theintercept--2020-06-10--A Bumpy Road for Progressives in West Virginia

Ben Salango , an establishment pick backed by Sen. Joe Manchin , secured the Democratic nomination for governor in West Virginia on Tuesday .
He defeated Stephen Smith , a 40-year-old community organizer who ran a progressive-populist campaign , receiving 39 percent of the vote with 98 percent of districts reporting .
Smith won 33.4 percent of the vote and longtime state Sen. Ron Stollings , a conservative Democrat , came in third place with 13.5 percent of the vote .
Salango will head to the general election against incumbent Gov .
Jim Justice , the billionaire coal magnate who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after winning as a Democrat in 2016 .
More than 90 candidates ran alongside Smith under the banner “ West Virginia Can ’ t Wait , ” for positions like city council memberships , magistrate judge seats , local school board seats , and county commissioners .
Thirty-five of the candidates who ran with West Virginia Can ’ t Wait won their primary elections : Paula Jean Swearengin , an activist and community organizer ; Cathy Kunkel , a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and energy policy expert , ran unopposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Congressional District ; Natalie Cline , in the 1st Congressional District ; more than a dozen candidates running for the House of Delegates ; a city council candidate in Wheeling , West Virginia ; a candidate for state auditor ; and two running for state Senate .
Swearingin , the daughter of a coal miner who challenged Manchin in 2018 and was endorsed by Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats , will face Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito in November .
One of the state Senate candidates , Bruce Ashworth , will go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Amy Nichole Grady , a teacher endorsed by the West Virginia ’ s American Federation of Teachers who upset Republican incumbent and state Senate President Mitch Carmichael .
The candidates all signed on to a pledge to never cross a picket line , hide from a debate , or take corporate PAC money .
And more than 35 of those candidates , including Smith , signed onto the “ People ’ s Platform , ” a policy platform that was developed through 11,000 conversations between campaign volunteers and voters , over 190 town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ convention .
It included the creation of a state bank , a wealth tax , full legalization of marijuana , and other progressive policies .
Though Smith ultimately fell short , his movement-based campaign , which set out to create a pipeline of progressive , working-class candidates to defeat the “ good old boys , ” was unlike anything ever attempted in modern West Virginia history .
Before the coronavirus pandemic upended political campaigns across the country , Smith ’ s campaign had trained hundreds of volunteers , many of whom had never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ held hundreds organizing meetings .
“ They can never take that away from us , ” Smith told The Intercept before the polls closed Tuesday night .
It was also the first campaign in state history to unionize and had so many individual donors that its finance filings literally broke the West Virginia Secretary of State ’ s submission software .
Salango jumped into the race in October 2019 — almost a year after Smith formally launched his campaign — and began picking up momentum after winning Manchin ’ s endorsement in March @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the primary , Smith estimates that the campaign connected with more than 300,000 West Virginians .
As the race got tighter , Smith received a wave of endorsements from groups that had never endorsed in a West Virginia governor ’ s race , like Planned Parenthood , Sierra Club , Working Families Party , and Our Revolution , as well as labor groups like Service Employees International Union , National Nurses United , and National Association of Social Workers-WV Chapter .
But Salango had the support of the state ’ s biggest unions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ AFL-CIO — and quickly matched Smith in fundraising , with over $ 700,000 by the end of the campaign .
Salango loaned his campaign half a million dollars .
Instead of framing the contest as a fight between the right and the left , Smith ’ s campaign told voters that the fight it was picking was an “ up-down one ” against the wealthy few and the politicians they help elect .
According to Smith , about 25 percent of the people who donated to his Democratic primary campaign are Republicans or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who had not voted in the last three primary election cycles .
“ Traditional politics exists for the advancement of a handful of people and candidates and their friends and their donors , ” Smith said .
“ Movement politics , we know the world isn ’ t going to change overnight , regardless of what happens today .
We know that we ’ re going to have to keep fighting for the rest of our lives for a more equitable government , and this will be a part of the journey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10 , 2020 , 10:40 a.m .
ET This article has been updated with additional West Virginia Can ’ t Wait wins .

Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango, an establishment pick backed by Sen. Joe Manchin, secured the Democratic nomination for governor in West Virginia on Tuesday. He defeated Stephen Smith, a 40-year-old community organizer who ran a progressive-populist campaign, receiving 39 percent of the vote with 98 percent of districts reporting.
Smith won 33.4 percent of the vote and longtime state Sen. Ron Stollings, a conservative Democrat, came in third place with 13.5 percent of the vote. Salango will head to the general election against incumbent Gov. Jim Justice, the billionaire coal magnate who switched to the Republican Party in 2017 after winning as a Democrat in 2016.
More than 90 candidates ran alongside Smith under the banner “West Virginia Can’t Wait,” for positions like city council memberships, magistrate judge seats, local school board seats, and county commissioners. Thirty-five of the candidates who ran with West Virginia Can’t Wait won their primary elections: Paula Jean Swearengin, an activist and community organizer; Cathy Kunkel, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and energy policy expert, ran unopposed and won the primary in the 2nd Congressional District; Natalie Cline, in the 1st Congressional District; more than a dozen candidates running for the House of Delegates; a city council candidate in Wheeling, West Virginia; a candidate for state auditor; and two running for state Senate.
Swearingin, the daughter of a coal miner who challenged Manchin in 2018 and was endorsed by Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, will face Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito in November. One of the state Senate candidates, Bruce Ashworth, will go on in the general to compete against Amy Nichole Grady, a teacher endorsed by the West Virginia’s American Federation of Teachers who upset Republican incumbent and state Senate President Mitch Carmichael.
The candidates all signed on to a pledge to never cross a picket line, hide from a debate, or take corporate PAC money. And more than 35 of those candidates, including Smith, signed onto the “People’s Platform,” a policy platform that was developed through 11,000 conversations between campaign volunteers and voters, over 190 town halls, and then ratified at a convention. It included the creation of a state bank, a wealth tax, full legalization of marijuana, and other progressive policies.
Though Smith ultimately fell short, his movement-based campaign, which set out to create a pipeline of progressive, working-class candidates to defeat the “good old boys,” was unlike anything ever attempted in modern West Virginia history. Before the coronavirus pandemic upended political campaigns across the country, Smith’s campaign had trained hundreds of volunteers, many of whom had never been involved with campaigns before, and held hundreds organizing meetings. “They can never take that away from us,” Smith told The Intercept before the polls closed Tuesday night.
It was also the first campaign in state history to unionize and had so many individual donors that its finance filings literally broke the West Virginia Secretary of State’s submission software.
