thenation--2020-06-29--How to Make Defunding the Police a Reality

On a Sunday in early June , Grand Army Plaza , a large square at the entrance to Brooklyn ’ s Prospect Park , swarmed with people of all different races and ages .
A family march of parents and their children flowed into groups of young people on bikes .
Many held signs declaring “ Black lives matter , ” but there were perhaps an equal number of other signs : “ Defund the police.
” 1 It ’ s a radical demand that just a few weeks ago was rarely heard on the streets of New York City @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that matter .
But since George Floyd , a black resident of Minneapolis , was killed by a white police officer and Breonna Taylor , a black emergency room technician , was killed by police in Louisville , Ky. , in her sleep and outrage over these and countless other instances of police brutality pushed tens of thousands of people to protest in cities and towns across the country , it has become a rallying cry of the movement.2 It ’ s not just a slogan .
Out of the protest movement has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city councils to shift money out of bloated police budgets and into starved social services—and activists are already seeing some concrete successes .
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti walked back a proposed increase for the LAPD and has promised a $ 150 million cut instead .
Lawmakers in 15 other cities have made similar pledges .
The Minneapolis City Council has even voted to disband the city ’ s police department.3 It ’ s an unprecedented moment .
Spending on the police by state and local governments jumped from about $ 2 billion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2018 , unadjusted for inflation ; the average share of city budgets spent on policing grew from 6.6 percent in 1977 to 7.8 percent in 2017 .
“ We have had a persistent trend for the last half-century of spending ever more money on police and incarceration , ” said Kelly Lytle Hernandez , a history professor at the University of California , Los Angeles .
“ This is a truly historic shift.
” Organizers agree .
“ Something like ‘ defund the police ’ just two weeks ago…was a nonstarter , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pennsylvania organizing director for the Working Families Party .
Now it ’ s a chant heard nearly as often at protests as “ No justice , no peace.
” 4 The ever-increasing amount of money spent on policing has borne little relationship to crime rates .
The number of crimes rose from 1,887 per 100,000 Americans in 1960 to 5,950 in 1980 .
Then rates started to decline , falling to 2,580 per 100,000 by 2018 .
And yet spending has steadily increased throughout that span.5 In New York City , spending on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1981 to $ 5.9 billion this year , not accounting for inflation .
The NYPD accounts for 7.7 percent of the city ’ s budget—more than what was allocated to the Housing Preservation and Development , Health and Mental Hygiene , Homeless Services , and Youth and Community Development departments combined .
And yet crime in the city has been falling for the past two decades.6 Constance Malcolm knows all too well about the outsize power of the NYPD .
A white officer chased her teenage son Ramarley Graham into their home and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 2012 .
“ I ’ ve been fighting for eight years , and I didn ’ t get any justice , ” she said .
The officer , Richard Haste , was indicted on manslaughter charges by a grand jury , but a judge dismissed them ; Haste stayed on the force five more years before he quit just after he was found guilty in a departmental disciplinary review .
“ I wouldn ’ t call it justice , ” she added , “ because somebody ’ s life was taken and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it.
” 7 Malcolm works in a nursing home and said she hasn ’ t been given enough protective equipment since the Covid-19 pandemic hit .
She has tested positive for coronavirus antibodies , and a lot of her patients died .
“ Even before the coronavirus , black and brown communities were not getting what we needed , ” she said .
“ Many of our people don ’ t even have access to good health care , affordable housing , good quality food , or a strong education.
” 8 Despite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to increase .
“ The NYPD keeps getting the highest budget , even though they kill our children and nothing happens , ” Malcolm said .
“ We ’ re in a crisis .
Police brutality is a crisis .
The only way to deal with this and keep our community safe is to defund the police.
” 9 These spending imbalances have now been thrown into stark relief .
As a result of the economic crash , state and local budgets are being decimated by a drop in tax revenue at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to deal with the coronavirus crisis .
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities projects a $ 615 billion shortfall in state budgets over the next three years .
Because nearly all city and state governments have to balance their operating budgets every year , they ’ ll be forced to make deep cuts.10 Keeping spending on the police intact or even increasing it will mean brutal reductions elsewhere .
“ When the economy is great and the tax revenues of the city are growing , you can sort of paper over that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ member of the New York–based Communities United for Police Reform .
“ But then something like Covid-19 hits , you have a crisis , and suddenly it all falls apart.
” In order to make up for a $ 10 billion tax shortfall , New York Mayor Bill de Blasio released an executive budget in April that cut NYPD funding by less than 1 percent while hitting the Department of Education with a 3 percent reduction and eliminating a youth employment program , among other cuts.11 Black Lives Matter Protests Are Everywhere , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Needs to Be Treated Like the Racist Pariah State It Is Change Comes to the Streets of Philadelphia More in this series The crisis has also increased the need for the very services on the chopping block .
“ No one is asking for more police , ” said Kamau Walton , a member of Critical Resistance , a national prison-abolition group .
“ People are really asking , ‘ What do we need to survive ?
What do we need to make it through this dire moment ?
’ And the answer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ services barely able to respond to a pandemic stand in sharp contrast with the tools that police departments have to quell the protests .
“ I see all of the resources—military-grade weapons—being used in residential areas , ” O ’ Rourke said .
“ They were shooting tear gas and rubber bullets and bean bags.
” 12 The protest movement happened to coincide with the time of year when many cities are considering the next year ’ s budget .
In New York , advocates have coalesced around the demand to cut a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NYPD ’ s budget for the coming fiscal year—something the City Council promised to do a little over two weeks into the protests .
Advocates want to see a police hiring freeze , which has been imposed on many other city agencies , and an end to using police in schools and youth programs .
They also want to end the NYPD ’ s task forces for mental illness and homeless outreach and have social workers take their place .
All of this may require a reduction in head count during a recession @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But , Ferguson said , “ police should not be an employment program.
” There are other areas to cut in the NYPD ’ s budget , he added , such as the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on things like bomb-seeking underwater drones and militarized armored vehicles.13 Advocates would also like to see settlements for police brutality come out of police budgets , not general revenue .
In New York , as in many other cities , the money for settling these cases is usually taken out of the city @ @ @ @ @ @ @ settlements come out of the NYPD ’ s budget “ gives them some incentive to address misconduct , ” Ferguson said.14 Organizing to address swollen police budgets has been happening in a number of other cities for years .
For the past six years , some members of the Black Philly Radical Collective have been fighting to reduce police violence , including a call to defund the police .
But this is the first time that all the members of the collective have made such a demand .
“ We know there are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” said Megan Malachi , an organizer with Philly for REAL Justice , which is part of the collective.15 The City Council , however , hasn ’ t been quick to take up the demand .
“ This is the kind of issue where even the black members of our political government here in Philadelphia are not responsive to the needs of their constituents , ” Malachi said .
Still , after a majority of council members said in early June they opposed Mayor Jim Kenney ’ s proposed $ 14 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him to drop it , they reached a deal to reduce police funding by $ 33 million on June 17 .
Before the protests , if someone had claimed that the mayor would go against an increase in police funding , “ no one would have believed you , ” O ’ Rourke said.16 Stop Police Terror Project DC , which fights police violence in the nation ’ s capital , has highlighted the amount of money the Metropolitan Police Department gets in the budget every year when it comes up for debate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ project ’ s organizers , noted that in Washington , some violent crimes , such as homicide , have been on the rise in recent years , bucking the national trend , despite increasing police budgets .
For him , that ’ s still a reason to defund the police .
“ Why would a city government continue to invest in something that ’ s clearly not working ?
” he said.17 At the same time , D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently proposed cutting the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ criminal justice reform that sought to deploy public health violence interrupters instead of police .
“ This is the same mayor who is getting all of this positive press because of the Black Lives Matter mural and renaming Black Lives Matter Plaza , ” Blackmon said .
“ But her actual policies…have a tangible negative impact on black lives.
” Meanwhile , the City Council passed an emergency police reform bill focused on limiting the use of force and increasing transparency without touching the budget question .
It “ feels kind of delinquent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said.18 “ That ’ s why we ’ re pushing so hard now for defunding the police , particularly as Bowser is clearly seeking to usurp and co-opt this moment , ” he continued .
“ If she ’ s determined to claim to the world that black lives matter , we intend to make her prove it.
” 19 The movement to defund the police is cropping up not just in major metropolises .
