thenation--2020-05-31--Keith Ellison on Police Brutality: ‘We Need a Vision That Says There’s Going to be Accountability’

Since the death in Minneapolis Police custody of George Floyd , Minnesota has been at the center of an intense debate about police brutality—and progressive state Attorney General Keith Ellison has been speaking bluntly about the urgent need to open up the debate about policing .
Speaking up for fundamental change is nothing new for Ellison , a former cochair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who has a record of working on economic and social and racial justice .
Ellison is not in charge of prosecuting fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin , who has been arrested and charged with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Minneapolis City Council have supported a call from Floyd ’ s family for the attorney general to take over the prosecution .
For now , Ellison continues to advocate for accountability , and for the right of Minnesotans to demand it with mass protests .
As violence has flared , the attorney general has expressed concern , along with many others in Minnesota , that provocateurs are “ trying to tarnish the reputation of the noble protest for justice.
” Ellison and I spoke on Friday and again on Saturday about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accountability and police transparency .
Here are highlights from our discussions .
John Nichols : You have been outspoken over the years about police brutality .
Let ’ s start by putting what ’ s happening now in context .
Keith Ellison : Well , you know that the police are now and have always been in place to maintain the legal/social order .
If that ’ s a just social order , that ’ s one thing .
If it ’ s one based on slavery , Jim Crow segregation , capital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then the police have always played this role where they are the ones who sort of maintain that social hierarchy .
I grew up in Michigan , and people there have a strong memory about how it was police and police-like forces that put down strikes ; how police and parapolice forces were the ones who maintained the racial hierarchy .
When John Lewis , who ’ s a member of Congress , got arrested for challenging segregation , he was arrested by a police officer , right ?
So they maintain a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and always have .
It ’ s important to understand you can ’ t look at the police in isolation .
A lot of times we do that because what they do is so flagrant .
I mean , the knee on the neck , right ?
Or the shooting of Laquan McDonald , where [ Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke ] wrote in his report that [ the African American youth ] attacked him with a knife when he was so clearly assassinated on the street .
Same thing with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and was shot .
[ Scott was an unarmed African American man who was shot and killed by a police officer in South Carolina . ]
The question is , why do these cases so often result in either no charge , no grand jury bill of indictment like in the Mike Brown case [ in Ferguson , Mo . ]
, no conviction , hung juries ?
I mean , we all saw what happened to Philando Castile—live on Facebook—who was shot down by Officer Jeronimo Yanez [ in Anthony , Minn. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conviction in that case .
It ’ s just almost impossible to imagine it wouldn ’ t have resulted in a conviction , but it didn ’ t .
Or what about Freddie Gray ?
Perfectly healthy , they throw him in that [ Baltimore police ] van , and he comes out dead and , next thing you know , all these officers are charged , and yet no one is held accountable for the death of Freddie Gray .
There ’ s got to be some element of complicity and culpability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the officers out there .
KE : Impunity is one of the benchmarks of how police engage with , clearly , communities of color , but also low-income white communities , working-class white communities .
You look at the history of it , it ’ s very much there .
There ’ s no doubt that there ’ s a disproportionate number of people of color impacted negatively by police-community engagements , but the fact that we don ’ t talk about the white victims means that we racialize this thing to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t think that it ’ s a prevailing American problem .
It is !
What we found in our study , where we did a working group on preventing deadly force encounters with the police—it was a joint working group between the Minnesota attorney general ’ s office and the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety , just finished it in February 2020—is that most of the officer-involved shootings and officer-involved deadly force encounters were actually among white individuals and in greater Minnesota .
But people of color were definitely overrepresented based on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
JN : You describe this as “ a prevailing American problem.
” Let ’ s talk about that .
KE : Martin Luther King and Malcolm X both spoke extensively about police brutality .
Whether you ’ re talking about the NAACP or the Nation of Islam—you span the ideological spectrum—police brutality has always been a major issue .
So this has been a clear feature of black life in America , and everybody knows it .
Every parent knows it .
And yet it is this problem that seems to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ People think over time this will stop .
No .
No , it won ’ t .
JN : We ’ ve seen mass protests , in Minneapolis and around the country .
There is clearly a lot of passion and attention right now .
Can this be a turning point ?
KE : Yes , I really do think it can be .
But that , by no means , is a foregone conclusion .
It all depends on the leadership we can exercise now .
And what that means is that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ideas and mobilize around them at a time when hearts and minds are open for systemic reform .
I think that the Ro Khanna and Lacy Clay bill in Congress [ a proposal by Democratic members of the House to require that federal officers use force only when necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily injury ] is an excellent example that could perhaps get some traction .
The ideas we have in our working group on deadly force encounters , we have a whole group of recommendations .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so that we can have meaningful change .
Milton Friedman—not a person I ’ m a fan of—said , you know , only in times of crisis can true reform ever move forward .
It ’ s one of the reasons why Dr. King , through his marching , literally tried to create crisis , because that ’ s when people will do some reform .
He did it nonviolently , but still , people sitting in , occupying , and marching was disruptive to the normal flow of a Southern segregated town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ create an opening for reform ] .
The fact that this crisis took a deadly and dangerous and sad turn , the fact that it was sparked by the death of a man who had everything to live for , is so tragic .
But I think we ’ re not going to honor his memory unless we do use this point as an inflection point for meaningful reform and change .
Even The Washington Post had an editorial saying , You want to stop riots ?
You ’ ve got to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what , John ?
Here ’ s an interesting thought .
The Kerner Commission said the same thing in 1968 .
There was a whole string of urban unrest sparked by police brutality that occurred in the 1960s , and the Kerner Commission report came back and said , Look , the spark is police .
But the kindling that made the house burn down was joblessness , unemployment , poor housing , concentrated poverty , people without opportunity who were just done with that and needed to do something , anything , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to say , “ This must change.
” So that ’ s the deal .
I will caution , however , that civil unrest and social disruption don ’ t always lead to change .
There ’ s no guarantee that we ’ re going to get the change we ’ re seeking .
That too is an organizing challenge , and you need great ideas , and you need sustained energy around an agenda .
But it can happen , and I ’ m working for it .
JN : That brings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earlier this week , you were emphatic about the need for [ presumptive Democratic nominee ] Joe Biden and other leading political figures to speak out on this .
All of this is happening in an election year .
How do those things intersect ?
KE : We know that there is a vision being offered already , and that vision put out a tweet that said , “ When the looting starts , the shooting starts.