Salango jumped into the race in October 2019 — almost a year after Smith formally launched his campaign — and began picking up momentum after winning Manchin’s endorsement in March. In the weeks leading up to the primary, Smith estimates that the campaign connected with more than 300,000 West Virginians.
As the race got tighter, Smith received a wave of endorsements from groups that had never endorsed in a West Virginia governor’s race, like Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, Working Families Party, and Our Revolution, as well as labor groups like Service Employees International Union, National Nurses United, and National Association of Social Workers-WV Chapter. But Salango had the support of the state’s biggest unions and labor groups, including West Virginia AFL-CIO — and quickly matched Smith in fundraising, with over $700,000 by the end of the campaign. Salango loaned his campaign half a million dollars.
Instead of framing the contest as a fight between the right and the left, Smith’s campaign told voters that the fight it was picking was an “up-down one” against the wealthy few and the politicians they help elect. According to Smith, about 25 percent of the people who donated to his Democratic primary campaign are Republicans or independents, and roughly 10 percent were people who had not voted in the last three primary election cycles.
“Traditional politics exists for the advancement of a handful of people and candidates and their friends and their donors,” Smith said. “Movement politics, we know the world isn’t going to change overnight, regardless of what happens today. We know that we’re going to have to keep fighting for the rest of our lives for a more equitable government, and this will be a part of the journey along the way.”
Update: June 10, 2020, 10:40 a.m. ET
This article has been updated with additional West Virginia Can’t Wait wins.


theintercept--2020-06-11--Ilhan Omar's Primary Opponent Hit Black Lives Matter in 2015, Urged Activists to Focus on Crime and

Ilhan Omar's Primary Opponent Hit Black Lives Matter in 2015, Urged Activists to Focus on Crime and Education

in Minneapolis , sparked late last month by the police killing of George Floyd , are the largest protests in the Twin Cities against police violence , but hardly the first .
For years , the city has grappled with how and whether to reform its abusive police department — and , alongside protests , the fight is playing out congressionally in the race for Minnesota ’ s 5th Congressional District .
In the summer of 2015 , protests began nationwide following the massacre of black South Carolinian churchgoers by white supremacist Dylann Roof , and the deaths of Freddie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ police custody in Texas , among others .
The unrest spread to Minneapolis , as protesters took to the streets to demand police accountability .
In August 2015 , when Black Lives Matter protesters briefly blockaded entrances to the Minnesota State Fair , local attorney Antone Melton-Meaux took to the pages of the Minnesota Star Tribune to rebuke the protesters .
“ Black Lives Matter movement must be accountable , broaden its vision , ” read the headline .
The protesters , Melton-Meaux argued in the opinion piece , had gone too far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the real focus ought to be on broader ills within the black community .
For Melton-Meaux , it was a rare entry into the public square , but it landed a big punch .
“ The movement must quickly pivot and embrace a bigger tent that is inclusive of the most critical challenges that face the black community , ” wrote Melton-Meaux , noting that black student test scores in the city were dismal .
“ When did Black Lives Matter march on the Minneapolis school board or administration ?
It didn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most critical piece of the fragmented puzzle , ” wrote Melton-Meaux .
“ Key issues in the black community also include joblessness , low wages , crime and the broken family structure.
” Organizers at the time said the chant — “ Pigs in a blanket/fry ’ em like bacon ” — was meant in jest ; a Black Lives Matter organizer told the Associated Press at the time that the uproar over the “ 30 second ” chant at a peaceful demonstration was an “ attempt to minimize our movement.
” But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as messages “ targeted to incite violence against police officers ” : “ the movement can not retain credibility if it defends destructive chants that have no place in our public discourse , ” he wrote .
Now , Melton-Meaux has launched a primary challenge to freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minnesota ’ s 5th District , which encompasses much of Minneapolis — a contest that is shaping up to be something of a proxy fight over the direction of the city .
Melton-Meaux stands for the moderate city establishment whose credibility has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Omar represents the faction of the city demanding fundamental change .
The movement Melton-Meaux criticized in 2015 , of course , not only retained credibility , but grew enormously over the ensuing years .
On Sunday afternoon , following days of protests , a veto-proof majority of Minneapolis City Council members announced commitment to disbanding the city ’ s police department .
They vowed to create a new , community-led system of public safety .
The move represented a major victory for the hundreds of thousands of protesters who have flooded streets in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the local activists who had pushed for radical changes to policing for years .
Omar , who has long been active with Black Lives Matter , has been marching with the protesters and supported “ dismantling and disbanding the Minneapolis Police Department ” and replacing it with a system that “ prioritizes crime prevention and community response.
” Melton-Meaux ’ s response to the recent protests has been more equivocal .
“ My family and I have proudly and routinely marched and protested with Black Lives Matter and others who are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inequities we see not only in policing , but education , income , housing , and more , ” Melton-Meaux said in a statement .
“ I stand by the comments I expressed in my 2015 Star Tribune Op-Ed arguing for BLM to advocate nonviolence in their demonstrations or risk weakening the movement they were building.
” Melton-Meaux briefly joined calls this weekend to disband the Minneapolis police department in a tweet that has since been deleted .
“ The Mpls City Council is leading in transforming our public safety systems to truly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ We need to disband # MPD.
” Melton-Meaux said in a statement the tweet was deleted “ because of confusion over the terms being used right now ” like “ disband ” and “ defund.
” He said that the campaign didn ’ t want to add to confusion without further context .
“ That said , I unequivocally support disbanding , or as I define it , dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department as it exists today.
” Melton-Meaux , who owns a mediation practice and serves as a volunteer minister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has previous Beltway experience .
While studying at the University of Virginia School of Law , Melton-Meaux worked for the Congressional Black Caucus under former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile , who was then chief of staff for Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton .
After graduating law school , he joined the law firm Skadden , Arps , Slate , Meagher & Flom in Washington , D.C. And Melton-Meaux has taken a more moderate position on other high-profile issues in recent years .
In 2018 , in the wake of the # MeToo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agreements , saying that the movement to abolish these contracts , which effectively protect and enable sexual harassers , “ could produce unintended consequences ” and hurt employers .
In an article published by the Minnesota State Bar Association ’ s magazine , Melton-Meaux argued that the # MeToo movement is “ turning sex harassment settlements into a modern day scarlet letter H for employers.
” These confidentiality clauses , he wrote , “ protect the brand and reputation of the organization by preventing negative publicity and the prospect of further exposure in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that organizations like Fox News and 21st Century Fox have entered into multiple settlements with women to resolve sexual harassment claims , he continued , have “ fueled the narrative ” that these organizations are using confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements “ to silence victims and protect perpetrators.
” “ Employers will be forced to make decisions with unappealing outcomes , ” he wrote .