It ’ s also taking root in smaller cities .
Wildaliz Bermudez has been on the City @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a half years .
“ Never before have I seen this type of public outcry , ” she said .
She has received more than 100 e-mails calling to defund the police .
She and a fellow Working Families Party member on the council , Joshua Michtom , proposed cutting $ 9.6 million from the police department ’ s budget .
That proposal failed , but the council did vote to reduce the department ’ s budget by $ 1 million next year and put that money into things like after-school programs and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spending on policing , advocates want the police to stop dealing with things like mental health crises and school safety ; instead , they want cities to fund services that would address these issues without criminalizing the people who are suffering .
“ The safest communities don ’ t have the most cops .
They have the most resources , ” O ’ Rourke said .
Police officers are typically the first responders when someone has a mental health crisis , not public health or social workers .
Jails like Rikers Island in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Illinois are now the country ’ s largest mental health facilities .
Communities across the country have responded to the homelessness crisis by criminalizing homeless people , putting the police in charge of ticketing and clearing those without shelter rather than offering housing and services .
And 38 states and Washington , D.C. , authorize the placement of police officers in schools .
“ The bottom line is you can ’ t overinvest in social services , ” said Anthonine Pierre , the deputy director of the Brooklyn Movement Center .
“ You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deaths of Floyd and Taylor may prove to be a pivotal moment , but these transformations have been years in the making .
“ This work has been going on on the ground for quite some time , ” Lytle Hernandez said .
“ It ’ s exploded on the streets under the term ‘ defund the police , ’ but this broader notion of rethinking resources to police [ to ] invest in the social safety net has been in play certainly for the last few years.
” 22 Today ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and movement building in the wake of the deaths of Trayvon Martin , Mike Brown , Eric Garner , and other black people at the hands of police and vigilantes .
These deaths led to some reforms , such as departments banning certain use-of-force techniques like choke holds and instituting the use of body cameras .
The Obama administration put at least 15 police departments under consent decrees and limited the transfer of military-grade equipment to local forces .
In fact , Minneapolis was one of six cities the Obama Justice Department selected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And yet since 2015 , police have killed about 1,000 people in the nation every year .
“ We ’ re not going to fix these problems by jailing a couple of killer cops or giving them body cameras or making them take implicit bias training , ” Alex S. Vitale , the author of The End of Policing , told Zachary Siegel in an interview with The Nation.23 So activists have pushed to go much further .
Defunding the police was one of the six policy platforms put forward by the Movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year after it convened a massive gathering in Cleveland .
“ Black Lives Matter set the foundation and the groundwork , ” Pierre said .
Since then , “ there has been ongoing forward movement.
” 24 It ’ s no coincidence that these protests and the demands issuing from them are happening in the midst of a historic health crisis .
“ When you live in a pandemic for three months and lose jobs and lose family members and think about how society is organized , it becomes much easier to say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need to get rid of the cops , ’ ” Pierre said .
“ We got rid of going outside .
So maybe we should get rid of the cops.
” 25 Not to mention that black people have been disproportionately dying of Covid-19 .
Everyone has watched the federal government ’ s paralysis in the face of the crisis , and many feel that the $ 1,200 stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefits don ’ t go far enough to cushion such an enormous blow .
The protests are “ happening in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its people under the coronavirus , ” Blackmon said .
“ It ’ s almost like a perfect storm that has now exploded and blossomed into a nationwide resistance movement.
” 26 A number of those who are calling to defund the police are demanding not just that their budgets be reduced and redistributed but also that the money eventually be zeroed out and police eliminated .
“ Our call is specifically abolitionist , ” Malachi said .
“ We ’ re aware that because of the popularity of the defund-the-police narrative…it could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and made into reform rather than the radical call that it is.
” 27 Even so , many see changing city budgets and the roles the police play as part of that process .
“ It can be a step toward abolition , ” Walton said , “ if we make sure these processes are being controlled and led by the community.
” As Vitale put it , abolition is “ a process more than an outcome… .
We need to challenge the scope and power of policing .
We need to take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ away , take their authority away in as many dimensions as we can.
” 28 “ These have been the tensions and conversations all along , ” Lytle Hernandez said .
But “ you can go back to any social movement and find these kinds of tensions between more moderate and radical wings of the movement.
” For her , eradicating racial inequality requires abolition .
“ We have walked up to this precipice at least twice before , ” she said , pointing to Emancipation and the civil rights movement .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are we going to really head toward racial justice or make a compromise that ’ s easier for the moment and maintain white supremacy ?
Each time before , we have chosen white supremacy.
” 29 Whether more mayors and city councils will take heed is unclear .
Mayor de Blasio , a Democrat who briefly ran for the party ’ s presidential nomination this year on his progressive bona fides , at first shot down the idea of reducing the NYPD ’ s budget before saying , 10 days into the protests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and direct it to youth and social services .
But he hasn ’ t stated yet by how much .
“ Cut the budget , and let ’ s see where you stand , ” Malcolm , Ramarley Graham ’ s mother , said of de Blasio .
“ Let ’ s see if black life really matters to him.
” 30 Meanwhile , New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer has called for a $ 1.1 billion reduction over four years rather than the immediate decrease that activists want to see and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In Congress , Democrats have put forward a landmark policing bill that is still focused on procedural reform .
But even this is proof of the impact the activism is having .
“ This is something that I think we ’ d all agree felt pretty unthinkable just a few weeks ago , ” Ferguson said .
“ It shows how much the ground is shifting.
” 31 “ This is the moment for us to lean in , ” O ’ Rourke said .
“ I ’ m excited to see for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in with us.
” 32

This article appears in the July 13/20, 2020 issue.
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On a Sunday in early June, Grand Army Plaza, a large square at the entrance to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, swarmed with people of all different races and ages. A family march of parents and their children flowed into groups of young people on bikes. Many held signs declaring “Black lives matter,” but there were perhaps an equal number of other signs: “Defund the police.”1
It’s a radical demand that just a few weeks ago was rarely heard on the streets of New York City or in many other cities, for that matter. But since George Floyd, a black resident of Minneapolis, was killed by a white police officer and Breonna Taylor, a black emergency room technician, was killed by police in Louisville, Ky., in her sleep and outrage over these and countless other instances of police brutality pushed tens of thousands of people to protest in cities and towns across the country, it has become a rallying cry of the movement.2
It’s not just a slogan. Out of the protest movement has come a surge of organizing to push city councils to shift money out of bloated police budgets and into starved social services—and activists are already seeing some concrete successes. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti walked back a proposed increase for the LAPD and has promised a $150 million cut instead. Lawmakers in 15 other cities have made similar pledges. The Minneapolis City Council has even voted to disband the city’s police department.3
It’s an unprecedented moment. Spending on the police by state and local governments jumped from about $2 billion in 1960 to $137 billion in 2018, unadjusted for inflation; the average share of city budgets spent on policing grew from 6.6 percent in 1977 to 7.8 percent in 2017. “We have had a persistent trend for the last half-century of spending ever more money on police and incarceration,” said Kelly Lytle Hernandez, a history professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “This is a truly historic shift.” Organizers agree. “Something like ‘defund the police’ just two weeks ago…was a nonstarter,” said Nicolas O’Rourke, the Pennsylvania organizing director for the Working Families Party. Now it’s a chant heard nearly as often at protests as “No justice, no peace.”4 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
The ever-increasing amount of money spent on policing has borne little relationship to crime rates. The number of crimes rose from 1,887 per 100,000 Americans in 1960 to 5,950 in 1980. Then rates started to decline, falling to 2,580 per 100,000 by 2018. And yet spending has steadily increased throughout that span.5
In New York City, spending on police went from $714 million in 1981 to $5.9 billion this year, not accounting for inflation. The NYPD accounts for 7.7 percent of the city’s budget—more than what was allocated to the Housing Preservation and Development, Health and Mental Hygiene, Homeless Services, and Youth and Community Development departments combined. And yet crime in the city has been falling for the past two decades.6