” That vision is referring to protesters as “ thugs.
” People Can Only Bear So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have somebody who is running for president [ Trump ] who has a vision of what policing should look like in America .
We have that .
Do we have anything else ?
This is why it ’ s critical for the Democratic nominee to project a vision around policing that is positive , that is constructive , that really converts policing into a guardian relationship rather than a warrior sort of model of policing .
We need a vision that says there ’ s going to be accountability .
We ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be smart on crime , not just tough .
We ’ ve got plenty of tough .
We are in no short supply of tough .
We need Biden talking about it , but we also need senators who are running to talk about it .
We need representatives who are running to talk about it .
We need state legislators to talk about it .
You know , it ’ s got to be a political issue .
How are we going to police ?
And , as I said before , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
You ’ ve got to change the structural inequalities which make military-style policing necessary in the minds of people who want to preserve that status quo .
KE : Yeah .
Now , there are some who will say , “ Well , until we change society we can ’ t change policing.
” Absolutely untrue .
We ’ ve got to start with police .
Right now we can say that , when it comes to discipline , a collective bargaining agreement from some right-wing police federation can ’ t [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who abuses citizens .
We can say that , you know , when it comes to wages and working conditions , that can be a collective bargaining issue .
But when you ’ re in a position to deliver death or life to people and you abuse people , we need a clear line of authority , and that needs to be something that we lay at the feet of the chief and the mayor .
In Minneapolis , one of our primary problems is that we have a police federation where the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chief .
He ’ s unelected .
He ’ s only accountable to the members of the federation , [ a great many of whom do not ] live in Minneapolis , yet he kind of directs police behavior in Minneapolis to the detriment of the people of Minneapolis .
The [ police ] chief , working on reforms , saying the right things , showing up at the right meetings , is frustrated because of this guy .
That can not continue to exist .
I mean , this guy [ the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the Trump rally , and wanted to wear his uniform .
The chief said : You can not do that .
And he says , “ Fine , I ’ m going to wear a T-shirt that says , ‘ Cops for Trump.
’ ” So we ’ ve got this sort of really problematic situation .
This is a political matter , and it needs to become a political issue .
Biden needs to come up with a very clear set of ideas based on [ former President ] Obama ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That was a good document .
Let ’ s build on that .
He has it within his ability to do and needs to take that leadership .
JN : Attorneys general across the country , certainly enlightened attorneys general , can play a real role in this , as well .
You ’ ve got some ideas about what they can do to reform things .
KE : One of the things is the bully pulpit .
You ’ re a statewide officeholder .
You have to speak about just and humane @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
You can do that even before you think about representing any state agency , before you file a single lawsuit , before you prosecute a single case .
Think about your role as just a moral voice in the state that elected you .
There ’ s Only One Possible Conclusion : White America Likes Its Killer Cops Then we move on from there .
You can convene the Department of Public Safety .
You can convene the police and the prosecutors and the sheriffs and talk about how we are going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There ’ s a lot of people who are in law enforcement who are like , “ You know what ?
I actually did join the force because I thought I could help people , and I don ’ t really see that happening , and I want to reform.
” I met so many who were there , officers who said , “ I will not tolerate an officer being inhumane , but if I do complain , is that person going to be right back there on the force ?
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make any difference if I do complain ?
I ’ ve got to get along with this guy .
But if I knew this person was going to be fired if I complained , then I would complain.
” That is clear .
In terms of attorneys general , some of them do have jurisdiction to prosecute official misconduct .
I don ’ t have that authority yet .
It might be something that legislators are looking at as a reform… So there are a lot of things that state attorneys general can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ middle of a criminal justice reform movement as well .
[ Philadelphia District Attorney ] Larry Krasner is not an outlier .
He may be the leading voice for reform from prosecutors , but he ’ s not the only one , and more people running for prosecutor are looking at a model where they can bring an enlightened , inclusive spirit to the work that they ’ re doing .
So this is a moment of opportunity at multiple levels .
JN : Finally , one of the striking things in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to an unarmed African American man in Minneapolis versus these images of heavily armed white men in state capitals [ protesting COVID-19 restrictions ] ?
KE : You know what ?
I think that people really are watching that .
Armed militia members , almost all of whom are white guys , many of them carrying AR-15s , in fatigues , nothing happens to them when they ’ re threatening the governor of Michigan , when they ’ re threatening the governor of Minnesota , when the president is saying , “ Liberate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” There ’ s no response .
Nobody says , “ You can ’ t bring that gun in here and menace the governor.
” And yet at the same time , there ’ s a very , very harsh response to people who really aren ’ t doing anything other than exercising their First Amendment rights .
So this is a very , very stunning contrast , and it helps everybody kind of frame the issue .

This article appears in the June 29/July 6, 2020 issue.
Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Get The Nation’s Weekly Newsletter Fridays. The best of the week. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Fridays. The best of the week.
Thank you for signing up for The Nation’s weekly newsletter.
Repro Nation A monthly newsletter on the global fight for reproductive freedom. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here.
Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue
Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.
Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?
Since the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, Minnesota has been at the center of an intense debate about police brutality—and progressive state Attorney General Keith Ellison has been speaking bluntly about the urgent need to open up the debate about policing. Speaking out for fundamental change is nothing new for Ellison, a former cochair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who has a record of working on economic, social, and racial justice issues. He is not in charge of prosecuting fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s killing. But members of the Minneapolis City Council have supported a call from Floyd’s family for the attorney general to take over the prosecution.
For now, Ellison continues to advocate for accountability and for the right of Minnesotans to demand it with mass protests. As violence has flared, he has expressed concern, along with many others in Minnesota, that provocateurs are “trying to tarnish the reputation of the noble protest for justice.”
Ellison and I spoke on Friday and again on Saturday about what must be done to achieve police accountability and police transparency. Here are highlights from our discussions.
J ohn N ichols: You have been outspoken over the years about police brutality. Let’s start by putting what’s happening now in context.
K eith E llison: Well, you know that the police are now and have always been in place to maintain the legal/social order. If that’s a just social order, that’s one thing. If it’s one based on slavery, Jim Crow segregation, capital, and Big Business abusing labor, then the police have always played this role where they are the ones who sort of maintain that social hierarchy.
I grew up in Michigan, and people there have a strong memory about how it was police and policelike forces that put down strikes, how police and parapolice forces were the ones who maintained the racial hierarchy.