“ If employers decide to settle a sex harassment claims , they expose their organization to the likelihood that it will be branded by the public and media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which will be hard to remove.
” As a candidate , Melton-Meaux said on Tuesday , “ I propose that we ban non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment and discrimination cases except when the agreement is requested by the affected employee.
” As one of the highest-profile progressives in the country , and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress , Omar has faced backlash from conservatives and establishment Democrats alike .
Her comments going after the power of the pro-Israel lobby , specifically , breached a longstanding political taboo .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to recruit candidates to take on Omar just two months into her first term .
While Omar won the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party , or DFL , endorsement last month , she is being challenged by two other Democrats in the primary on August 11 and a crowded Republican field .
Melton-Meaux poses the most serious threat , having picked up a number of endorsements , including local civil rights champion Josie Johnson ; Nekima Levy Armstrong , the former president of the Minneapolis NAACP ; longtime state Sen. Dick Cohen , and some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also backed by two of Minnesota ’ s most prominent DFL donors , Sam and Sylvia Kaplan .
The Kaplans , top bundlers for Barack Obama ’ s 2008 campaign who were rewarded with an ambassadorship , have been credited with helping launch the career of the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone .
In a Star Tribune report last year , Sylvia said it was too early to say whether a primary against Omar was warranted but called the controversies a “ distraction for the party ” and said she hopes the congresswoman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dean Phillips has been conspicuously silent amid the challenge to Omar in his neighboring district , despite the party ’ s public hostility toward primary challenges in general .
Much of Melton-Meaux ’ s campaign messaging has focused on criticisms of Omar ’ s first term in Congress , including comments she made about Israel that drew accusations of anti-Semitism and her personal relationships .
“ Omar has made statements that have been reckless and harmful to the Jewish community , ” Melton-Meaux told Jewish Insider in April .
Melton-Meaux describes himself as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but doesn ’ t support policies like Medicare for All and strongly opposes the campaign to boycott , divest from , and sanction Israel for its occupation of Palestinian territories .
“ This bipartisan consensus has been successful in encouraging and maintaining a strong security alliance with Israel , while promoting a two-state solution to realize Palestinian statehood , ” Melton-Meaux said .
His campaign , which has raised more than $ 400,000 , is funded with major contributions from pro-Israel groups like NORPAC and Pro-Israel America PAC .
About 75 percent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over $ 200 .
By contrast , less than 1 percent of Omar ’ s contributions are over $ 200 .
The first-term congresswoman has raised $ 3.4 million for her reelection bid and has nearly $ 1.3 million cash on hand mostly from small individual donations , according to the most recent filings .
Many of the donors fundraising with NORPAC and Melton-Meaux had previously contributed to Republicans , according to FEC filings , including Sens .
Mitch McConnell , John Cornyn , and Martha McSally , and the Donald Trump campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pro-Israel Democrats .

The convulsions in Minneapolis, sparked late last month by the police killing of George Floyd, are the largest protests in the Twin Cities against police violence, but hardly the first. For years, the city has grappled with how and whether to reform its abusive police department — and, alongside protests, the fight is playing out congressionally in the race for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District.
In the summer of 2015, protests began nationwide following the massacre of black South Carolinian churchgoers by white supremacist Dylann Roof, and the deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Sandra Bland in police custody in Texas, among others. The unrest spread to Minneapolis, as protesters took to the streets to demand police accountability. In August 2015, when Black Lives Matter protesters briefly blockaded entrances to the Minnesota State Fair, local attorney Antone Melton-Meaux took to the pages of the Minnesota Star Tribune to rebuke the protesters.
“Black Lives Matter movement must be accountable, broaden its vision,” read the headline. The protesters, Melton-Meaux argued in the opinion piece, had gone too far with an anti-police chant, and that the real focus ought to be on broader ills within the black community. For Melton-Meaux, it was a rare entry into the public square, but it landed a big punch.
“The movement must quickly pivot and embrace a bigger tent that is inclusive of the most critical challenges that face the black community,” wrote Melton-Meaux, noting that black student test scores in the city were dismal. “When did Black Lives Matter march on the Minneapolis school board or administration? It didn’t happen.”
“Education is the most critical piece of the fragmented puzzle,” wrote Melton-Meaux. “Key issues in the black community also include joblessness, low wages, crime and the broken family structure.”
Organizers at the time said the chant — “Pigs in a blanket/fry ’em like bacon” — was meant in jest; a Black Lives Matter organizer told the Associated Press at the time that the uproar over the “30 second” chant at a peaceful demonstration was an “attempt to minimize our movement.” But Melton-Meaux expressed concern with what he saw as messages “targeted to incite violence against police officers”: “the movement cannot retain credibility if it defends destructive chants that have no place in our public discourse,” he wrote.
Now, Melton-Meaux has launched a primary challenge to freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minnesota’s 5th District, which encompasses much of Minneapolis — a contest that is shaping up to be something of a proxy fight over the direction of the city. Melton-Meaux stands for the moderate city establishment whose credibility has been shattered by the protests, and Omar represents the faction of the city demanding fundamental change.
In 2015, Melton-Meaux expressed concern with what he saw as messages “targeted to incite violence against police officers.”
The movement Melton-Meaux criticized in 2015, of course, not only retained credibility, but grew enormously over the ensuing years. On Sunday afternoon, following days of protests, a veto-proof majority of Minneapolis City Council members announced commitment to disbanding the city’s police department. They vowed to create a new, community-led system of public safety. The move represented a major victory for the hundreds of thousands of protesters who have flooded streets in the wake of Floyd’s killing, and the local activists who had pushed for radical changes to policing for years.
Omar, who has long been active with Black Lives Matter, has been marching with the protesters and supported “dismantling and disbanding the Minneapolis Police Department” and replacing it with a system that “prioritizes crime prevention and community response.”
Melton-Meaux’s response to the recent protests has been more equivocal. “My family and I have proudly and routinely marched and protested with Black Lives Matter and others who are demanding justice to correct the gross racial inequities we see not only in policing, but education, income, housing, and more,” Melton-Meaux said in a statement. “I stand by the comments I expressed in my 2015 Star Tribune Op-Ed arguing for BLM to advocate nonviolence in their demonstrations or risk weakening the movement they were building.”
Melton-Meaux briefly joined calls this weekend to disband the Minneapolis police department in a tweet that has since been deleted. “The Mpls City Council is leading in transforming our public safety systems to truly serve our communities,” he said. “We need to disband #MPD.”
Melton-Meaux said in a statement the tweet was deleted “because of confusion over the terms being used right now” like “disband” and “defund.” He said that the campaign didn’t want to add to confusion without further context. “That said, I unequivocally support disbanding, or as I define it, dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department as it exists today.”