Constance Malcolm knows all too well about the outsize power of the NYPD. A white officer chased her teenage son Ramarley Graham into their home and shot and killed him in their bathroom in 2012. “I’ve been fighting for eight years, and I didn’t get any justice,” she said. The officer, Richard Haste, was indicted on manslaughter charges by a grand jury, but a judge dismissed them; Haste stayed on the force five more years before he quit just after he was found guilty in a departmental disciplinary review. “I wouldn’t call it justice,” she added, “because somebody’s life was taken and there’s nothing that could replace it.”7 Current Issue View our current issue
Malcolm works in a nursing home and said she hasn’t been given enough protective equipment since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. She has tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, and a lot of her patients died. “Even before the coronavirus, black and brown communities were not getting what we needed,” she said. “Many of our people don’t even have access to good health care, affordable housing, good quality food, or a strong education.”8
Despite this, spending on the police continues to increase. “The NYPD keeps getting the highest budget, even though they kill our children and nothing happens,” Malcolm said. “We’re in a crisis. Police brutality is a crisis. The only way to deal with this and keep our community safe is to defund the police.”9
These spending imbalances have now been thrown into stark relief. As a result of the economic crash, state and local budgets are being decimated by a drop in tax revenue at the same time that expenses are rising steeply to deal with the coronavirus crisis. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities projects a $615 billion shortfall in state budgets over the next three years. Because nearly all city and state governments have to balance their operating budgets every year, they’ll be forced to make deep cuts.10
Keeping spending on the police intact or even increasing it will mean brutal reductions elsewhere. “When the economy is great and the tax revenues of the city are growing, you can sort of paper over that,” said Leo Ferguson, a member of the New York–based Communities United for Police Reform. “But then something like Covid-19 hits, you have a crisis, and suddenly it all falls apart.” In order to make up for a $10 billion tax shortfall, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio released an executive budget in April that cut NYPD funding by less than 1 percent while hitting the Department of Education with a 3 percent reduction and eliminating a youth employment program, among other cuts.11 A Nation in Protest Black Lives Matter Protests Are Everywhere, Even in the Unlikeliest Places Zoë Carpenter The US Needs to Be Treated Like the Racist Pariah State It Is Elie Mystal Change Comes to the Streets of Philadelphia Gene Seymour
The crisis has also increased the need for the very services on the chopping block. “No one is asking for more police,” said Kamau Walton, a member of Critical Resistance, a national prison-abolition group. “People are really asking, ‘What do we need to survive? What do we need to make it through this dire moment?’ And the answer is definitely not more police.” Hobbled services barely able to respond to a pandemic stand in sharp contrast with the tools that police departments have to quell the protests. “I see all of the resources—military-grade weapons—being used in residential areas,” O’Rourke said. “They were shooting tear gas and rubber bullets and bean bags.”12
The protest movement happened to coincide with the time of year when many cities are considering the next year’s budget. In New York, advocates have coalesced around the demand to cut a minimum of $1 billion from the NYPD’s budget for the coming fiscal year—something the City Council promised to do a little over two weeks into the protests. Advocates want to see a police hiring freeze, which has been imposed on many other city agencies, and an end to using police in schools and youth programs. They also want to end the NYPD’s task forces for mental illness and homeless outreach and have social workers take their place. All of this may require a reduction in head count during a recession in which millions have lost their jobs. But, Ferguson said, “police should not be an employment program.” There are other areas to cut in the NYPD’s budget, he added, such as the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on things like bomb-seeking underwater drones and militarized armored vehicles.13
Advocates would also like to see settlements for police brutality come out of police budgets, not general revenue. In New York, as in many other cities, the money for settling these cases is usually taken out of the city’s overall budget. Ensuring that settlements come out of the NYPD’s budget “gives them some incentive to address misconduct,” Ferguson said.14
Symbolic politics: Activists criticized Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser for painting a “Black Lives Matter” mural in front of the White House when she had resisted cutting the police budget. (Aurora Samperio / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Organizing to address swollen police budgets has been happening in a number of other cities for years. For the past six years, some members of the Black Philly Radical Collective have been fighting to reduce police violence, including a call to defund the police. But this is the first time that all the members of the collective have made such a demand. “We know there are political moments when you have to strike,” said Megan Malachi, an organizer with Philly for REAL Justice, which is part of the collective.15
The City Council, however, hasn’t been quick to take up the demand. “This is the kind of issue where even the black members of our political government here in Philadelphia are not responsive to the needs of their constituents,” Malachi said. Still, after a majority of council members said in early June they opposed Mayor Jim Kenney’s proposed $14 million increase in the police budget, prompting him to drop it, they reached a deal to reduce police funding by $33 million on June 17. Before the protests, if someone had claimed that the mayor would go against an increase in police funding, “no one would have believed you,” O’Rourke said.16
Stop Police Terror Project DC, which fights police violence in the nation’s capital, has highlighted the amount of money the Metropolitan Police Department gets in the budget every year when it comes up for debate. Sean Blackmon, one of the project’s organizers, noted that in Washington, some violent crimes, such as homicide, have been on the rise in recent years, bucking the national trend, despite increasing police budgets. For him, that’s still a reason to defund the police. “Why would a city government continue to invest in something that’s clearly not working?” he said.17
At the same time, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently proposed cutting the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, which was created as part of a 2016 criminal justice reform that sought to deploy public health violence interrupters instead of police. “This is the same mayor who is getting all of this positive press because of the Black Lives Matter mural and renaming Black Lives Matter Plaza,” Blackmon said. “But her actual policies…have a tangible negative impact on black lives.” Meanwhile, the City Council passed an emergency police reform bill focused on limiting the use of force and increasing transparency without touching the budget question. It “feels kind of delinquent. Kind of far behind,” he said.18
“That’s why we’re pushing so hard now for defunding the police, particularly as Bowser is clearly seeking to usurp and co-opt this moment,” he continued. “If she’s determined to claim to the world that black lives matter, we intend to make her prove it.”19
The movement to defund the police is cropping up not just in major metropolises. It’s also taking root in smaller cities. Wildaliz Bermudez has been on the City Council of Hartford for over four and a half years. “Never before have I seen this type of public outcry,” she said. She has received more than 100 e-mails calling to defund the police. She and a fellow Working Families Party member on the council, Joshua Michtom, proposed cutting $9.6 million from the police department’s budget. That proposal failed, but the council did vote to reduce the department’s budget by $1 million next year and put that money into things like after-school programs and another housing inspector.20
In addition to less spending on policing, advocates want the police to stop dealing with things like mental health crises and school safety; instead, they want cities to fund services that would address these issues without criminalizing the people who are suffering. “The safest communities don’t have the most cops. They have the most resources,” O’Rourke said. Police officers are typically the first responders when someone has a mental health crisis, not public health or social workers. Jails like Rikers Island in New York and Cook County Jail in Illinois are now the country’s largest mental health facilities. Communities across the country have responded to the homelessness crisis by criminalizing homeless people, putting the police in charge of ticketing and clearing those without shelter rather than offering housing and services. And 38 states and Washington, D.C., authorize the placement of police officers in schools. “The bottom line is you can’t overinvest in social services,” said Anthonine Pierre, the deputy director of the Brooklyn Movement Center. “You can overinvest in policing.”21
Seeking justice: Constance Malcolm has been fighting against police violence since her son, Ramarley Graham, was killed by an NYPD officer in 2012. (Erik Mc Gregor / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images)
The deaths of Floyd and Taylor may prove to be a pivotal moment, but these transformations have been years in the making. “This work has been going on on the ground for quite some time,” Lytle Hernandez said. “It’s exploded on the streets under the term ‘defund the police,’ but this broader notion of rethinking resources to police [to] invest in the social safety net has been in play certainly for the last few years.”22
Today’s protests come after seven years of organizing and movement building in the wake of the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and other black people at the hands of police and vigilantes. These deaths led to some reforms, such as departments banning certain use-of-force techniques like choke holds and instituting the use of body cameras. The Obama administration put at least 15 police departments under consent decrees and limited the transfer of military-grade equipment to local forces. In fact, Minneapolis was one of six cities the Obama Justice Department selected to pilot procedural reforms in 2015. And yet since 2015, police have killed about 1,000 people in the nation every year. “We’re not going to fix these problems by jailing a couple of killer cops or giving them body cameras or making them take implicit bias training,” Alex S. Vitale, the author of The End of Policing, told Zachary Siegel in an interview with The Nation.23