When John Lewis, who’s a member of Congress, got arrested for challenging segregation, he was arrested by a police officer, right? So they maintain a legal status quo and a social/cultural order and always have. Current Issue View our current issue
It’s important to understand you can’t look at the police in isolation. A lot of times we do that because what they do is so flagrant. I mean, the knee on the neck, right? Or the shooting of [African American youth] Laquan McDonald, where [Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke] wrote in his report that [McDonald] attacked him with a knife, when he was so clearly assassinated on the street. Same thing with Walter Scott [an unarmed African American man killed by a police officer in South Carolina], who was running away and was shot.
The question is, why do these cases so often result in either no charge, no grand jury bill of indictment like in the Mike Brown case [in Ferguson, Mo.], no conviction, hung juries? I mean, we all saw what happened to Philando Castile—live on Facebook—who was shot down by Officer Jeronimo Yanez [in Falcon Heights, Minn.], and yet there was no conviction in that case. It’s just almost impossible to imagine it wouldn’t have resulted in a conviction, but it didn’t. Or what about Freddie Gray? Perfectly healthy, they throw him in that [Baltimore police] van, and he comes out dead, and next thing you know, all these officers are charged, and yet no one is held accountable for the death of Freddie Gray. 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
There’s got to be some element of complicity and culpability on behalf of the system that sends the officers out there.
JN: There’s impunity.
KE: Impunity is one of the benchmarks of how police engage with, clearly, communities of color, but also low-income white communities, working-class white communities. You look at the history of it, it’s very much there. There’s no doubt that there’s a disproportionate number of people of color impacted negatively by police-community engagements, but the fact that we don’t talk about the white victims means that we racialize this thing to the point that there are people who don’t think that it’s a prevailing American problem. It is!
What we found in our study, where we did a working group on preventing deadly force encounters with the police—it was a joint working group between the Minnesota attorney general’s office and the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety, just finished it in February 2020—is that most of the officer-involved shootings and officer-involved deadly force encounters were actually among white individuals and in greater Minnesota. But people of color were definitely overrepresented based on population. There’s no question.
JN: You describe this as “a prevailing American problem.” Let’s talk about that.
KE: Martin Luther King and Malcolm X both spoke extensively about police brutality.
Whether you’re talking about the NAACP or the Nation of Islam—you span the ideological spectrum—police brutality has always been a major issue.
So this has been a clear feature of black life in America, and everybody knows it. Every parent knows it. And yet it is this problem that seems to be ever present and never quite goes away. People think over time this will stop. No. No, it won’t.
JN: We’ve seen mass protests, in Minneapolis and around the country. There is clearly a lot of passion and attention right now. Can this be a turning point?
KE: Yes, I really do think it can be. But that, by no means, is a foregone conclusion. It all depends on the leadership we can exercise now. And what that means is that we’ve got to put forward ideas and mobilize around them at a time when hearts and minds are open for systemic reform.
I think that the Ro Khanna and Lacy Clay bill in Congress [a proposal by Democratic members of the House to require that federal officers use force only when necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily injury] is an excellent example that could perhaps get some traction. The ideas we have in our working group on deadly force encounters, we have a whole group of recommendations. It’s time to put those things into place so that we can have meaningful change.
Milton Friedman—not a person I’m a fan of—said, you know, only in times of crisis can true reform ever move forward.
It’s one of the reasons why Dr. King, through his marching, literally tried to create crisis, because that’s when people will do some reform. He did it nonviolently, but still, people sitting in, occupying, and marching was disruptive to the normal flow of a Southern segregated town. So I think this crisis can [create an opening for reform]. The fact that this crisis took a deadly and dangerous and sad turn, the fact that it was sparked by the death of a man who had everything to live for, is so tragic. But I think we’re not going to honor his memory unless we do use this point as an inflection point for meaningful reform and change.
Even The Washington Post had an editorial saying, You want to stop riots? You’ve got to reform the police. But you know what, John? Here’s an interesting thought. The Kerner Commission said the same thing in 1968. There was a whole string of urban unrest sparked by police brutality that occurred in the 1960s, and the Kerner Commission report came back and said, Look, the spark is police. But the kindling that made the house burn down was joblessness, unemployment, poor housing, concentrated poverty, people without opportunity who were just done with that and needed to do something, anything, to get the attention of everybody else to say, “This must change.”
So that’s the deal. I will caution, however, that civil unrest and social disruption don’t always lead to change. There’s no guarantee that we’re going to get the change we’re seeking. That too is an organizing challenge, and you need great ideas, and you need sustained energy around an agenda. But it can happen, and I’m working for it.
JN: That brings us to politics. When we spoke earlier this week, you were emphatic about the need for [presumptive Democratic presidential nominee] Joe Biden and other leading political figures to speak out on this. All of this is happening in an election year. How do those things intersect?
KE: We know that there is a vision being offered already, and that vision put out a tweet that said, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” That vision is referring to protesters as “thugs.” Racial Justice People Can Only Bear So Much Injustice Before Lashing Out Elie Mystal
So we have somebody who is running for president [Donald Trump] who has a vision of what policing should look like in America. We have that. Do we have anything else?
This is why it’s critical for the Democratic nominee to project a vision around policing that is positive, that is constructive, that really converts policing into a guardian relationship rather than a warrior sort of model of policing.
We need a vision that says there’s going to be accountability. We’re going to train people around how to be smart on crime, not just tough. We’ve got plenty of tough. We are in no short supply of tough.
We need Biden talking about it, but we also need senators who are running to talk about it. We need representatives who are running to talk about it. We need state legislators to talk about it.
You know, it’s got to be a political issue. How are we going to police? And as I said before, you can’t just change policing. You’ve got to change the structural inequalities which make military-style policing necessary in the minds of people who want to preserve that status quo.
JN: You’re talking about societal change.
KE: Yeah. Now, there are some who will say, “Well, until we change society, we can’t change policing.” Absolutely untrue. We’ve got to start with police.
Right now we can say that when it comes to discipline, a collective bargaining agreement from some right-wing police federation can’t [be allowed to] protect an officer who abuses citizens. We can say that, you know, when it comes to wages and working conditions, that can be a collective bargaining issue. But when you’re in a position to deliver death or life to people and you abuse people, we need a clear line of authority, and that needs to be something that we lay at the feet of the chief and the mayor.