Melton-Meaux, who owns a mediation practice and serves as a volunteer minister at the Salem English Lutheran Church, has previous Beltway experience. While studying at the University of Virginia School of Law, Melton-Meaux worked for the Congressional Black Caucus under former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile, who was then chief of staff for Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton. After graduating law school, he joined the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C.
And Melton-Meaux has taken a more moderate position on other high-profile issues in recent years. In 2018, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, he defended nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements, saying that the movement to abolish these contracts, which effectively protect and enable sexual harassers, “could produce unintended consequences” and hurt employers. In an article published by the Minnesota State Bar Association’s magazine, Melton-Meaux argued that the #MeToo movement is “turning sex harassment settlements into a modern day scarlet letter H for employers.”
In 2018, Melton-Meaux argued that the #MeToo movement is “turning sex harassment settlements into a modern day scarlet letter H for employers.”
These confidentiality clauses, he wrote, “protect the brand and reputation of the organization by preventing negative publicity and the prospect of further exposure in a lengthy public trial.” News reports that organizations like Fox News and 21st Century Fox have entered into multiple settlements with women to resolve sexual harassment claims, he continued, have “fueled the narrative” that these organizations are using confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements “to silence victims and protect perpetrators.”
“Employers will be forced to make decisions with unappealing outcomes,” he wrote. “If employers decide to settle a sex harassment claims, they expose their organization to the likelihood that it will be branded by the public and media as a harasser, the stain of which will be hard to remove.”
As a candidate, Melton-Meaux said on Tuesday, “I propose that we ban non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment and discrimination cases except when the agreement is requested by the affected employee.”
As one of the highest-profile progressives in the country, and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, Omar has faced backlash from conservatives and establishment Democrats alike. Her comments going after the power of the pro-Israel lobby, specifically, breached a longstanding political taboo. Some Minnesota Democrats reportedly began taking steps to recruit candidates to take on Omar just two months into her first term.
While Omar won the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, or DFL, endorsement last month, she is being challenged by two other Democrats in the primary on August 11 and a crowded Republican field. Melton-Meaux poses the most serious threat, having picked up a number of endorsements, including local civil rights champion Josie Johnson; Nekima Levy Armstrong, the former president of the Minneapolis NAACP; longtime state Sen. Dick Cohen, and some other local elected officials.
Melton-Meaux is also backed by two of Minnesota’s most prominent DFL donors, Sam and Sylvia Kaplan. The Kaplans, top bundlers for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign who were rewarded with an ambassadorship, have been credited with helping launch the career of the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone. In a Star Tribune report last year, Sylvia said it was too early to say whether a primary against Omar was warranted but called the controversies a “distraction for the party” and said she hopes the congresswoman “stops the tweeting.”
Freshman Rep. Dean Phillips has been conspicuously silent amid the challenge to Omar in his neighboring district, despite the party’s public hostility toward primary challenges in general.
Much of Melton-Meaux’s campaign messaging has focused on criticisms of Omar’s first term in Congress, including comments she made about Israel that drew accusations of anti-Semitism and her personal relationships. “Omar has made statements that have been reckless and harmful to the Jewish community,” Melton-Meaux told Jewish Insider in April. Melton-Meaux describes himself as a “lifelong progressive Democrat,” but doesn’t support policies like Medicare for All and strongly opposes the campaign to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel for its occupation of Palestinian territories.
“This bipartisan consensus has been successful in encouraging and maintaining a strong security alliance with Israel, while promoting a two-state solution to realize Palestinian statehood,” Melton-Meaux said.
His campaign, which has raised more than $400,000, is funded with major contributions from pro-Israel groups like NORPAC and Pro-Israel America PAC. About 75 percent of Melton-Meaux’s donations are large donations over $200. By contrast, less than 1 percent of Omar’s contributions are over $200. The first-term congresswoman has raised $3.4 million for her reelection bid and has nearly $1.3 million cash on hand mostly from small individual donations, according to the most recent filings.
Many of the donors fundraising with NORPAC and Melton-Meaux had previously contributed to Republicans, according to FEC filings, including Sens. Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, and Martha McSally, and the Donald Trump campaign, in addition to a handful of pro-Israel Democrats.


theintercept--2020-06-11--Is It Time To Defund the Police?

Is It Time To Defund the Police?

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In the wake of global protests over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, a movement to redirect public resources away from traditional policing and toward community-oriented systems of public safety has taken hold around the country. What are advocates of “defunding the police” really arguing for, and could it work? Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss the future of policing in the United States.
Patrisse Cullors: Much of what the police do now are things that social workers can do, things that case managers can do, things that other governmental workers can do. And that’s why our movement is calling to defund them.
[Musical interlude.]
Mehdi Hasan: Welcome to Deconstructed. I’m Mehdi Hasan.
When you see, week after week, police officers beating unarmed protesters, reporters, passers-by — an elderly man with cancer, in broad daylight, on camera — you have to ask: What is the solution? Surely reforming the police isn’t enough?
PC: Defunding the police means we’re actually resourcing communities with access to healthcare, access to adequate public education, and access to jobs.
MH: That’s my guest today Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and Reform LA Jails.
So, is it time to defund the police? And how would that even work?
Last Saturday I watched a video of one of the most remarkable scenes involving an elected politician and their constituents that I’ve witnessed in my adult lifetime.
Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis — the city where it all kicked off, where George Floyd was so brutally killed by the police — Jacob Frey, a young, liberal Democrat, a former civil rights lawyer, turned up to to join a protest against police brutality and show solidarity with his black constituents. But it didn’t go so well for him when he was asked in front of the entire crowd, by the organizers, whether he was willing to go beyond the usual platitudes about police ‘reform.’
Kandace Montgomery: Jacob Frey, we have a yes-or-no question for you. Yes or no: Will you commit to defunding the Minneapolis Police Department?
Mayor Jacob Frey: Abolition of it?
KM: What did I say?
[Crowd starts reacting to Jacob.]
Kandace Montgomery: We don’t want no more police. Is that clear? We don’t want people with guns toting around in our community, shooting us down. You have the answer? It is the yes or a no. It is a yes or a no. Will you defund the Minneapolis Police Department?
[Crowd shushes.]
KM: Alright, be quiet y’all. Be quiet, because it’s — it’s important that we actually hear this. It’s important that we hear this because if y’all don’t know, he’s up for re-election next year.
[Crowd cheers and boos.]
KM: And if he says no, guess what the fuck we gonna do next year?
[Crowd cheers, and folks say, “Louder!” to Jacob Frey.]
JF: I do not support the full abolition of the police.
[Crowd boos and shouts.]