So activists have pushed to go much further. Defunding the police was one of the six policy platforms put forward by the Movement for Black Lives in 2016, a year after it convened a massive gathering in Cleveland. “Black Lives Matter set the foundation and the groundwork,” Pierre said. Since then, “there has been ongoing forward movement.”24
It’s no coincidence that these protests and the demands issuing from them are happening in the midst of a historic health crisis. “When you live in a pandemic for three months and lose jobs and lose family members and think about how society is organized, it becomes much easier to say, ‘Well, maybe we do need to get rid of the cops,’” Pierre said. “We got rid of going outside. So maybe we should get rid of the cops.”25
Not to mention that black people have been disproportionately dying of Covid-19. Everyone has watched the federal government’s paralysis in the face of the crisis, and many feel that the $1,200 stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefits don’t go far enough to cushion such an enormous blow. The protests are “happening in the context of the US government abandoning its people under the coronavirus,” Blackmon said. “It’s almost like a perfect storm that has now exploded and blossomed into a nationwide resistance movement.”26
A number of those who are calling to defund the police are demanding not just that their budgets be reduced and redistributed but also that the money eventually be zeroed out and police eliminated. “Our call is specifically abolitionist,” Malachi said. “We’re aware that because of the popularity of the defund-the-police narrative…it could easily be co-opted by Democrats and liberals and made into reform rather than the radical call that it is.”27
Even so, many see changing city budgets and the roles the police play as part of that process. “It can be a step toward abolition,” Walton said, “if we make sure these processes are being controlled and led by the community.” As Vitale put it, abolition is “a process more than an outcome…. We need to challenge the scope and power of policing. We need to take their budgets away, take their toys away, take their authority away in as many dimensions as we can.”28
“These have been the tensions and conversations all along,” Lytle Hernandez said. But “you can go back to any social movement and find these kinds of tensions between more moderate and radical wings of the movement.” For her, eradicating racial inequality requires abolition. “We have walked up to this precipice at least twice before,” she said, pointing to Emancipation and the civil rights movement. “We have to make a decision about are we going to really head toward racial justice or make a compromise that’s easier for the moment and maintain white supremacy? Each time before, we have chosen white supremacy.”29
Whether more mayors and city councils will take heed is unclear. Mayor de Blasio, a Democrat who briefly ran for the party’s presidential nomination this year on his progressive bona fides, at first shot down the idea of reducing the NYPD’s budget before saying, 10 days into the protests, that he would cut that spending and direct it to youth and social services. But he hasn’t stated yet by how much. “Cut the budget, and let’s see where you stand,” Malcolm, Ramarley Graham’s mother, said of de Blasio. “Let’s see if black life really matters to him.”30
Meanwhile, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer has called for a $1.1 billion reduction over four years rather than the immediate decrease that activists want to see and the City Council appears to be considering. In Congress, Democrats have put forward a landmark policing bill that is still focused on procedural reform. But even this is proof of the impact the activism is having. “This is something that I think we’d all agree felt pretty unthinkable just a few weeks ago,” Ferguson said. “It shows how much the ground is shifting.”31
“This is the moment for us to lean in,” O’Rourke said. “I’m excited to see for the most part the people are leaning in with us.”32
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this piece stated that the NYPD budget was $7 million in 1981. The department’s budget was $714 million that year. The text has been corrected.


thenation--2020-07-01--Trolling Trump, the Lincoln Project Also Peddles Militarism

The Lincoln Project is producing the strangest and most memorable ads in the 2020 election cycle because it has a unique goal : to troll the president .
Founded by Republicans who hate the Trumpian takeover of their party , the super PAC has so far been focused on creating ads that don ’ t really persuade voters , but do rile up Trump and entertain journalists and political insiders .
The ads air in Washington , D.C. , which is not a locale where you can reach swing voters who could shift the electoral college .
But Washington is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want to get Trump to see them and get steaming mad .
Leading members of the Lincoln Project include George Conway ( a longtime fixture of the conservative legal establishment and husband to presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway ) , Steve Schmidt ( senior campaign strategist for John McCain in 2008 ) , John Weaver ( who oversaw McCain ’ s 2000 bid ) , and Rick Wilson ( a veteran of many Republican campaigns ) .
These are men who have a visceral hatred for Trump , seeing him as an interloper who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have skill in the art of negative campaigning .
Wilson infamously created an ad in 2002 which questioned the patriotism of Georgia Senator Max Cleland , who lost both his legs and his right forearm in the Vietnam War .
The sensibility behind the Cleland ad has been brought to a string of no-holds-barred attacks on Trump , to the admiration of some Democrats .
“ Democrats could learn a lot from them , ” argues Democratic strategist James Carville , himself a man not known for pulling punches .
He added that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and , “ They fight hard .
And we don ’ t fight like that.
” After Trump ’ s disappointing rally in Tulsa , Okla. , where less than 7,000 supporters showed up , the Lincoln Project released an ad titled “ Shrinkage ” which derided Trump ’ s sexual aptitude .
“ Turnout in Tulsa ?
” a female voice asked .
“ A dud .
You ’ ve probably heard this before , but it was smaller than we expected.
” The narrator continued to needle Trump , saying “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as you promised .
Honestly , we ’ re not surprised.… We ’ ve seen that you ’ re shaky , you can ’ t keep your polls up.
” Trump Is Trying to Remake the Military in His Own Ugly Image How Long Can William Barr Get Away With Laughing at Justice ?
If the goal of these ads is to annoy Trump , they are working .
In early May , Trump went off on a tirade against the ads , saying they were the work of “ a group of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ago , then again 8 years ago , and then got BADLY beaten by me , a political first timer , 4 years ago.
” He also described Conway as a “ deranged loser of a husband.
” Writing in The Atlantic , conservative writer Andrew Ferguson , no fan of the president , criticized the Lincoln Project for fighting Trump with Trumpian means .
He described the ads as “ personally abusive , overwrought , pointlessly salacious , and trip-wired with non sequiturs.
” This ethical critique has merit , but the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political .
To the extent the ads articulate any political vision , it is a desire to return to the hard-line military aggression of the George W. Bush era .
On Tuesday , the Lincoln Project released an ad addressing accusations that Trump hasn ’ t protected American troops in Afghanistan from a bounty on their lives supposedly placed by the Russian government .
The ad , titled “ Betrayed , ” features Dr. Dan Barkhuff , a physician and former Navy SEAL .
“ Months ago , Donald Trump learned the Russians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soldiers in Afghanistan and chose to do nothing about it , ” Barkhuff said .
“ Any commander in chief with a spine would be stomping the living shit out of some Russians right now—diplomatically , economically or , if necessary , with the sort of asymmetric warfare they ’ re using to send our kids home in body bags.
” He added , “ Mr .
Trump , you ’ re either a coward who can ’ t stand up to an ex-KGB goon , or you ’ re complicit .
Which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quick to applaud the ad .
It was retweeted and quoted by Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe , former Bill Clinton advisor Paul Begala , and Mother Jones magazine D.C. bureau chief David Corn .
Clara Jeffery , editor in chief of Mother Jones , tweeted , “ this one might be the most yowza ad yet.
” She went on to argue that the Lincoln Project and other Never Trump endeavors were valuable because they can “ assail Trump from the right , speak in ways that a left candidate/group can not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for wavering folks who feel the tug of party loyalty.
” Anti-War Groups Push Biden and the Democrats to Rethink Foreign Policy The claim that the ads could win over Republicans seems , at best , speculative .
The main way they are distributed is via twitter ( where they are retweeted by the already convinced ) and in very small TV markets picked to maximize the chance of Trump seeing them .
In other words , the game seems to be more about taunting and revenge than persuasion .
Andrew Ferguson makes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Trump rally , the ads work exclusively on the predispositions of the faithful.
” But if persuasion of disaffected or marginal Republicans voters isn ’ t the goal , is there anything else motivating the ads than the desire , understandable enough , to get Trump ’ s goat ?
Barkhuff ’ s hard-line comments about launching “ asymmetric warfare ” offer a clue .
On the merits , the idea of escalating the proxy war in the Middle East by taking out bounties on Russians is absurd .
The war in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ever had .
In fact , from the moment George W. Bush failed to capture the escaping Osama Bin Laden , the American occupation has made no sense .
Still , a permanent occupation of Afghanistan is what the American national security establishment seems to want .
Barkhuff ’ s ad functions as a way of co-opting opposition to Trump and channeling it into support for a war effort that is otherwise indefensible .