In Minneapolis, one of our primary problems is that we have a police federation where the president operates as sort of an alternative chief. He’s unelected. He’s only accountable to the members of the federation, [a great many of whom do not] live in Minneapolis, yet he kind of directs police behavior in Minneapolis, to the detriment of the people of Minneapolis.
The [police] chief, working on reforms, saying the right things, showing up at the right meetings, is frustrated because of this guy. That cannot continue to exist.
I mean, this guy [the police federation head] went and spoke at the Trump rally, and wanted to wear his uniform. The chief said, You cannot do that. And he says, Fine, I’m going to wear a T-shirt that says, “Cops for Trump.”
So we’ve got this sort of really problematic situation. This is a political matter, and it needs to become a political issue. Biden needs to come up with a very clear set of ideas based on [Barack] Obama’s ideas of 21st century policing. That was a good document. Let’s build on that. He has it within his ability to do and needs to take that leadership.
JN: Attorneys general across the country, certainly enlightened attorneys general, can play a real role in this, as well. You’ve got some ideas about what they can do to reform things.
KE: One of the things is the bully pulpit. You’re a statewide officeholder. You have to speak about just and humane policing and police accountability and police transparency. You can do that even before you think about representing any state agency, before you file a single lawsuit, before you prosecute a single case. Think about your role as just a moral voice in the state that elected you. Police Brutality There’s Only One Possible Conclusion: White America Likes Its Killer Cops Elie Mystal
Then we move on from there. You can convene the Department of Public Safety. You can convene the police and the prosecutors and the sheriffs and talk about how we are going to get to a better way.
There’s a lot of people who are in law enforcement who are like, “You know what? I actually did join the force because I thought I could help people, and I don’t really see that happening, and I want to reform.” I met so many who were there, officers who said, “I will not tolerate an officer being inhumane, but if I do complain, is that person going to be right back there on the force? And if they are, does it even make any difference if I do complain? I’ve got to get along with this guy. But if I knew this person was going to be fired if I complained, then I would complain.” That is clear.
In terms of attorneys general, some of them do have jurisdiction to prosecute official misconduct. I don’t have that authority yet. It might be something that legislators are looking at as a reform.
So there are a lot of things that state attorneys general can do, and we are in the middle of a criminal justice reform movement as well. [Philadelphia District Attorney] Larry Krasner is not an outlier. He may be the leading voice for reform from prosecutors, but he’s not the only one, and more people running for prosecutor are looking at a model where they can bring an enlightened, inclusive spirit to the work that they’re doing.
So this is a moment of opportunity at multiple levels.
JN: Finally, one of the striking things in this moment is the contrast between what happened to an unarmed African American man in Minneapolis versus these images of heavily armed white men in state capitals [protesting Covid-19 restrictions].
KE: You know what? I think that people really are watching that.
Armed militia members, almost all of whom are white guys, many of them carrying AR-15s, in fatigues, nothing happens to them when they’re threatening the governor of Michigan, when they’re threatening the governor of Minnesota, when the president is saying, “Liberate Minnesota. Liberate Michigan. Liberate Virginia.”
There’s no response. Nobody says, “You can’t bring that gun in here and menace the governor.”
And yet at the same time, there’s a very, very harsh response to people who really aren’t doing anything other than exercising their First Amendment rights.
So this is a very, very stunning contrast, and it helps everybody kind of frame the issue.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misstated where Officer Yanez shot Philando Castile. It was Falcon Heights, Minn., not Anthony, Minn.


thenation--2020-05-31--The Only Solution Is to Defund the Police

The explosion of protest across the United States in recent days makes clear that the crisis in Minneapolis is a national crisis .
It ’ s been almost six years since the murders of Mike Brown and Eric Garner , and little has changed in how poor communities of color are being policed .
It ’ s time to rethink superficial and ineffective procedural police reforms and move to defund the police instead .
In the immediate aftermath of Brown ’ s and Garner ’ s murders in Ferguson and New York City , the Obama administration responded by calling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a report , the Task Force on 20th Century Policing , that laid out a whole host of reforms—which I and others criticized at the time .
These reforms were rooted in the concept of “ procedural justice , ” which argues that if the police enforce the law in a more professional , unbiased , and procedurally proper way , then the public will develop more trust in them and fewer violent confrontations and protests will ensue .
This concept ends up taking the form of interventions like implicit bias training , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use-of-force policies , and early warning systems to identify potentially problematic officers .
The Obama Justice Department used this framework to bring a small number of “ pattern and practice ” cases against select police departments , such as the one in Ferguson , to compel them to adopt these measures .
It also poured millions of dollars into training and community relations initiatives like the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice , which included money for Minneapolis .
But these kinds of federal interventions have failed to show any signs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They typically involve establishing a monitor who creates a series of benchmarks ; the metrics for these benchmarks tend to be based on the implementation of the recommendations and not actual changes in the impact of policing on those most intensively policed .
An insider look at this process by Matt Nesvet , an auditor on a federal consent decree in New Orleans , showed just how pointless the whole endeavor was ; as described by Nesvet in The Appeal , monitors required things like pictures of officers talking to community members as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There ’ s also no evidence that implicit bias training or community relations initiatives help .
The Urban Institute , which was part of the National Initiative for Building Trust and Justice , evaluated the effort and found little to show for it .
These kinds of reforms turn out to have a lot more to do with providing political cover for local police and politicians than with reducing the abuses of policing .
In part , that ’ s because they assume that the professional enforcement of the law is automatically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ question the legitimacy of using police to wage a war on drugs , arrest young children in school , criminalize homelessness , or label young people as gang bangers and super-predators to be incarcerated for life or killed in the streets .
A totally lawful , procedurally proper , and perfectly unbiased low-level drug arrest is still going to ruin some young person ’ s life for no good reason .
There is no justice in that—and giving narcotics units anti-bias training will do nothing to change this fact .
Many of these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In 2018 , the City issued a report outlining all the procedural justice reforms it has embraced , like mindfulness training , Crisis Intervention Training , implicit bias training , body cameras , early warning systems to identify problematic officers , and so on .
They have made no difference .
In fact , local activist groups like Reclaim the Block , Black Visions Collective , and MPD 150 have rejected more training and oversight as a solution and are now calling on Mayor Jacob Frey to cut the police budget by $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ community-led health and safety strategies.
” Unfortunately , at the national level , Democratic members of Congress appear to have learned few lessons from the failures of six years of “ police reform.
” One by one , they have condemned racist policing and called for investigations and accountability .
Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez called out the names of those killed in recent years , but failed to offer any substantive proposals other than a vague call for justice .
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar , who consistently refused to prosecute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attorney ’ s office , called for more DOJ “ pattern and practice ” investigations .
And in a May 29 resolution condemning police brutality , even Ilhan Omar , whose district includes Minneapolis , and Ayanna Pressley failed to propose a single significant reduction in specific police powers , preferring to call for more investigations and the establishment of more civilian review boards , which have never shown any effectiveness in reducing abusive policing .
( A more valuable model can be found in legislation Pressley herself introduced in November 2019 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the legislation puts forward a number of worthy proposals , including decriminalizing the police and redirecting resources to alternatives to policing ; Omar is a cosponsor . )
These strategies will do nothing to change the basic mission of policing that has expanded so dramatically over the past 40 years .
Another DOJ investigation , another officer fired or indicted , won ’ t end the war on drugs , the criminalization of the poor , or the demonization of young people of color .
If congressional lawmakers are serious about reining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they can do at the federal level .
They can start by eliminating the Community Oriented Police Services ( COPS ) office .
Created by the 1994 Crime Bill , it has been the central conduit for funds to hire tens of thousands of new police and equip them with a range of surveillance technology and militarized equipment .
One of the projects it currently administers is Operation Relentless Pursuit , the Trump administration ’ s signature crime-fighting initiative , that is set to flood seven major cities with scores of federal agents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after the president ’ s favorite bugaboos of gangs and drug cartels .
Congress approved $ 61 million to pay for it , and that money should be taken out of any future appropriations .
Lawmakers can also take more steps to undo the damage done by the 1994 Crime Bill , like defunding school policing in favor of providing more counselors and restorative justice programs ; investing in harm reduction strategies , like safe-injection facilities and needle exchanges , as well as high-quality medically based drug treatment on demand ; and rethinking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to manage the epidemic of domestic violence .
It is time for the federal government , major foundations , and local governments to stop trying to manage problems of poverty and racial discrimination by wasting millions of dollars on pointless and ineffective procedural reforms that merely provide cover for the expanded use of policing .
It ’ s time for everyone to quit thinking that jailing one more killer cop will do anything to change the nature of American policing .
We must move , instead , to significantly defund the police and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ produce real safety and security without the violence and racism inherent in the criminal justice system .
Editor ’ s note : an earlier version of this article stated that Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar had “ failed to propose a single significant reduction in specific police power.
” In fact , as the article now states , Rep. Pressley introduced , and Rep. Omar supports , legislation calling for police power to be curtailed through a variety of means .
We regret the error .

Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Get The Nation’s Weekly Newsletter Fridays. The best of the week. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Fridays. The best of the week.
Thank you for signing up for The Nation’s weekly newsletter.
Repro Nation A monthly newsletter on the global fight for reproductive freedom. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here.
Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue
Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.
Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?
The explosion of protest across the United States in recent days makes clear that the crisis in Minneapolis is a national crisis. It has been almost six years since the murders of Mike Brown and Eric Garner, and little has changed in how poor communities of color are being policed. It’s time to rethink superficial and ineffective procedural police reforms and move to defund the police instead.
In the immediate aftermath of Brown’s and Garner’s murders in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City, the Obama administration responded by calling for more federal investigations and commissioned a report, from the President’s Task Force on 20th Century Policing, that laid out a host of reforms—which I and others criticized at the time. These reforms were rooted in the concept of procedural justice, which argues that if the police enforce the law in a more professional, unbiased, and procedurally proper way, then the public will develop more trust in them and fewer violent confrontations and protests will ensue. This concept ends up taking the form of interventions like implicit bias training, police-community encounter sessions, tweaks to official use-of-force policies, and early warning systems to identify potentially problematic officers.
The Obama Department of Justice used this framework to bring a small number of pattern and practice cases against select police departments, such as the one in Ferguson, to compel them to adopt these measures. It also poured millions of dollars into training and community relations initiatives like the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, which included money for Minneapolis.
But these kinds of federal interventions have failed to show any signs of positive changes in policing. They typically involve establishing a monitor who creates a series of benchmarks; the metrics for these benchmarks tend to be based on the implementation of the recommendations and not actual changes in the impact of policing on those most intensively policed. An inside look at this process by Matt Nesvet, an auditor on a federal consent decree in New Orleans, showed just how pointless the whole endeavor was. As described by Nesvet in The Appeal, monitors required things like pictures of officers talking to community members as proof that community policing was being implemented. 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
There’s no evidence that implicit bias training or community relations initiatives help. The Urban Institute, which was part of the National Initiative for Building Trust and Justice, evaluated the effort and found little to show for it. These kinds of reforms turn out to have a lot more to do with providing political cover for local police and politicians than with reducing the abuses of policing. In part, that’s because they assume that the professional enforcement of the law is automatically beneficial to everyone. They never question the legitimacy of using police to wage a war on drugs, arrest young children in school, criminalize homelessness, or label young people as gangbangers and superpredators to be incarcerated for life or killed in the streets. A totally lawful, procedurally proper, and perfectly unbiased low-level drug arrest is still going to ruin some young person’s life for no good reason. There is no justice in that—and giving narcotics units anti-bias training will do nothing to change this fact.
Many of these reforms have been implemented in Minneapolis. In 2018 the city issued a report outlining all the procedural justice reforms it has embraced, like mindfulness training, crisis intervention team training, implicit bias training, body cameras, early warning systems to identify problematic officers, and so on. They have made no difference. In fact, local activist groups like Reclaim the Block, Black Visions Collective, and MPD 150 have rejected more training and oversight as a solution and are now calling on Mayor Jacob Frey to cut the police budget by $45 million and shift those resources into community-led health and safety strategies.
Unfortunately, at the national level, Democratic members of Congress appear to have learned few lessons from the failures of six years of police “reform.” One by one, they have condemned racist policing and called for investigations and accountability. Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez called out the names of those killed in recent years but failed to offer any substantive proposals other than a vague call for justice. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who consistently refused to prosecute police when she helmed the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, called for more DOJ pattern and practice investigations. And in a May 29 resolution condemning police brutality, even Representatives Ilhan Omar, whose district includes Minneapolis, and Ayanna Pressley failed to propose a single significant reduction in specific police powers, preferring to call for more investigations and the establishment of more civilian review boards, which have never shown any effectiveness in reducing abusive policing. (A more valuable model can be found in the People’s Justice Guarantee, legislation Pressley introduced in November 2019. It puts forward a number of worthy proposals, including decriminalizing low-level offenses and redirecting resources to alternatives to policing; Omar is a cosponsor.) Current Issue View our current issue
These strategies would do nothing to change the basic mission of policing, which has expanded dramatically over the past 40 years. Another DOJ investigation or another officer fired or indicted won’t end the war on drugs, the criminalization of the poor, or the demonization of young people of color.