KM: Alright, you’re wasting our time. Get the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out of here. [chanting] Go home Jacob go home! Go home Jacob go home! Go home Jacob go home!
MH: Talk about a walk of shame.
Now you might say, “Well, what does that achieve? Yeah, they booed and humiliated the mayor, a white Democrat, but they can’t actually get politicians to do what they want. These protestors are all talk — they’re all protest.”
Erm, not quite. At least, not this time! The very next day, on Sunday, nine members of the Minneapolis City Council — a veto-proof majority, by the way — pledged to dismantle the police department, saying it was beyond reform.
Newscaster: Some breaking news coming in tonight, the Minneapolis City Council has announced their intent to disband the police department.
Reporter: That’s right Tom.
Speaker: Our commitment is to end our city’s toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department. To end policing as we know it.
Reporter: Minneapolis City Council members admit they don’t have the answers about what a police-free future looks like. They have said they want to defund police, and invest in things like juvenile crime prevention programs, and rely more on social workers, and calling 311 versus 911.
MH: It’s a big move. It’s massive. The Minneapolis City Councillors, though, offered no details on how they’re going to defund, dismantle, disband and, presumably, replace the police in their city. And so one of the things I want to explore with my guest today is what it means to dismantle a police department practically, what it means to call for the defunding of the police — a call we’re now hearing more and more, and not just from Black Lives Matter protesters in the streets but even on the op-ed pages of the New York Times. Less than two weeks ago, this was the headline in the Times opinion section: “No More Money for the Police,” with the subhead: “Redirect it to emergency response programs that don’t kill black people.”
Hear, hear!
The amount of money that is spent on policing in this country is stunning. Just astonishing. $115 billion nationwide; it’s tripled over the past 40 years, even as crime has fallen. The New York Police Department, the NYPD, whose finest we’ve seen beating innocent unarmed New Yorkers on the streets in recent weeks — on camera, on tape — has the biggest police budget in the country, $6 billion, which is more than the city’s Departments of Health, Homeless Services, Youth Services, and Employment Services combined — combined! It’s bigger than the World Health Organization’s budget. Bigger than the GDP of 50 countries around the world. Defunding that budget shouldn’t be a priority for those of us who give a damn about social justice, racial equality, human rights? Really?
And defunding doesn’t mean you just shut everything down and cut them all off. Abolish the police doesn’t mean you just get rid of it and leave behind no replacement.
Camden, New Jersey, used to be one of the most violent cities in the U.S.. In 2012, the city dissolved its corrupt police department and replaced it with a new community-oriented model and lots of new personnel. Listen to the former Camden County Police Chief Scott Thompson, speaking on MSNBC:
Scott Thompson: In 2012, every member of the Camden City Police Department, including myself, was fired. I was a police officer 20 years, been a police chief for five. Myself and everyone else had to — had to fill out a 50-page application, interview, the whole nine yards.
We were all new employees. We started over. We created a new police force. We created a police force where the philosophy was going to be the empowerment of the community before enforcement of the law. We would bring on every member of the organization, and we wanted them to identify more as a member of the Peace Corps than being a special forces operator, and that we would reclaim these city streets, in a manner in which we were empowering the people, so that they would be able to reclaim it, as opposed to us militarizing the neighborhoods and thereby polarizing the community even further.
MH: And guess what happened? Murders fell by more than 70 percent, violent crimes by more than 40 percent.
It’s not just former police chiefs like Scott Thompson making the case, by the way. On Monday, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said he was “open” to the idea of defunding the police. The police chief himself!
Still, let’s be honest, it’s going to be an uphill battle to get people behind the idea of defunding, let alone, abolishing the police — if such a thing is even possible, nationwide. Polls suggest that big majorities of Americans support protests against police brutality and believe police forces need to change. But only a minority of Americans want to cut police budgets.
Then you’ve got the white nationalist in the White House, who is of course on record encouraging police to be violent:
President Donald J. Trump: When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough. I said, “Please don’t be too nice.” [Audience laughter.] “Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over — like, don’t hit their head, and they’ve just killed somebody, don’t hit their head.” I said, “You can take the hand away, OK?” [Audience laughs, cheers, and applauds.]
MH: This week, Trump was quick to jump to the defense of the police, and against the crazy, left-wing, radical idea of defunding.
DJT: There won’t be defunding, there won’t be dismantling of our police. And, uh, there won’t be any disbanding of our police. Our police have been letting us live in peace, and we want to make sure we don’t have any bad actors in there, and sometimes you’ll see some horrible things, like we witnessed recently, but 99 — I say 99.9, but let’s go with 99 percent of them — are great, great people.
MH: Then there’s the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, speaking to Norah O’Donnell on CBS News this week:
Norah O’Donnell: Do you support defunding the police?
Joe Biden: No, I don’t support defunding the police.
MH: To be fair to Biden, though he was also very explicit in that interview on the issue of systemic police racism:
NO: Do you believe there is systemic racism in law enforcement?
JB: Absolutely. But it’s not just law enforcement — it’s across the board. It’s in housing, and it’s in education, and it’s in everything we do. It’s real, it’s genuine, it’s serious.
MH: And, look, despite his awful record on criminal justice issues, he now has a criminal justice reform agenda that is far, far superior to anything on offer from Trump and the Republicans, that contains many good ideas and decent policy proposals for restraining the police and holding them accountable.
So, it’s a start. But it doesn’t go far enough. Like so many liberals, Biden still seems unwilling — unable even — to take the kind of radical steps that this radical, historic moment demands. He needs to be pushed even more.
And you know, some of this stuff shouldn’t even be considered that radical. What Americans often call radical is just normal to the rest of the world. For example, universal healthcare: it’s not a radical idea outside of the United States.
I’d say the same thing about policing. I’m from the UK, a country with a very similar political culture to the U.S., many similarities between the two countries; the UK that’s been governed by conservatives for the majority of the past 100 years, and yet the police in the UK tend to be unarmed. Almost all the UK police don’t carry weapons.
In 2018, U.S. police shot dead more than a 1000 people; UK police shot dead 3 people. It’s not just the UK; Ireland, Iceland, Norway, New Zealand, all have unarmed police forces.
Now, I’m not saying that U.S. police officers should all give up their weapons overnight — especially in a country as heavily-armed, as full of guns, as this one. But my point is that we need to understand that it is possible to do policing a different way. There are international examples of better practice. Hell, as I mentioned earlier, there are local examples of better practice — for example, Camden, New Jersey.
But there is this ongoing failure of imagination among liberals, and on parts of the Left, too, encouraged by cynical conservatives who say big change — radical change, so-called — is unrealistic, is impossible.