Time to Fundamentally Rethink What Trump Means by Security This suggests these ads should be seen as an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden ’ s victory so that if he ’ s president he ’ ll give hawkish Republicans a seat at the table .
Biden already has a tropism towards bipartisanship , especially in foreign policy .
He voted for the Iraq War and has been criticizing Trump from the right for not being sufficiently hard-line on Venezuela and China .
By creating ads like this , the Lincoln Project is creating an impression that will prove useful to foreign policy hawks if Biden wins : that Trump ’ s defeat was due in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t like Trump ’ s questioning of national security orthodoxy .
One further agenda might be to help the Republican Party rehabilitate if Trump goes down in defeat .
The argument then will be that not every Republican went along with Trump , that many opposed Trump in their hearts , that Trump wasn ’ t a true Republican at all .
Variations of these arguments were used to help the GOP refurbish its reputation after George W. Bush ’ s presidency ended in disaster .
Progressives would do well to keep a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The ads needling Trump are often entertaining , but they are pushing a sinister agenda .

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The Lincoln Project is producing the strangest and most memorable ads in the 2020 election cycle because it has a unique goal: to troll the president. Founded by Republicans who hate the Trumpian takeover of their party, the super PAC has so far been focused on creating ads that don’t really persuade voters, but do rile up Trump and entertain journalists and political insiders. The ads air in Washington, D.C., which is not a locale where you can reach swing voters who could shift the Electoral College. But Washington is the place to run ads if you want to get Trump to see them and get steaming mad.
Leading members of the Lincoln Project include George Conway (a longtime fixture of the conservative legal establishment and husband of presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway), Steve Schmidt (senior campaign strategist for John McCain in 2008), John Weaver (who oversaw McCain’s 2000 bid), and Rick Wilson (a veteran of many Republican campaigns). These are men who have a visceral hatred for Trump, seeing him as an interloper who has ruined their party. They also have skill in the art of negative campaigning. Wilson infamously created an ad in 2002 that questioned the patriotism of Georgia Senator Max Cleland, who lost both his legs and his right forearm in the Vietnam War.
The sensibility behind the Cleland ad has been brought to a string of no-holds-barred attacks on Trump, to the admiration of some Democrats. “Democrats could learn a lot from them,” argues Democratic strategist James Carville, himself a man not known for pulling punches. He added that the Lincoln Project is “mean” and “they fight hard. And we don’t fight like that.”
After Trump’s disappointing rally in Tulsa, Okla., where fewer than 7,000 supporters showed up, the Lincoln Project released an ad titled “Shrinkage” that derided Trump’s sexual aptitude. “Turnout in Tulsa?” a female voice asked. “A dud. You’ve probably heard this before, but it was smaller than we expected.” The narrator continued to needle Trump, saying, “It sure wasn’t as big as you promised. Honestly, we’re not surprised.… We’ve seen that you’re shaky, you can’t keep your polls up.” 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
If the goal of these ads is to annoy Trump, they are working. In early May, Trump went off on a tirade against the ads, saying they were the work of “a group of RINO Republicans who failed badly 12 years ago, then again 8 years ago, and then got BADLY beaten by me, a political first timer, 4 years ago.” He also described Conway as a “deranged loser of a husband.”
Writing in The Atlantic, conservative writer Andrew Ferguson, no fan of the president, criticized the Lincoln Project for fighting Trump with Trumpian means. He described the ads as “personally abusive, overwrought, pointlessly salacious, and trip-wired with non sequiturs.” 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
This ethical critique has merit, but the real problem with the Lincoln Project is political. To the extent that the ads articulate any political vision, it is a desire to return to the hard-line military aggression of the George W. Bush era. Current Issue View our current issue
On Tuesday, the Lincoln Project released an ad addressing accusations that Trump hasn’t protected American troops in Afghanistan from a bounty on their lives supposedly placed by the Russian government. The ad, titled “Betrayed,” features Dr. Dan Barkhuff, a physician and former Navy SEAL. “Months ago, Donald Trump learned the Russians were paying a bounty for dead American soldiers in Afghanistan and chose to do nothing about it,” Barkhuff said. “Any commander in chief with a spine would be stomping the living shit out of some Russians right now—diplomatically, economically, or, if necessary, with the sort of asymmetric warfare they’re using to send our kids home in body bags.” He added, “Mr. Trump, you’re either a coward who can’t stand up to an ex-KGB goon, or you’re complicit. Which is it?”
Some liberals were quick to applaud the ad. It was retweeted and quoted by Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, former Bill Clinton adviser Paul Begala, and Mother Jones magazine D.C. bureau chief David Corn. Clara Jeffery, editor in chief of Mother Jones, tweeted, “this one might be the most yowza ad yet.” She went on to argue that the Lincoln Project and other Never Trump endeavors were valuable because they can “assail Trump from the right, speak in ways that a left candidate/group cannot convincingly, and provide a permission structure for wavering folks who feel the tug of party loyalty.” Related Article Anti-War Groups Push Biden and the Democrats to Rethink Foreign Policy John Nichols
The claim that the ads could win over Republicans seems, at best, speculative. The main way they are distributed is via Twitter (where they are retweeted by the already convinced) and in very small TV markets picked to maximize the chance of Trump’s seeing them. In other words, the game seems to be more about taunting and revenge than persuasion. Andrew Ferguson makes the fair point that “like a Trump rally, the ads work exclusively on the predispositions of the faithful.”
But if persuasion of disaffected or marginal Republicans voters isn’t the goal, is there anything motivating the ads other than the desire, understandable enough, to get Trump’s goat?
Barkhuff’s hard-line comments about launching “asymmetric warfare” offer a clue. On the merits, the idea of escalating the proxy war in the Middle East by taking out bounties on Russians is absurd. The war in Afghanistan has long lost whatever strategic rationale it ever had. In fact, from the moment George W. Bush failed to capture the escaping Osama bin Laden, the American occupation has made no sense. Still, a permanent occupation of Afghanistan is what the American national security establishment seems to want. Barkhuff’s ad functions as a way of co-opting opposition to Trump and channeling it into support for a war effort that is otherwise indefensible. Related Article Time to Fundamentally Rethink What Trump Means by Security Katrina vanden Heuvel
This suggests that these ads should be seen as an attempt to stake a claim in Joe Biden’s victory so that if he becomes president he’ll give hawkish Republicans a seat at the table. Biden already has a tropism toward bipartisanship, especially in foreign policy. He voted for the Iraq War and has been criticizing Trump from the right for not being sufficiently hard-line on Venezuela and China.
By creating ads like this, the Lincoln Project is creating an impression that will prove useful to foreign policy hawks if Biden wins: that Trump’s defeat was due in part to disaffected Republicans who didn’t like Trump’s questioning of national security orthodoxy.
One further objective might be to help the Republican Party rehabilitate if Trump goes down in defeat. The argument then will be that not every Republican went along with Trump, that many opposed him in their hearts, that he wasn’t a true Republican at all. Variations of these arguments were used to help the GOP refurbish its reputation after George W. Bush’s presidency ended in disaster.
Progressives would do well to keep a skeptical eye on the Lincoln Project. The ads needling Trump are often entertaining, but they are pushing a sinister agenda.


thenation--2020-07-01--What Are Art Galleries For?

What Are Art Galleries For?

The gallery scene in New York , long the most active setting for new art worldwide , had been showing signs of malaise even before the Covid-19 pandemic .
Many of its problems are shared around the globe—notably the rise of art fairs , which have increased the cost of doing business while drawing many collectors away from brick-and-mortar galleries ; other challenges , such as high rents , are more specific to New York .
All of them are rooted in a broader sociopolitical context : the seemingly inexorable rise of income inequality and the winner-take-all economy .
One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ market around a small number of mega-galleries and a squeeze on the rest .
And when the galleries are ailing , it ’ s the artists who are most affected .
1 There ’ s no reason why the art gallery as we know it , a 19th century invention , should last forever .
But there ’ s also no sign of an alternative on the horizon .
As with other small New York businesses that ’ ve been closed since mid-March , it ’ s not clear how many galleries will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to reopen .
( When I began writing this , galleries had begun to reopen in Berlin , Paris , and elsewhere with proper protection , but no clear date for reopening had been set for those in New York ; now the latter have started reopening , still mostly , it seems , by appointment . )
For now , artists depend on galleries , if not for subsistence—few have ever been able to live entirely from the sale of their work—then to make their work known , to cultivate a public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an end to all gallery activity , though : Galleries are going gangbusters trying to keep their constituencies involved online .