If federal lawmakers are serious about reining in abusive policing, there are things they can do. They can start by eliminating the Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) Office. Created by the 1994 Crime Bill, it has been the central conduit for funds to hire tens of thousands of new police officers and equip them with a range of surveillance technology and militarized equipment.
One of the projects it administers is Operation Relentless Pursuit, the Trump administration’s signature crime-fighting initiative, which is set to flood seven major cities with scores of federal agents in partnership with local police to go after the president’s favorite bugaboos of gangs and drug cartels. Congress approved $61 million to pay for it, and that money should be taken out of any future appropriations. Lawmakers can also take more steps to undo the damage done by the 1994 Crime Bill, like defunding school policing in favor of providing more counselors and restorative justice programs; investing in harm reduction strategies, like safe-injection facilities and needle exchanges, as well as high-quality medically based drug treatment on demand; and rethinking the use of the criminal justice system to manage the epidemic of domestic violence.
It is time for the federal government, major foundations, and local governments to stop trying to manage problems of poverty and racial discrimination by wasting millions of dollars on pointless and ineffective procedural reforms that merely provide cover for the expanded use of policing. It’s time for everyone to quit thinking that jailing one more killer cop will do anything to change the nature of American policing. We must move, instead, to significantly defund the police and redirect resources into community-based initiatives that can produce real safety and security without the violence and racism inherent in the criminal justice system.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article stated that Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar had “failed to propose a single significant reduction in specific police power.” In fact, as the article now states, Pressley introduced and Omar supports legislation calling for police power to be curtailed through a variety of means. We regret the error.


thenation--2020-06-01--Sign of the Times

Sign of the Times

As The Death Toll Mounts Our President Tee ’ s Off

Andrea Arroyo, Garrincha, Justin Squigs Robertson, Peter Kuper, Ed Hall

Sign of the Times
Sign of the Times
As the death toll mounts, our president tees off.


A Call to Revolt

In William Styron ’ s 1979 novel Sophie ’ s Choice , later made into a film that won Meryl Streep an Academy Award , a young Polish woman named Sophie Zawistowska arrives at Auschwitz with her two children .
She begs a Nazi camp doctor not to send her kids to the gas chambers .
He offers her a sadistic choice : He ’ ll allow one to live , but she must choose which one .
Otherwise he ’ ll gas both .
Imagine another Sophie : a 34-year-old single mom from Rock Springs , Wyo.
, who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stop on Interstate 80 .
There ’ s a high incidence of the coronavirus in environments like this , but her boss forbids her to wear a face mask , saying , “ The drivers want to see your smile.
” Her ex has been laid off from his job as a roustabout in a nearby oil field and can ’ t pay alimony .
She ’ s a month overdue on her mortgage and desperately needs income .
But her mother , who lives with her and takes care of Sophie ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shift , has severe emphysema and relies on an oxygen tank .
How does she choose between her job and the risk of transmitting the infection to her mom ?
Tens of millions of American workers have had to make or will have to make their own equivalent of Sophie ’ s choice .
A Washington Post/Ipsos poll at the beginning of May found that more than a third of people who work outside their homes had a serious preexisting health condition or someone in their home who did .
“ Roughly 7 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they were worried about getting a household member sick if they are exposed at work , ” the Post noted .
In some states and industries , people are being forced back to work in hazardous conditions , still without adequate protection .
Thousands have died because of Donald Trump ’ s heartless refusal to use the full extent of his powers under the Defense Production Act to ramp up the manufacture of personal protective equipment ( PPE ) , but he has forcefully invoked the act to compel meat industry employees to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stand shoulder to shoulder for long hours in the cold—an environment almost as unsafe as being in a prison or a nursing home .
The United Food and Commercial Workers , which represents employees in meatpacking as well as others in food distribution and grocery chains , reported in late April that at least 74 members had died as a result of workplace-contracted coronavirus infections .
The Department of Labor , meanwhile , has ruled that workers who refuse to return to the job because of fear of infection are ineligible for expanded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some could be considered as potential felons engaged in “ unemployment fraud.
” At the department ’ s urging , Ohio and Iowa have set up Internet hotlines to allow employers to anonymously report such individuals .
Recalcitrant slaves must be whipped back to work .
Unless they fight back .
Refusing to die for profits or endanger family members , rank-and-file workers have rebelled on a scale not seen since the early 1970s .
Since mid-March , the useful Covid-19 Class Struggle timeline maintained by Marx21 has recorded at least 350 job @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as high as 500 , and it ’ s growing every day .
While National Nurses United , the Service Employees International Union , the United Electrical , Radio and Machine Workers of America , and a few other unions have sponsored walkouts , most have been informal protests or wildcat strikes , often coordinated by militant organizing campaigns such as Amazonians United , Whole Worker , Fight for $ 15 , Target Workers Unite , and the Gig Workers Collective .
Though some may receive support and financing from the SEIU and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to inside organizing in the mode of the early Congress of Industrial Organizations ( CIO ) .
They banded together to organize the nationwide Essential Workers General Strike on May Day , when employees stayed home or demonstrated during lunchtime .
The rebellion naturally flies a rainbow flag .
From the very beginning , African American workers—including bus drivers in Detroit and Birmingham , poultry workers in Georgia , Kroger warehouse workers in Memphis , sanitation workers in Pittsburgh and New Orleans , and fast food workers in Chicago and North Carolina—have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working conditions .
Asian American nurses , likewise , have stood outside hospitals in several dozen protests demanding PPE .
Mexican immigrants are a backbone of resistance in Midwestern meat processing plants and in Washington ’ s Yakima Valley , which has the most per capita infections on the West Coast .
Eight fruit-packing plants have gone on strike in an area notorious for the brutal suppression of farmworkers ’ organizing campaigns .
The new movement has shown tactical genius in making protests safe by reviving the CIO ’ s old secret weapons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Fight for $ 15 in Los Angeles and Chicago , where the demands include hazard pay , sick leave , and PPE , has repeatedly mobilized members to slowly circle in drive-through lines to disrupt unsafe business as usual at McDonald ’ s , El Pollo Loco , and other major franchises .