The irony is that events are proving them wrong — events are moving so fast. Just 12 weeks ago, the architect of New York’s racist stop-and-frisk policing policy was polling second nationwide in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Can you imagine that today? Michael Bloomberg as a potential Democratic front runner? Ha!
Things change, so don’t let people tell you that justice can’t be done, that change can’t come, that the status quo must persist.
Things can change, will change, have to change. They are changing. The question is: How far can change go, and what can you and I do to make sure we keep pushing, we keep fighting, for a new vision, a new way of policing, a new system of justice?
I’m reminded of that old quote, often misattributed to Gandhi, but which seems very appropriate for the political moment we’re in right now: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
[Musical interlude.]
MH: My guest today is a fighter; a long-standing campaigner for social justice and human rights, and the co-founder of Black Lives Matter. Patrisse Cullors is also the Founder of Reform LA Jails and author of the acclaimed book, “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.”
She joins me now from LA.
MH: Patrisse, thanks for joining me on Deconstructed. Let’s get straight to it: What does “defund the police” mean, in practice, in the real world?
PC: Defunding the police means that we’re actually resourcing communities, like black, poor communities with access to health care, access to adequate public education, and access to jobs. Much of what the police do right now are things that social workers can do, things that case managers can do, things that other governmental workers can do. And that’s why our movement is calling to defund them.
MH: Is there a difference, Patrisse, between defunding the police and abolishing the police — because we’ve heard both slogans in recent weeks, and sometimes they sound interchangeable, but sometimes they don’t?
PC: Sure. Some people believe in the defund demand because it means that we’ll keep police at some capacity. And some people believe that the defund demand is our pathway towards abolition.
So they are two different demands, depending on your philosophies. I’m an abolitionist, so I believe that the first step to abolition is defunding both the police system, but also the carceral system, which is the system that has created mass incarceration.
MH: So, a lot of liberals listening to this will say: “We’re totally onboard with the idea that the police are out of control, that institutional racism is a problem, but defunding the police, abolishing the police, those are steps too far, we want reform.” What do you say to them? What’s wrong with police reform?
PC: Well, what I say to people is, and when we say defunding the police, we’re not saying stop having people be accountable to issues of harm and violence. This is not a conversation about lack of accountability. This is a conversation about building in a new system of accountability, one that is based on an economy of care over an economy of punishment.
Right now, we have a system that is punitive, that is based on punishing human beings. And that is cruel and evil. The system that we’re asking for is a compassionate and loving system, and that is able to still hold people accountable for harm that they cause. That is totally in alignment with people who believe in defunding, and also with people who believe in abolition.
MH: But reform, you believe the police — we have to go beyond reform, reform’s not enough reform, doesn’t work? What’s your position on ‘reform’?
PC: I think it depends on the kind of reform.
When I talk about reform, I’m thinking about non-reformist reform, which is — my work is about decreasing the police’s ability to be in contact with black people. And so whatever demands that I’m making, or the organizations that I work with are making, is always about how do we lessen the burden of police on black communities?
So a reform can be reform like body cameras. Does that change the structural violence and racism inside of police departments? No, actually, it has not changed it at all. Instead, body cameras are just showing us more and more the dysfunctionality of policing.
And so, the other reform that we’re calling for — because defunding the police is a reform, but it’s the reform that isn’t giving the police state more money.
MH: The immediate response from a lot of people in recent days, including people of color, to this idea of defunding or abolishing the police is: What happens if I’m in trouble? What happens if I am facing a violent or dangerous person? Who do I call?
PC: Hopefully, we can build new institutions that people can have a new place to call. If it’s 911, then hopefully, someone’s in a mental health crisis, you can call 911. And instead of them sending a police officer who may kill the person who’s in that mental health crisis, you call someone like a caseworker or a psychiatrist who’s been trained to de-escalate an issue.
The problem is, oftentimes when police do show up, more violence happens. It doesn’t make it less violent when the police are involved. And that’s very important for people to understand.
MH: I totally get that and your example of the mental health situation is a very good one. But then of course, there are always the extreme examples that are used to make the other side of the argument. So if you’re in an armed robbery, you’re an owner of a gas station and people are — men with guns or trying to rob you. You want armed police to turn up and protect you, don’t you?
PC: Depends. Once again, we’ve seen many of examples where people have been armed, and there’s been — on video — where other people have de-escalated them. An eye for an eye is not actually a true response if we’re trying to get harm reduction.
What we’ve seen across neighborhoods in places where there’s a significant amount of harm and violence is when you have policing as the only answer, it creates more harm and violence.
And so the answer is really in institutions that are based in community care, institutions that are working with the community to try to deal with the violence instead of use the police to cause more violence.
I think the other thing is, we have a myth about what the police do. So I think it’s important for listeners to understand none of us understand what a beat cop does, because what we watch on TV is that they solve murders and rapes; violent crime is only one to five percent. So what a beat cop does is mostly about dealing with poverty. That’s what a beat cop does, and I think it’s really, really important that we start to investigate how we understand policing, and the propaganda that we’ve been, you know, shoved down our throats around policing.
MH: So you’re making the case for doing this very eloquently in terms of describing the status quo being broken.
In Minneapolis, they’ve said that they want to disband the police department, come up with something better, reimagine it, but they haven’t really said what it is that they’re going to do — they’ve admitted it can’t be done overnight. It’s going to take a year.
Now, many people would say the devil is in the details. Saying “defund the police” or “abolish the police,” that’s easy. Doing it, executing that vision is much harder. Would you concede that?
PC: Yes, it is. It’s much harder because every single institution we are a part of us as law enforcement: our schools — our public schools, our public hospitals, our public parks, every single institution relies on law enforcement. And so it means that we have to reimagine entirely new systems.
The good news is, is there are many people across this country and the world who have been thinking about this for a very long time; they have ideas about what those new systems can be? They’ve tried it in small — they’ve beta tested it in small areas, in small neighborhoods. So it’s not like people have to learn from scratch. It’s just not popular. This is the first time in modern history where abolitionism and this concept of defunding the police is a popular moment.
I often think about what it must have felt like when black folks were abolishing slavery and they finally got the word that they were moving towards abolition. I mean, that’s the moment that we’re in. And it’s very powerful.
MH: But are you comparing the police to slave owners, though — anyway, many people would say that, that’s a comparison that’s not fair.
PC: No, I’m comparing the police to patrols, slave patrols, which is what they were originally, they were created so they could go catch enslaved Africans who were fleeing for freedom. That’s the role of the police; that’s the role that they’ve always played. So they weren’t the slave owners, but they worked on behalf of them.
MH: That’s a very good point. You’re in LA, where Democratic mayor Eric Garcetti has agreed to cut the LAPD budget by $100 million, I think, and divert some of that money towards communities of color. Do steps like that, incremental steps, modest steps, do they count, in your view, towards “defunding the police”? Or is it all or nothing in your view? It has to look like Minneapolis, or like Camden, New Jersey?