My inbox has never been more full of frantic appeals for attention .
Galleries that used to send out announcements a couple of times a month now seem to reach out on a daily basis , asking me to check out their highlighted work of the day , to peruse their “ online viewing rooms , ” or to join the audience for a virtual studio visit with one of their quarantined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of it .
I ’ ll be happy to bide my time and wait until I can safely see real things in real three-dimensional space .
3 Suddenly , I find myself no longer taking for granted the existence of the galleries where I ’ ve been enjoying art for most of my life .
Suddenly it ’ s a question : What are galleries for , anyway ?
And what ’ s going to become of them in the new world that ’ s going to appear in the wake of Covid-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ habitual perceptions on hold and taking another look .
Galleries , in this moment of reset , of relative nonproductivity , need to reconsider their assumptions , and artists likewise , to rethink their expectations of galleries.4 Already , the nature of the relation between galleries and artists varies so widely that it is hard to generalize .
In some cases , the gallery “ represents ” the artist—meaning , it has the ongoing exclusive right to sell their work ; this representation could be in effect in a given city or country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the gallery might exhibit an artist ’ s work on a one-time basis , with just a limited number of pieces consigned for sale .
Usually , the income from a sale will be split 50/50 between the gallery and the artist , although some artists whose work is in particular demand can obtain a more favorable split .
Rarer than it used to be , I think , is for the gallery to pay the artist a regular stipend in exchange for work or for the right to sell it .
Up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gallery are all the ancillary expenses involved in mounting and publicizing an exhibition : shipping , photographic documentation , storage , and so on .
And big installations , like some moving image works , entail big production expenses .
Who covers them—and , if that is the gallery , how they are to recoup the outlay—has to be worked out .
5 Except at the higher strata of the market , these issues are often settled with a handshake rather than a written contract , leaving lots of room for ambiguity and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the artist—when it is worthwhile—is not only that the overhead for the exhibition space is covered , but that the gallery has closer and more extensive contacts among collectors and museum curators who might be interested in acquiring or showing the work , not to mention other dealers who could help sell it ( for an appropriate split ) .
In short , the artist gives up a large portion of the sales price of the work on the assumption , or the hope , that the gallery can increase both the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s not always a winning bet , but simply having had the exhibition accords a degree of prestige and publicity that may eventually pay off .
Like a writer who can say , “ my publisher , ” or a musician who can say , “ my label , ” the artist who can say “ my gallery ” has a sense of being in the game .
The dealer serves the artist as some combination of cheerleader , business manager , and therapist , browbeating boss , and obliging servitor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that ’ s also a personal one , fraught with sometimes hidden , sometimes open conflicts.6 To understand what galleries are and might become , I needed to talk to some of the people whose interests they ostensibly exist to serve : artists themselves .
In particular , it occurred to me , it might be good to talk to some artists who ’ ve been involved in the gallery scene in New York but who are currently not represented by galleries here .
How does the gallery system look to them these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needs ?
Do galleries need to change , and if so how ?
7 I called on three artists whose work I admire but who otherwise have nothing in common .
They ’ re of different generations , and they work with different mediums .
Rafael Vega is a painter born in Yabucoa , Puerto Rico , and these days living in Brooklyn—and still , even in the middle of the pandemic , able to get to his nearby studio and keep working .
He has exhibited his abstract works with galleries in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he studied industrial chemistry before going back to school for a degree in art .
His paintings are elegant , funky , and physical—sawing lines through the wood panels he works on is as much a part of his painting process as is putting paint on them .
8 Rhona Bitner is a native New Yorker who spends part of every year in Paris .
Her photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums in those cities as well as in Geneva , Venice , and elsewhere .
Her most extensive photographic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for which she spent over a decade on what she calls “ a comprehensive mapping of American music ’ s inner architecture ” through images of iconic music venues , from Max Yasgur ’ s farm in Bethel , N.Y.—the site of the Woodstock festival—and California ’ s Folsom State Prison where Johnny Cash recorded one of his most famous albums before an audience of inmates , to Manhattan ’ s CBGB , the club where punk rock was born , and historic blues venues like Red ’ s Lounge in Clarksdale , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the coronavirus , Bitner has been photographing the deserted streets of her hometown in the first images she ’ s ever made in black-and-white .
She admits that she doesn ’ t entirely know what to make of these new photos , but she was compelled to seek them out .
“ Someone told me , ‘ It looks like a portrait of a city yearning for its inhabitants.
” 9 Judith Barry , an Ohioan by birth , lives in New York but commutes to Cambridge , Mass.
, where she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , culture and technology ) program at MIT .
She has exhibited her performance , installation , sculpture , and media works worldwide , including , most recently , solo shows at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston .
She has also worked as an exhibition designer , often in collaboration with her life partner , architect Ken Saylor .
Since the gallery and museum closings , some of her big projects have been put on pause while her teaching duties have migrated online @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work continue for future projects such as All the light that ’ s ours to see , an installation that reconsiders the history of home video and the transmutation of moving image culture as it became incorporated into domestic space.10 Each of these artists has experienced the gallery system differently .
For Vega , growing up in Puerto Rico , it was something he became aware of only gradually .
“ I ’ m from the southeast of the island .
We don ’ t have galleries in that whole area .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thing you know or you understand or you care about is galleries .
You do it because you like it .
Then I moved to San Juan and got to know the gallery system in San Juan.
” But it didn ’ t seem urgent to him at first to find a gallery .
That only happened later , when he went to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago , where I met him , and moved to New York after completing his degree..11 Having grown up in New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ closer to hand .
“ I have a sort of idealized version of what a gallery can be .
Every artist wants to work with the Paula Cooper of the 1970s .
That doesn ’ t exist anymore.
” She doesn ’ t feel she ’ s had a satisfactory relation with a gallery , one that embodies the kind of supportive partnership she ’ d like .
“ An old friend who is now a very successful gallerist once put it in my head to say to dealers , ‘ What can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
’ That makes a lot of sense , because I bring something to the table , they bring something to the table—our goals are similar , our existences are separate , but we can achieve something together .
That is possible , because artists are succeeding within the gallery system.
” She ’ s still looking for that kind of partnership.12 Barry , coming into the art world toward the end of the 1970s , found things simpler .
She was invited to show in biennials and other big international exhibitions almost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were plucked out of school and given a budget to produce work—this was my de facto residency period .
Yes , you made mistakes in public .
But you made a lot of work because you had a budget .
You weren ’ t working three jobs to pay two rents—home and studio , plus work expenses.
” Galleries took an early interest too , but “ it was a special kind of gallery who wanted to show ” someone like Barry , whose experimental work is not often the type that attracts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the point .
“ I ’ ve had dealers who really love to sell and others who really don ’ t like it , ” says Barry : 13 Indeed , sales seem to be among the less relevant aspects of many artists ’ relations with galleries .
“ I don ’ t know anyone who lives off the sale of their artwork , ” Bitner says .
“ I don ’ t ever expect to live off the sale of my artwork.
” Teaching , as in Barry ’ s case , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ making up the difference .
A photographer like Bitner can take commercial commissions .
Or they can work for the gallery system itself .
Vega tells me that he doesn ’ t think that artists in New York at his level , or at almost any level , live exclusively from selling their art .
Many , instead , have day jobs in the art-world industrial complex as “ art handlers , preparators for galleries or museums.
” It ’ s precisely through the loss of such jobs , often part-time or freelance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the Covid-19 crisis has struck them hardest .
“ What do I expect from a gallery ?
Building a career , ” says Vega .
“ It ’ s not necessarily about selling the work .
That ’ s the easy part .
The hard part is building the momentum that allows you to sell the painting : making people understand why they should buy the work.
” 15 But there ’ s also a worry that the gallery ’ s demands can skew the artist ’ s work .
“ My @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amount of pressure on them to show every two years or three years , ” Bitner explains .
“ Part of the reason why I left the gallery system , or eluded the gallery system , is that there is no way I could have made a thirteen-year body of work like Listen under those conditions .
None of my work fits that mold , and I don ’ t think I could make art within those parameters.
” Vega , too , sees galleries as a pressure on the artist : “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be in a gallery , you have to understand that it ’ s a real intense experience .