In Chicago the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter has supported the campaign with placard-carrying caravans .
These are not just the stirrings of revolt but an ever-broadening insurgency led from the grass roots .
But don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CNN or from The Washington Post .
Most newsrooms are mesmerized instead by the gun-toting mobs on the steps of state capitols screaming for an end to the quarantine .
( Neo-Nazis with assault rifles always guarantee prime-time coverage ; that ’ s why the shrewd media tacticians in Trump world promote their participation . )
This reopen movement , of course , is completely orchestrated from the top down by the same right-wing operatives and billionaire sponsors who concocted the Tea Party .
There are two networks involved .
One , Save @ @ @ @ @ @ @ FreedomWorks , Tea Party Patriots , the American Legislative Exchange Council , and the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List , with lavish funding from oilmen , defense contractors , and interests linked to the DeVos family .
The other , Open the States , which operates the principal digital platform for the protests , grows out of a project originally financed by hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer , Trump ’ s most important backer in 2016 .
As they have proved on innumerable occasions since the days of Ronald Reagan and the tax @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the role of angry crowds and rude protests in winning elections and wielding power .
Meanwhile , no centrist Democrat would think of issuing pitchforks to the base ; their role , rather , is to disarm the movements that put them in office .
This certainly seems to be the mindset in the Joe Biden bunker ; otherwise his camp would have realized in early March what an exceptional opportunity existed to build a national protest movement around worker safety and Trump ’ s refusal to nationalize and speed the production @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if—safely attired in PPE— “ good ole Joe ” had walked a picket line with striking nurses or dipped into his campaign treasury to fund ads built around the stories of people like Sophie the waitress ?
Likewise , the Democrats could have raced to the rescue of the multitudes dying in nursing homes because the owners—reactionary private equity firms and piratical partnerships—were basically in the business of bilking Medicare instead of creating safe , infection-free environments for their residents .
Nancy Pelosi could have scheduled emergency House hearings in April to expose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Instead she has ruled the House with an iron hand , forcing her troops to vote for bipartisan relief bills that have awarded hundreds of billions of dollars of aid to big corporations and wealthy owners of nonunion companies .
Only a handful of progressives , led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal , have resisted the pressure to accept such compromises without protest .
Those of us who love Bernie Sanders must recognize that he has not been an adequate counterforce against the inaction and parliamentary cretinism of the Democratic Party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As always , Sanders applauds the strikers and pushes pro-worker solutions , but his energy seems mainly focused on negotiating with Biden over the role of progressive policies and people in a new administration .
As a result , tens of thousands of dispirited and disoriented activists—young people who otherwise might be roaring like lions in the streets—wait at home for instructions that never come .
The vaunted dialectic of campaign as movement and vice versa increasingly looks like a one-way route to a very traditional destination .
But neither working families @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Biden inauguration , a second New Deal , or the Resurrection .
The crisis , the impossible choices , are here and now .
Body counts are again rising in some of the red states that reopened early—and no vaccine will arrive for at least half a year to make workplaces safe .
Also living precariously in the present are local and state governments , public colleges , and the US Postal Service , and without the nearly $ 1 trillion in aid promised in the Democrats ’ Heroes Bill , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cost of expanded Medicaid and unemployment coverage , keep open public hospitals , operate public schools at 2019 levels , or prevent further , massive job losses in the public sector .
In the Senate , Mitch McConnell ’ s relief bills typically contain no rescue package for the public sector while demanding massive aid for the airlines and other major private-sector employers .
By confronting the Democrats with a blue-government apocalypse , Republicans once again expect that Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will make devastating compromises .
Progressive Democrats in Congress , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refuse to pay a price in lives for the sake of party unity and a trickle down of relief .
It ’ s time to end the phony war and take back the streets .
The first step is to support and publicize every example of workplace resistance , as well as the growing wave of rent strikes and fights to save the Postal Service and public education .
The second should be a call for a National Day of Resistance in August , if not sooner .
Perhaps the most important duty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ensure that Sanders ’ s base is not further demobilized .
We need to show them that there is a campaign—apart from the November elections—that calls for thousands of dedicated organizers and volunteers .
Following the example of insurgent essential workers , we need to put real fire back into the hearth of solidarity .

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.
This article appears in the June 15/22, 2020 issue.
In William Styron’s 1979 novel Sophie’s Choice, later made into a film that won Meryl Streep an Academy Award, a young Polish woman named Sophie Zawistowska arrives at Auschwitz with her two children. She begs a Nazi camp doctor not to send her kids to the gas chambers. He offers her a sadistic choice: He’ll allow one to live, but she must choose which one. Otherwise he’ll gas both.
Imagine another Sophie: a 34-year-old single mom from Rock Springs, Wyo., who waits tables at a huge crowded truck stop on Interstate 80. There’s a high incidence of the coronavirus in environments like this, but her boss forbids her to wear a face mask, saying, “The drivers want to see your smile.” Her ex has been laid off from his job as a roustabout in a nearby oil field and can’t pay alimony. She’s a month overdue on her mortgage and desperately needs income. But her mother, who lives with her and takes care of Sophie’s toddler while she works the night shift, has severe emphysema and relies on an oxygen tank. How does she choose between her job and the risk of transmitting the infection to her mom?
Tens of millions of American workers have had to make or will have to make their own equivalent of Sophie’s choice. A Washington Post/Ipsos poll at the beginning of May found that more than a third of people who work outside their homes had a serious preexisting health condition or someone in their home who did. “Roughly 7 in 10 black and Hispanic workers said they were worried about getting a household member sick if they are exposed at work,” the Post noted.
In some states and industries, people are being forced back to work in hazardous conditions, still without adequate protection. Thousands have died because of Donald Trump’s heartless refusal to use the full extent of his powers under the Defense Production Act to ramp up the manufacture of personal protective equipment (PPE), but he has forcefully invoked the act to compel meat industry employees to return to processing lines, where they stand shoulder to shoulder for long hours in the cold—an environment almost as unsafe as being in a prison or a nursing home. The United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents employees in meatpacking as well as others in food distribution and grocery chains, reported in late April that at least 74 members had died as a result of workplace-contracted coronavirus infections.