PC: No, it’s an important step, but it is a far, far cry from what we’ve asked for. LAPD’s budget is $3 billion; $150 million is nothing. So we need to continue to cut at that budget. And I think it’s incredibly important that we remember that $150 million doesn’t mean that the budget isn’t still more than half of the city budget.
MH: So you talked about your asks and the progress. You’re a co-founder of Black Lives Matter. There’s been a remarkable change in public attitudes driven by Black Lives Matter protesters and others over the years.
I was just looking at the polling after Ferguson in 2014. The proportion of Republicans who said the killing of unarmed African-American men by the police was a reflection of broader problems with the police — that’s doubled from 19 percent in 2014 to 47 percent, almost half of Republicans today. Across all Americans, it’s a massive 69 percent who say there are broader problems with the police’s treatment of black men.
Do those numbers surprise you? Shock you? I mean, I’m sure they make you happy, but how surprised are you at the change we’re seeing? Is it quick enough for you?
PC: I’m pretty surprised, actually. Grateful. But yes, surprised. I feel like we remember being called terrorist, and remember people believing it across the country and across the globe. And so to see that shift is profound, and it means that whatever we have been doing, it’s working.
MH: I mean, we even saw in recent days Republican Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, joining the protests in DC saying, “Black Lives Matter,” saying those three dirty words (for the Right). Is that an indication of a political shift on the Right or is, as usual, Mitt Romney an outlier?
PC: I think it’s both. I think there is a deep desire to challenge our current president. I think we’re in a political moment where people want to align around getting Trump out of office. And in a strange twist of events, Black Lives Matter happens to be the ultimate equalizer. [Laughs.]
And I’d never would have thought we’d be here.
MH: So you have Mitt Romney marching for Black Lives Matter, you have polling showing Americans are changing attitudes. There’s not a majority on board for defund the police yet, but there is a majority on board saying the police, something has to be done about the police, which itself is remarkable.
Then you have Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, saying this week, very clearly, that on the one hand, he does not support defunding the police, he wants to increase funding; on the other hand, he does accept there is systemic racism in the police and that has to be tackled, which I would argue is a big thing for him to say, given he’s the architect of the 1994 crime bill.
PC: Mhmm. Yeah, I mean, I think that so much of what we’re trying to do in this moment is get Trump out of office and hold Biden accountable to the needs of our movement.
We knew that it was going to be hard for the Democratic Party to get on board for defund the police, but it still feels incredibly important to push and challenge them, given that they have, you know, for a long time, milked the black vote and have been complicit in our death and, you know, our brutalization. So the hope is that we can push this candidate and also the entire party.
MH: And the Biden campaign say they want to increase funding to community policing initiatives, they say they want to pay for body cameras for more cops on the beat. Do they have a point? Is that fair?
PC: I think that’s an old demand, the idea of body cameras and community policing. I think those suggestions are unhelpful. And you know, the — the — like I said, the hope is that we could push him and his campaign to really look at the concept of defending and what we’re actually talking about.
MH: But you would accept, I assume, based on what you’re saying about the need to get Trump out. You agree that despite Biden’s horrific criminal justice record, what he’s offering in this election is far superior in terms of police reform and criminal justice reform than a second-term Trump presidency where basically they want to use law enforcement to go after Antifa and black protesters, and give white nationalists a pass.
PC: Absolutely.
MH: It’s not just Biden, though, is it, Patrisse? It’s not just white politicians. On Wednesday, on MSNBC, Congressman Jim Clyburn, highest-ranking black member of Congress, was saying people who talk about defunding the police are sloganeering, they’re hijacking the protest. He said, “We want the police, we need the police.”
It’s not just an ideological divide on the left or in the Democratic Party. There seems to be a pretty big generational divide among black Americans, doesn’t there? And we saw that in the presidential primaries, too.
PC: Yeah, I think that so much of what millennials and Gen Z-ers have experienced is heinous and terrible violence at the hands of law enforcement. And we have caught called on black electeds in particular to, you know, challenge policing, and to show up for a younger generation of black lives who want to see a new system.
At the end of the day, what we’re asking for are more jobs, more access to health care, adequate public education, mental health care, adequate access to healthy food. And we have to realize that budgets are finite. We can’t have hundreds of thousands — I mean — millions and billions of dollars towards policing, and also millions and billions of dollars towards health care. Something has to give. And what we’ve seen as we’ve — we’ve — we’ve stripped away the entire social welfare state, both at the local level, the state level, and the national level. And it’s time for, you know, both parties to come to grips and to provide the kind of healthy living that people in this country deserve.
MH: For you, Patrisse, I know this is very personal. One of the reasons you say you co-founded Black Lives Matter is because of the abuse your brother received at the hands of the police, and then in prison. Did you — did your brother — ever think you’d see a moment like this one a national uprising? Are you — is he — optimistic about the future, I wonder?
PC: We both are, you know, every, every moment of victory that we have had, whether it was the Yes on R victory — where we were able to pass the law, you know, that changed here in Los Angeles County, to stopping the jails, to getting civilian oversight of the sheriff’s department — to this moment where we’re finally talking about defunding and abolition, both him and I are always like: Wow, this is powerful. This is amazing. And — and — and it makes us really hopeful.
MH: And to someone who’s listening, who says: What can I do to take part in this struggle to help push back against institutional racism which seems so vast, it seems so unstoppable, it seems so much part of America’s DNA in so many ways? What advice would you give to a listener who wants to know what they can do?
PC: Number one: Start looking up this conversation. Read about defunding and abolition. Mariame Kaba is someone who talks about it a lot; Angela Davis has talked about it a lot. Alex Vitale, Kelly Lytle Hernández — those are four amazing thought leaders around this concept of defunding and abolition.
And number two: Support your local organizations who are doing work, especially black-led organizations. It’s been powerful to see so many people lifting up black leadership and black orgs.
And number three: Check your privilege. No matter what it is, check your ideas and your privilege and try to have — imagine just for a moment, what communities actually need versus the propaganda that we’ve been fed about what the police do for us.
MH: Patrisse Cullors, thank you so much for joining us on Deconstructed. Keep fighting the good fight.
PC: Thank you.
[Musical interlude.]
MH: That’s our show! Deconstructed is a production of First Look Media and The Intercept. Our producer is Zach Young. The show was mixed by Bryan Pugh. Our theme music was composed by Bart Warshaw. Betsy Reed is The Intercept’s editor in chief.