You have to forget about being in the studio and working uninterrupted .
Half your life will probably be spent on the phone or on the computer , dealing with stuff that ’ s not immediately related to making your work.
” 16 Vega understands that entering a relationship with a gallery is a calculated trade-off .
Dealers sometimes push artists to produce more of what they ’ ve already been able to sell , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ You decided to dance with them , but you should be aware of how much you are willing to compromise .
Does that mean I let them tell me , do ten of this size , ten of this other size , ten of that color , ten of that other color ?
Are you willing to do that ?
‘ You can dance but you can ’ t kiss !
’ And if you decide you can ’ t kiss , you have to understand that you might be dropped.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ try to find a new dealer—and for an artist who is not so well-established , that can take a long time .
“ That ’ s where I ’ m putting my money now : someday I will be discovered , when I ’ m close to my nineties , ” he says.17 What lies ahead for galleries is unpredictable , but it ’ s sure to be challenging .
Barry characterizes it as an ecosystem with “ a delicate balance that is complex , and constantly changing .
This is one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ balance .
Partially , it ’ s the rise of capital post 9/11 .
Despite the 2008 recession , the art market has grown exponentially , and is global , ” she says .
It ’ s not only Covid-19 that has revealed the need for the market to find a new balance .
One correction may result from the art fairs losing some of their appeal—suddenly the crowds that thronged them don ’ t seem so appealing .
A well-known collector recently explained his newfound reluctance to attend any more fairs to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most active and voracious collectors that I know are aged between their 50s and 80s .
That ’ s the demographic that ’ s most vulnerable in the current health crisis.
” A sparsely populated gallery feels safer .
As a result , Bitner predicts , “ things will become more localized .
We all remember those moments when we walked in and saw something breathtaking , a painting , a sculpture , here , that really hit home .
That ’ s what we ’ re here to make and what galleries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may not survive the crisis , but those that do will have to be more creative in their thinking , and perhaps smaller and more nimble as well as more collaborative in their ways of working.18 Yet alongside this possible return to a smaller scale , local , and intimate gallery scene , the internet beckons .
Vega sees the current situation as one in which galleries are trying to understand how and how much of their business can be shifted online—and he ’ s skeptical , at least as far as his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ painting be enjoyed , can you achieve the same level of enjoyment seeing an icon of a painting on a desktop ?
” he asks .
“ Yes , the galleries can use the digital space to make transactions , to buy and sell , but that ’ s different from experiencing the work of art .
Like it or not , we need physical space to show those objects , because [ paintings ] exist in a real time and place .
At least for now , I don ’ t see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thing : It ’ s mediated by a small screen , whether a cell phone or a computer .
It ’ s an image , perfect , but where is the picture ?
” 19 Bitner is more sanguine about this trend .
“ We were on this path already , the domination of technology—the whole world , not only the art world .
All the pandemic has done is accelerate it , ” she points out .
“ But some of these online presentations are not uninteresting ” —pointing as an example @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sculptor Richard Rezac ’ s exhibition on the website of his New York gallery , Luhring Augustine .
Some artists , as she says , are already making work for new technology—for onscreen viewing : “ More power to them !
” She hopes that the innovations necessary for galleries ’ survival will entail “ a more transparent , slower way of working—more democracy and inclusion , which is so overdue .
Maybe the artists who should really be included will be included , maybe it won ’ t be just the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I hope so , because it ’ s essential , it ’ s necessary now.
” If Bitner ’ s optimism proves to be justified , it will be just because of this painful hiatus in business as usual .
20

The gallery scene in New York, long the most active setting for new art worldwide, had been showing signs of malaise even before the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of its problems are shared around the globe—notably the rise of art fairs, which have increased the cost of doing business while drawing many collectors away from brick-and-mortar galleries; other challenges, such as high rents, are more specific to New York. All of them are rooted in a broader sociopolitical context: the seemingly inexorable rise of income inequality and the winner-take-all economy. One result has been consolidation of the art market around a small number of mega-galleries and a squeeze on the rest. And when the galleries are ailing, it’s the artists who are most affected. 1
There’s no reason why the art gallery as we know it, a 19th century invention, should last forever. But there’s also no sign of an alternative on the horizon. As with other small New York businesses that’ve been closed since mid-March, it’s not clear how many galleries will be able to hold out long enough to reopen. (When I began writing this, galleries had begun to reopen in Berlin, Paris, and elsewhere with proper protection, but no clear date for reopening had been set for those in New York; now the latter have started reopening, still mostly, it seems, by appointment.) For now, artists depend on galleries, if not for subsistence—few have ever been able to live entirely from the sale of their work—then to make their work known, to cultivate a public for it.2
The pandemic has not put an end to all gallery activity, though: Galleries are going gangbusters trying to keep their constituencies involved online. My inbox has never been more full of frantic appeals for attention. Galleries that used to send out announcements a couple of times a month now seem to reach out on a daily basis, asking me to check out their highlighted work of the day, to peruse their “online viewing rooms,” or to join the audience for a virtual studio visit with one of their quarantined artists. I’m having none of it. I’ll be happy to bide my time and wait until I can safely see real things in real three-dimensional space. 3
Suddenly, I find myself no longer taking for granted the existence of the galleries where I’ve been enjoying art for most of my life. Suddenly it’s a question: What are galleries for, anyway? And what’s going to become of them in the new world that’s going to appear in the wake of Covid-19? Art is always about putting our habitual perceptions on hold and taking another look. Galleries, in this moment of reset, of relative nonproductivity, need to reconsider their assumptions, and artists likewise, to rethink their expectations of galleries.4
Already, the nature of the relation between galleries and artists varies so widely that it is hard to generalize. In some cases, the gallery “represents” the artist—meaning, it has the ongoing exclusive right to sell their work; this representation could be in effect in a given city or country or it could be globally. Or the gallery might exhibit an artist’s work on a one-time basis, with just a limited number of pieces consigned for sale. Usually, the income from a sale will be split 50/50 between the gallery and the artist, although some artists whose work is in particular demand can obtain a more favorable split. Rarer than it used to be, I think, is for the gallery to pay the artist a regular stipend in exchange for work or for the right to sell it. Up for negotiation as well between artist and gallery are all the ancillary expenses involved in mounting and publicizing an exhibition: shipping, photographic documentation, storage, and so on. And big installations, like some moving image works, entail big production expenses. Who covers them—and, if that is the gallery, how they are to recoup the outlay—has to be worked out. 5 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
Except at the higher strata of the market, these issues are often settled with a handshake rather than a written contract, leaving lots of room for ambiguity and after-the-fact disagreement. What makes it worthwhile for the artist—when it is worthwhile—is not only that the overhead for the exhibition space is covered, but that the gallery has closer and more extensive contacts among collectors and museum curators who might be interested in acquiring or showing the work, not to mention other dealers who could help sell it (for an appropriate split). In short, the artist gives up a large portion of the sales price of the work on the assumption, or the hope, that the gallery can increase both the number of sales and their prices. It’s not always a winning bet, but simply having had the exhibition accords a degree of prestige and publicity that may eventually pay off. Like a writer who can say, “my publisher,” or a musician who can say, “my label,” the artist who can say “my gallery” has a sense of being in the game. The dealer serves the artist as some combination of cheerleader, business manager, and therapist, browbeating boss, and obliging servitor; it’s a business relationship that’s also a personal one, fraught with sometimes hidden, sometimes open conflicts.6
To understand what galleries are and might become, I needed to talk to some of the people whose interests they ostensibly exist to serve: artists themselves. In particular, it occurred to me, it might be good to talk to some artists who’ve been involved in the gallery scene in New York but who are currently not represented by galleries here. How does the gallery system look to them these days? Are galleries fulfilling artists’ needs? Do galleries need to change, and if so how? 7
I called on three artists whose work I admire but who otherwise have nothing in common. They’re of different generations, and they work with different mediums. Rafael Vega is a painter born in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, and these days living in Brooklyn—and still, even in the middle of the pandemic, able to get to his nearby studio and keep working. He has exhibited his abstract works with galleries in New York and San Juan. Unusually, he studied industrial chemistry before going back to school for a degree in art. His paintings are elegant, funky, and physical—sawing lines through the wood panels he works on is as much a part of his painting process as is putting paint on them. 8