The Department of Labor, meanwhile, has ruled that workers who refuse to return to the job because of fear of infection are ineligible for expanded unemployment benefits; it has threatened that some could be considered as potential felons engaged in “unemployment fraud.” At the department’s urging, Ohio and Iowa have set up Internet hotlines to allow employers to anonymously report such individuals. Recalcitrant slaves must be whipped back to work. 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
Unless they fight back. Refusing to die for profits or endanger family members, rank-and-file workers have rebelled on a scale not seen since the early 1970s. Since mid-March, the useful Covid-19 Class Struggle timeline maintained by Marx21 has recorded at least 350 job actions. The real number could be as high as 500, and it’s growing every day.
While National Nurses United, the Service Employees International Union, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, and a few other unions have sponsored walkouts, most have been informal protests or wildcat strikes, often coordinated by militant organizing campaigns such as Amazonians United, Whole Worker, Fight for $15, Target Workers Unite, and the Gig Workers Collective. Though some may receive support and financing from the SEIU and others, these are autonomous groups committed to inside organizing in the mode of the early Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). They banded together to organize the nationwide Essential Workers General Strike on May Day, when employees stayed home or demonstrated during lunchtime. Current Issue View our current issue
The rebellion naturally flies a rainbow flag. From the very beginning, African American workers—including bus drivers in Detroit and Birmingham, poultry workers in Georgia, Kroger warehouse workers in Memphis, sanitation workers in Pittsburgh and New Orleans, and fast food workers in Chicago and North Carolina—have been out front leading wildcat strikes against unsafe working conditions.
Asian American nurses, likewise, have stood outside hospitals in several dozen protests demanding PPE. Mexican immigrants are a backbone of resistance in Midwestern meat processing plants and in Washington’s Yakima Valley, which has the most per capita infections on the West Coast. Eight fruit-packing plants have gone on strike in an area notorious for the brutal suppression of farmworkers’ organizing campaigns.
The new movement has shown tactical genius in making protests safe by reviving the CIO’s old secret weapons: auto picket lines and solidarity convoys. Fight for $15 in Los Angeles and Chicago, where the demands include hazard pay, sick leave, and PPE, has repeatedly mobilized members to slowly circle in drive-through lines to disrupt unsafe business as usual at McDonald’s, El Pollo Loco, and other major franchises. In Chicago the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter has supported the campaign with placard-carrying caravans.
These are not just the stirrings of revolt but an ever-broadening insurgency led from the grass roots. But don’t expect to hear much about it on CNN or from The Washington Post. Most newsrooms are mesmerized instead by the gun-toting mobs on the steps of state capitols screaming for an end to the quarantine. (Neo-Nazis with assault rifles always guarantee prime-time coverage; that’s why the shrewd media tacticians in Trump world promote their participation.)
This reopen movement, of course, is completely orchestrated from the top down by the same right-wing operatives and billionaire sponsors who concocted the Tea Party. There are two networks involved. One, Save Our Country, rewarms the alliance between FreedomWorks, Tea Party Patriots, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, with lavish funding from oilmen, defense contractors, and interests linked to the DeVos family. The other, Open the States, which operates the principal digital platform for the protests, grows out of a project originally financed by hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, Trump’s most important backer in 2016.
As they have proved on innumerable occasions since the days of Ronald Reagan and the tax revolt, conservatives have a sophisticated understanding of the role of angry crowds and rude protests in winning elections and wielding power. Meanwhile, no centrist Democrat would think of issuing pitchforks to the base; their role, rather, is to disarm the movements that put them in office.
This certainly seems to be the mindset in the Joe Biden bunker; otherwise his camp would have realized in early March what an exceptional opportunity existed to build a national protest movement around worker safety and Trump’s refusal to nationalize and speed the production of test kits and PPE. What if—safely attired in PPE—“good ole Joe” had walked a picket line with striking nurses or dipped into his campaign treasury to fund ads built around the stories of people like Sophie the waitress?
Likewise, the Democrats could have raced to the rescue of the multitudes dying in nursing homes because the owners—reactionary private equity firms and piratical partnerships—were basically in the business of bilking Medicare instead of creating safe, infection-free environments for their residents. Nancy Pelosi could have scheduled emergency House hearings in April to expose the slaughter and demand immediate federal intervention.
Instead she has ruled the House with an iron hand, forcing her troops to vote for bipartisan relief bills that have awarded hundreds of billions of dollars of aid to big corporations and wealthy owners of nonunion companies. Only a handful of progressives, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal, have resisted the pressure to accept such compromises without protest.
Those of us who love Bernie Sanders must recognize that he has not been an adequate counterforce against the inaction and parliamentary cretinism of the Democratic Party’s leadership under Pelosi and Biden. As always, Sanders applauds the strikers and pushes pro-worker solutions, but his energy seems mainly focused on negotiating with Biden over the role of progressive policies and people in a new administration.
As a result, tens of thousands of dispirited and disoriented activists—young people who otherwise might be roaring like lions in the streets—wait at home for instructions that never come. The vaunted dialectic of campaign as movement and vice versa increasingly looks like a one-way route to a very traditional destination.
But neither working families nor unemployed young adults can wait for a Biden inauguration, a second New Deal, or the Resurrection. The crisis, the impossible choices, are here and now. Body counts are again rising in some of the red states that reopened early—and no vaccine will arrive for at least half a year to make workplaces safe.
Also living precariously in the present are local and state governments, public colleges, and the US Postal Service, and without the nearly $1 trillion in aid promised in the Democrats’ Heroes Bill, they’ll soon be unable to meet the cost of expanded Medicaid and unemployment coverage, keep open public hospitals, operate public schools at 2019 levels, or prevent further, massive job losses in the public sector.
In the Senate, Mitch McConnell’s relief bills typically contain no rescue package for the public sector while demanding massive aid for the airlines and other major private-sector employers. By confronting the Democrats with a blue-government apocalypse, Republicans once again expect that Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will make devastating compromises.
Progressive Democrats in Congress, state legislatures, and city governments should refuse to pay a price in lives for the sake of party unity and a trickle down of relief. It’s time to end the phony war and take back the streets.
The first step is to support and publicize every example of workplace resistance, as well as the growing wave of rent strikes and fights to save the Postal Service and public education. The second should be a call for a National Day of Resistance in August, if not sooner.
Perhaps the most important duty of socialists, however, is to ensure that Sanders’s base is not further demobilized. We need to show them that there is a campaign—apart from the November elections—that calls for thousands of dedicated organizers and volunteers. Following the example of insurgent essential workers, we need to put real fire back into the hearth of solidarity.