people, women, and African Americans.
I try to imagine him in Provincetown. He loved hanging out with people like Norman Mailer, who was a self-professed progressive. Cohn could probably say “I’m still a Democrat” as a way to insert himself into that world, so he could have it both ways. He could be hanging out with super right-wingers like Cardinal Spellman and then be taken seriously by someone like Mailer. Being so fluid, being a changeling, served him in the way that he moved through so many different worlds. For him, I think that was part of being a gay Jew who didn’t like being a member of either of those groups.
EG: What is the role of anti-Semitism in everything—your grandparents’ fate, Roy Cohn’s life, and the era at large?
IM: Anti-Semitism played a big role in my grandparents’ trial. It’s partly why Cohn was even there as an assistant prosecutor. The judge was Jewish, the prosecution team was Jewish, and that was very calculated. There was a big divide in the country at that time between the “good Jews” and the “bad Jews.” The so-called good Jews were the ones who were not socialists, communists, or union people; they were people like Roy Cohn, who felt that he could divert that rampant anti-Semitism away from himself if he stood with all the people who were condemning these communist Jews. And I’m not just talking about the Rosenbergs but many others, too. I feel like he treated being Jewish in a similar way that he treated being gay. He used it when he needed to, but he also downplayed and hid it. I know when he talked to people like Alan Dershowitz, he was proud to be Jewish. But when he was hanging out with these mobster clients or Donald Trump, I don’t know whether he resented being their Jewish lawyer, you know?
I think about him as a young man in Washington, D.C., fresh off the Rosenberg trial, where he was so celebrated. And then he got the job working for Senator McCarthy. I picture him as a little bit clueless. When he was traipsing around Europe with G. David Schine, he looked giddy and happy, fooling around and having a good time. Washington at the time was so homophobic and so anti-Semitic, he had to be careful. But he was reckless. He got in trouble and brought down McCarthy with him. I think that changed him. He realized that he’d better be more careful, protect himself, build this bulwark of connections to make him almost invincible.
When Cohn first left Washington after the Army-McCarthy hearings with his tail between his legs, it was absolutely devastating for him, because he saw himself in Washington. He was on his way to having a great political career. He didn’t want to be Senator McCarthy but to continue to whisper in McCarthy’s ear—or whoever else he could work for, moving on up. You see that when he comes back around later, behind the scenes with the Reagan administration.
EG: How do you think Cohn was affected by the homophobic and anti-Semitic environment of Washington, D.C.?
IM: Do you know the story of Lester Hunt? He was a senator from Wyoming. Around the time that Cohn was in Washington, Hunt was a very popular Democrat. The Republicans, including McCarthy, were always trying to figure out how to get him out of the way, because he was powerful, beloved, and very progressive. At one point, Hunt’s son was arrested for propositioning a male undercover police officer for sex, and this was discovered by McCarthy and some other senators. They confronted Hunt, saying they’d go public with this story if Hunt didn’t pull out of his race for reelection. Hunt tried to stay strong and fight back, but they threatened again, and rather than face that kind of humiliation and the humiliation of his son, Hunt committed suicide.
This was the environment that Cohn was living and working in, probably desperately wishing he wasn’t gay. But at the same time, he was brought up to be extremely confident and arrogant, an entitled young man. So there’s that juxtaposition. That’s the core of Cohn’s story, or at least the one that I was trying to bring out. And that’s why I stand by the title Bully. Coward. Victim. We’re not forgiving Cohn by recognizing that he was a victim. If he had been allowed to be who he was, maybe he wouldn’t have ended up as this horrible person.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article stated that since the 1970s the Meeropol brothers have sought acknowledgement from the US government that their parents were innocent of espionage. In 2008, it was reported that Julius had stolen “nonatomic military and industrial secrets” for the Soviet government and the brothers no longer are pursuing the US government’s acknowledgement that their father was innocent of espionage.


thenation--2020-06-18--The Death of Cop Propaganda

The Death of Cop Propaganda

On the night of June 4 , New York Police Department officers in riot gear surrounded a group of peaceful protesters in the Bronx shortly before the start of a citywide curfew imposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio and , as the clock struck eight , unleashed a barrage of batons and pepper spray .
Protesters were trapped in a mass of bodies by advancing officers and arrested , some clubbed and tackled to the ground for the crime of assembling outside past the curfew .
In a week marked by violent outbursts by the police in the face of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out as uncommonly vicious .
The following morning , de Blasio told Gothamist reporter Jake Offenhartz that what the latter had seen with his own eyes the previous evening had not , in fact , happened .