Rhona Bitner is a native New Yorker who spends part of every year in Paris. Her photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums in those cities as well as in Geneva, Venice, and elsewhere. Her most extensive photographic project so far has been Listen, for which she spent over a decade on what she calls “a comprehensive mapping of American music’s inner architecture” through images of iconic music venues, from Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, N.Y.—the site of the Woodstock festival—and California’s Folsom State Prison where Johnny Cash recorded one of his most famous albums before an audience of inmates, to Manhattan’s CBGB, the club where punk rock was born, and historic blues venues like Red’s Lounge in Clarksdale, Miss. Since recovering from a bout with the coronavirus, Bitner has been photographing the deserted streets of her hometown in the first images she’s ever made in black-and-white. She admits that she doesn’t entirely know what to make of these new photos, but she was compelled to seek them out. “Someone told me, ‘It looks like a portrait of a city yearning for its inhabitants.” 9
Judith Barry, an Ohioan by birth, lives in New York but commutes to Cambridge, Mass., where she is director of the ACT (art, culture and technology) program at MIT. She has exhibited her performance, installation, sculpture, and media works worldwide, including, most recently, solo shows at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. She has also worked as an exhibition designer, often in collaboration with her life partner, architect Ken Saylor. Since the gallery and museum closings, some of her big projects have been put on pause while her teaching duties have migrated online, but her drawing and other preparatory work continue for future projects such as All the light that’s ours to see, an installation that reconsiders the history of home video and the transmutation of moving image culture as it became incorporated into domestic space.10
Each of these artists has experienced the gallery system differently. For Vega, growing up in Puerto Rico, it was something he became aware of only gradually. “I’m from the southeast of the island. We don’t have galleries in that whole area. If you start studying art, the last thing you know or you understand or you care about is galleries. You do it because you like it. Then I moved to San Juan and got to know the gallery system in San Juan.” But it didn’t seem urgent to him at first to find a gallery. That only happened later, when he went to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I met him, and moved to New York after completing his degree..11
Having grown up in New York, Bitner found the art scene closer to hand. “I have a sort of idealized version of what a gallery can be. Every artist wants to work with the Paula Cooper of the 1970s. That doesn’t exist anymore.” She doesn’t feel she’s had a satisfactory relation with a gallery, one that embodies the kind of supportive partnership she’d like. “An old friend who is now a very successful gallerist once put it in my head to say to dealers, ‘What can I do to help you help us?’ That makes a lot of sense, because I bring something to the table, they bring something to the table—our goals are similar, our existences are separate, but we can achieve something together. That is possible, because artists are succeeding within the gallery system.” She’s still looking for that kind of partnership.12
Barry, coming into the art world toward the end of the 1970s, found things simpler. She was invited to show in biennials and other big international exhibitions almost before she knew it. “You were plucked out of school and given a budget to produce work—this was my de facto residency period. Yes, you made mistakes in public. But you made a lot of work because you had a budget. You weren’t working three jobs to pay two rents—home and studio, plus work expenses.” Galleries took an early interest too, but “it was a special kind of gallery who wanted to show” someone like Barry, whose experimental work is not often the type that attracts collectors. But sales are not necessarily the point. “I’ve had dealers who really love to sell and others who really don’t like it,” says Barry: 13
You’re with a gallery for a variety of reasons and it’s not always about selling. What galleries do really well is give you a context and that most important thing, the chance to exhibit your work. Not having a gallery means a lot of your work isn’t seen. That was often my case in New York, where for long periods I didn’t have a gallery. You have to recognize what they can and cannot do. They can’t make a market for you if there’s no market. They can’t get someone to write about your work if there’s no one who’s interested in writing about it.14
Indeed, sales seem to be among the less relevant aspects of many artists’ relations with galleries. “I don’t know anyone who lives off the sale of their artwork,” Bitner says. “I don’t ever expect to live off the sale of my artwork.” Teaching, as in Barry’s case, is one of the common ways of making up the difference. A photographer like Bitner can take commercial commissions. Or they can work for the gallery system itself. Vega tells me that he doesn’t think that artists in New York at his level, or at almost any level, live exclusively from selling their art. Many, instead, have day jobs in the art-world industrial complex as “art handlers, preparators for galleries or museums.” It’s precisely through the loss of such jobs, often part-time or freelance, rather than through lost sales, that the Covid-19 crisis has struck them hardest. “What do I expect from a gallery? Building a career,” says Vega. “It’s not necessarily about selling the work. That’s the easy part. The hard part is building the momentum that allows you to sell the painting: making people understand why they should buy the work.”15
But there’s also a worry that the gallery’s demands can skew the artist’s work. “My friends who have galleries have a certain amount of pressure on them to show every two years or three years,” Bitner explains. “Part of the reason why I left the gallery system, or eluded the gallery system, is that there is no way I could have made a thirteen-year body of work like Listen under those conditions. None of my work fits that mold, and I don’t think I could make art within those parameters.” Vega, too, sees galleries as a pressure on the artist: “If you really, really want to be in a gallery, you have to understand that it’s a real intense experience. You have to forget about being in the studio and working uninterrupted. Half your life will probably be spent on the phone or on the computer, dealing with stuff that’s not immediately related to making your work.”16
Vega understands that entering a relationship with a gallery is a calculated trade-off. Dealers sometimes push artists to produce more of what they’ve already been able to sell, rather than encouraging them to experiment freely. “You decided to dance with them, but you should be aware of how much you are willing to compromise. Does that mean I let them tell me, do ten of this size, ten of this other size, ten of that color, ten of that other color? Are you willing to do that? ‘You can dance but you can’t kiss!’ And if you decide you can’t kiss, you have to understand that you might be dropped.” Then it’s time to try to find a new dealer—and for an artist who is not so well-established, that can take a long time. “That’s where I’m putting my money now: someday I will be discovered, when I’m close to my nineties,” he says.17
What lies ahead for galleries is unpredictable, but it’s sure to be challenging. Barry characterizes it as an ecosystem with “a delicate balance that is complex, and constantly changing. This is one of those moments where things are out of balance. Partially, it’s the rise of capital post 9/11. Despite the 2008 recession, the art market has grown exponentially, and is global,” she says. It’s not only Covid-19 that has revealed the need for the market to find a new balance. One correction may result from the art fairs losing some of their appeal—suddenly the crowds that thronged them don’t seem so appealing. A well-known collector recently explained his newfound reluctance to attend any more fairs to The New York Times: “The most active and voracious collectors that I know are aged between their 50s and 80s. That’s the demographic that’s most vulnerable in the current health crisis.” A sparsely populated gallery feels safer. As a result, Bitner predicts, “things will become more localized. We all remember those moments when we walked in and saw something breathtaking, a painting, a sculpture, here, that really hit home. That’s what we’re here to make and what galleries are here to show.” Many galleries may not survive the crisis, but those that do will have to be more creative in their thinking, and perhaps smaller and more nimble as well as more collaborative in their ways of working.18
Yet alongside this possible return to a smaller scale, local, and intimate gallery scene, the internet beckons. Vega sees the current situation as one in which galleries are trying to understand how and how much of their business can be shifted online—and he’s skeptical, at least as far as his own work is concerned. “Can painting be enjoyed, can you achieve the same level of enjoyment seeing an icon of a painting on a desktop?” he asks. “Yes, the galleries can use the digital space to make transactions, to buy and sell, but that’s different from experiencing the work of art. Like it or not, we need physical space to show those objects, because [paintings] exist in a real time and place. At least for now, I don’t see how online shows can do the same thing: It’s mediated by a small screen, whether a cell phone or a computer. It’s an image, perfect, but where is the picture?”19
Bitner is more sanguine about this trend. “We were on this path already, the domination of technology—the whole world, not only the art world. All the pandemic has done is accelerate it,” she points out. “But some of these online presentations are not uninteresting”—pointing as an example to a “virtual tour” of the sculptor Richard Rezac’s exhibition on the website of his New York gallery, Luhring Augustine. Some artists, as she says, are already making work for new technology—for onscreen viewing: “More power to them!” She hopes that the innovations necessary for galleries’ survival will entail “a more transparent, slower way of working—more democracy and inclusion, which is so overdue. Maybe the artists who should really be included will be included, maybe it won’t be just the same ten white male artists anymore. I hope so, because it’s essential, it’s necessary now.” If Bitner’s optimism proves to be justified, it will be just because of this painful hiatus in business as usual. 20