“ I believe that you believe what you ’ re saying , ” he told Offenhartz .
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said much the same .
By then , Offenhartz and others had thoroughly documented the brutality of the NYPD in a string of videos posted to Twitter , the content of which was unmistakable .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yorkers at home and by people around the world .
But we were asked to ignore what we had seen and to believe instead the very department whose officers had been captured on camera beating unarmed Bronx residents .
We were asked to believe that the arrests were necessary to deter violence and mayhem from the protesters and that gasoline and “ numerous ” weapons had been recovered on the scene—an assertion that turned out to be a lie .
The looting in the borough that the mayor cited as justification for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
This was just the latest in a string of statements from top cops and city officials asking us to believe in a reality for which we had seen no evidence .
Even after we watched an officer deliberately drive a police vehicle into a crowd of protesters , de Blasio praised the NYPD for exercising “ tremendous restraint.
” He at one point claimed he had not seen videos of police using excessive force against protesters .
( Only after public pressure , did de Blasio ultimately condemn the cops who drove @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York Governor Andrew Cuomo berated a reporter for so much as asking about the cops ’ use of excessive force , stating simply , “ They don ’ t do that.
” As anyone with eyes and an Internet connection can attest , they do .
Elected officials ’ insistence on an alternate reality serves , in itself , as a form of propaganda : It is official information that uses distortion in an attempt to sway public perception .
Propaganda , when successful , will induce a lived experience out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are led to believe the NYPD is largely a force for good , that its actions spring from the best of intentions , that its enforcement tactics are humane and rational , then you will not see a police vehicle accelerating into a crowd as unhinged and dangerous .
You will see , as de Blasio professed to , cops protecting themselves from violent protesters ( never mind that those protesters were on foot , unarmed , and defenseless ) .
We have been inundated by cop propaganda from birth in the form @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subject of criticism and calls for reconsideration—and news media that gives undue deference to law enforcement .
But now , perhaps the most insidious form of cop propaganda is found in the very medium being used to document injustices .
Videos of cops kneeling with protesters—performative gestures that have been followed by violent outbursts—are shared as heartwarming affirmations of a police department ’ s desire for such ill-defined virtues as unity and peace .
De Blasio shared one such video himself to heap praise on Police Chief Terence Monohan , who knelt one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Monahan also oversaw and subsequently defended the violent clampdown on protesters in the Bronx .
The mayor ’ s leadership through the protests has itself served as a strategic form of pro-cop propaganda , championing the NYPD as heroes in the face of lawlessness .
Much has been made of injuries sustained by officers who were armed and clad in paramilitary attire , while documented beatings of protesters at the hands of police are brushed off as isolated incidents , not proof of any larger systemic rot .
Videos of police officers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as indicative of their true moral character and , by extension , the character of the NYPD .
The advent of social media has revolutionized how news is reported , how global uprisings are experienced , and how we view our very relationships as citizens to those in power , just as it has revolutionized how those in power try to relate to us .
Every instance of police violence central to news stories about the New York protests was shared to Twitter , often in real time , for immediate public consumption @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time de Blasio told Offenhartz that his eyes had deceived him , the mayor ’ s constituents had seen for themselves what the reporter had seen .
And by the time videos of cops kneeling with protesters were being shared as evidence of their magnanimity , they had been contextualized by far more videos of cops beating , macing , and ramming their cars into demonstrators .
All of which made me wonder whether , in the age of social media , cop propaganda can prevail .
In their attempts to sell us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did their Orwellian best against a smartphone-wielding public , and their best wasn ’ t good enough .
De Blasio ’ s attempted speech at a memorial for George Floyd in Brooklyn was drowned out by boos and calls for his resignation ; on WNYC ’ s The Brian Lehrer Show , he was grilled by New Yorkers who had seen the NYPD ’ s heavy-handed tactics .
Attempts at furthering the mission of cop propaganda have , it seems , fallen flat in New York City , where protesters continue to take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demand that the NYPD be defunded .
And across the country , where similar instances of police brutalizing protesters have been captured on camera , calls to defund the police are gaining traction .
However far we are from abolishing the police , the death of cop propaganda as we know it feels closer at hand—and ultimately , those goals are intertwined .

On the night of June 4, New York Police Department officers in riot gear surrounded a group of peaceful protesters in the Bronx shortly before the start of a citywide curfew imposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio and, as the clock struck eight, unleashed a barrage of batons and pepper spray. Protesters were trapped in a mass of bodies by advancing officers and arrested, some clubbed and tackled to the ground for the crime of assembling outside past the curfew. In a week marked by violent outbursts by the police in the face of largely peaceful protests, the incident stood out as uncommonly vicious.
The following morning, de Blasio told Gothamist reporter Jake Offenhartz that what the latter had seen with his own eyes the previous evening had not, in fact, happened. “I believe that you believe what you’re saying,” he told Offenhartz. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said much the same. By then, Offenhartz and others had thoroughly documented the brutality of the NYPD in a string of videos posted to Twitter, the content of which was unmistakable. The videos were widely viewed by New Yorkers at home and by people around the world. But we were asked to ignore what we had seen and to believe instead the very department whose officers had been captured on camera beating unarmed Bronx residents.
We were asked to believe that the arrests were necessary to deter violence and mayhem from the protesters and that gasoline and “numerous” weapons had been recovered on the scene—an assertion that turned out to be a lie. The looting in the borough that the mayor cited as justification for the cruelty seemed unrelated to any organized protest. This was just the latest in a string of statements from top cops and city officials asking us to believe in a reality for which we had seen no evidence.
Even after we watched an officer deliberately drive a police vehicle into a crowd of protesters, de Blasio praised the NYPD for exercising “tremendous restraint.” He at one point claimed he had not seen videos of police using excessive force against protesters. (Only after public pressure, did de Blasio ultimately condemn the cops who drove their car into the crowd.) New York Governor Andrew Cuomo berated a reporter for so much as asking about the cops’ use of excessive force, stating simply, “They don’t do that.” As anyone with eyes and an Internet connection can attest, they do. Elected officials’ insistence on an alternate reality serves, in itself, as a form of propaganda: It is official information that uses distortion in an attempt to sway public perception. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Propaganda, when successful, will induce a lived experience out of step with surrounding events. If you are led to believe the NYPD is largely a force for good, that its actions spring from the best of intentions, that its enforcement tactics are humane and rational, then you will not see a police vehicle accelerating into a crowd as unhinged and dangerous. You will see, as de Blasio professed to, cops protecting themselves from violent protesters (never mind that those protesters were on foot, unarmed, and defenseless).
We have been inundated by cop propaganda from birth in the form of entertainment—cop-centric shows that are now the subject of criticism and calls for reconsideration—and news media that gives undue deference to law enforcement. But now, perhaps the most insidious form of cop propaganda is found in the very medium being used to document injustices. Videos of cops kneeling with protesters—performative gestures that have been followed by violent outbursts—are shared as heartwarming affirmations of a police department’s desire for such ill-defined virtues as unity and peace. De Blasio shared one such video himself to heap praise on Police Chief Terence Monohan, who knelt one day with protesters near Washington Square Park. Monahan also oversaw and subsequently defended the violent clampdown on protesters in the Bronx.
The mayor’s leadership through the protests has itself served as a strategic form of pro-cop propaganda, championing the NYPD as heroes in the face of lawlessness. Much has been made of injuries sustained by officers who were armed and clad in paramilitary attire, while documented beatings of protesters at the hands of police are brushed off as isolated incidents, not proof of any larger systemic rot. Videos of police officers kneeling, meanwhile, are held up as indicative of their true moral character and, by extension, the character of the NYPD.
The advent of social media has revolutionized how news is reported, how global uprisings are experienced, and how we view our very relationships as citizens to those in power, just as it has revolutionized how those in power try to relate to us. Every instance of police violence central to news stories about the New York protests was shared to Twitter, often in real time, for immediate public consumption. As a result, by the time de Blasio told Offenhartz that his eyes had deceived him, the mayor’s constituents had seen for themselves what the reporter had seen. And by the time videos of cops kneeling with protesters were being shared as evidence of their magnanimity, they had been contextualized by far more videos of cops beating, macing, and ramming their cars into demonstrators.
All of which made me wonder whether, in the age of social media, cop propaganda can prevail. In their attempts to sell us lies, city officials and law enforcement did their Orwellian best against a smartphone-wielding public, and their best wasn’t good enough. De Blasio’s attempted speech at a memorial for George Floyd in Brooklyn was drowned out by boos and calls for his resignation; on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, he was grilled by New Yorkers who had seen the NYPD’s heavy-handed tactics. Attempts at furthering the mission of cop propaganda have, it seems, fallen flat in New York City, where protesters continue to take to the streets by the thousands to demand that the NYPD be defunded. And across the country, where similar instances of police brutalizing protesters have been captured on camera, calls to defund the police are gaining traction. However far we are from abolishing the police, the death of cop propaganda as we know it feels closer at hand—and ultimately, those goals are intertwined.