And I’m Mehdi Hasan. You can follow me on Twitter @mehdirhasan. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show so you can hear it every week. Go to theintercept.com/deconstructed to subscribe from your podcast platform of choice: iPhone, Android, whatever. If you’re subscribed already, please do leave us a rating or review — it helps people find the show. And if you want to give us feedback, email us at Podcasts@theintercept.com. Thanks so much!
See you next week.


theintercept--2020-06-11--Como a pandemia do coronavírus deu sobrevida ao golpe na Bolívia

Essa semana, a OEA voltou atrás e disse que a eleição de Evo Morales no 1º turno em 2019 foi legítima. Tarde demais. Após o golpe, quem assumiu foi a senadora direitista Jeanine Áñez que prometeu novas eleições em 90 dias. Até agora, nada, e a pandemia se tornou a principal desculpa da interina para adiar o pleito. De olho na presidência, ela mantém um governo autoritário e com forte repressão à oposição, sustentado pelo apoio das polícias militares do país. Um exemplo do modelo sonhado por Bolsonaro.
OLHA ESSE DADO todos os dias milhões de brasileiros são impactados pelo trabalho do Intercept. Nossas reportagens já foram usadas em projetos de lei, resultaram na punição de abusadores e foram utilizadas para responsabilizar grandes empresas. Nós incomodamos juízes corruptos, grileiros, mineradoras, políticos e generais.
Este jornalismo que vai para cima dos poderosos só é possível porque é diretamente financiado por cidadãos como você. O Intercept perdeu recursos importantes recentemente e só estamos resistindo porque contamos com milhares de apoiadores. Ainda assim, somos apoiados por menos de 1% dos nossos leitores. Imagine o que seria possível fazer se 1% de todos que são impactados por nosso trabalho nos ajudassem hoje?
O Intercept não vende assinaturas nem anúncios. Sua doação é o apoio que nos falta para revelar as histórias que realmente precisam ser contadas.
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theintercept--2020-06-11--As Calls to Defund the Police Grow Louder, Joe Biden Wants to Give Them More Money

of Americans have descended into streets for nearly two weeks to protest police violence , they have articulated a clear demand among the calls for justice and accountability : defund the police .
In a matter of days , the demand some groups had been raising for years — that officials reallocate resources from police terrorizing communities to invest in initiatives and social services that keep those communities safe — became a rallying cry that pushed city councils to reevaluate their budget proposals and forced some mayors who had at first disdained the idea to give in .
For the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been aimed at local governments , which control police departments and their budgets — some $ 100 billion annually nationwide .
But on Wednesday , presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden , in a striking rejection of the growing movement demanding better use of public dollars , reminded Americans that there is also plenty of money for police coming from the federal government when he called for an additional $ 300 million in federal incentives “ to reinvigorate community policing in our country.
” “ I do not support defunding police , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Today .
“ The better answer is to give police departments the resources they need to implement meaningful reforms , and to condition other federal dollars on completing those reforms .
… Every single police department should have the money they need to institute real reforms.
” As the force of the defund police movement has taken some by surprise , Biden has hardly been the only politician to seek to defend the status quo .
Even his one-time rival , Sen. Bernie Sanders , indicated in a recent interview that he objected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I think we want to redefine what police departments do , give them the support they need to make their jobs better defined , ” said Sanders .
“ So I do believe that we need well-trained , well-educated , and well-paid professionals in police departments.
” That ’ s what officials have promised for years .
Proponents of police reform , including some who sit on Biden ’ s criminal justice task force , have been pitching solutions to police violence that include more resources for police at least since the 2014 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Missouri .
The protests that followed ushered in an era of massive investment , much of it with federal dollars , to pay for things like bias training , as well as body cameras and , especially , more officers to staff “ community policing ” initiatives flooding already over-policed neighborhoods and schools .
These proponents usually call for “ procedural ” reforms that do little to tackle the underlying problems of the institution itself , said Alex Vitale , author of “ The End of Policing.
” “ Procedural justice is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time to explain what they ’ re doing , hear your side of the story , act in a professional manner , that people are going to accept police actions , ” Vitale told The Intercept , “ and therefore that you can reform the police by making them more professional and nicer , and people won ’ t question them or protest them , and they will let the police go back to doing what they do with no interrogation whatsoever of whether or not what the police is doing is actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has boomed around police reform , those who have been calling for an end to police violence for years say the police reforms Biden is once again proposing have already failed .
Minneapolis , which starting in 2014 received millions of dollars in federal funding as part of the pilot National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice , is a poster child for such a failure , and community members there have been demanding — and so far , winning — a much more radical approach to ending police violence by reducing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as communities across the country push their local officials to redraw next year ’ s budgets , a number of groups have also begun calling on Congress to do its part to defund the police .
In a letter sent this week to the House Judiciary Committee , a coalition of national advocacy and local grassroots organizations have called on representatives to “ permanently end and cease any funding to local law enforcement in any form.
” Specifically , the group called on Congress to defund the COPS Program — which stands for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a federal initiative that critics have long accused of hiding behind the sweet-sounding notion of police developing relationships with communities while de facto flooding those communities with more officers .
“ The COPS Program has helped precipitate the policing crisis that we find ourselves in today , ” the group wrote .
“ This is money that should have gone directly to people instead of policing.
” The COPS Program was established as part of the 1994 Crime Bill and to date has granted more than $ 14 billion to state and local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hire more police .
In the first few years of its existence , it contributed to the swelling of local law enforcement agencies by some 100,000 officers .
The program has also funded new equipment and technology for police across the country and has resulted in the escalation of militarized SWAT teams even in small-town departments .
Just last week , as the nation was reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and as protests against police violence raged , the COPS office announced almost $ 400 million in grants to hire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than 500 agencies across the country .
And the $ 300 million Biden is now calling for comes in addition to $ 300 million that was just allocated to COPS as part of the HEROES Act for Covid-19 relief .
“ What ’ s been particularly insidious about the COPS program is that the name masks what is really happening , which is that we ’ re essentially just flooding the streets in communities of our country with more and more police under the guise that it is going to be community-oriented , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Justice Transformation Program at the Center for Popular Democracy , one of the letter ’ s signatories .
“ It ’ s obvious to anyone living in communities across this country that are heavily policed that there has been nothing about policing that has been community-oriented , and the actions of this last week have revealed that in dramatic fashion to even people who have not been living under this heavy policing apparatus.
” While COPS provides federal incentives for local governments to hire more police , those governments are then left @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the officers when the federal funds expire .
“ So we ’ re getting $ 100 million of ‘ free ’ money to hire police officers , ” said Rao .
“ But two years later , you have a dozen new police officers on the force , and you need to pay their salaries and their pensions and their overtime and their brutality settlements with local money.
” In some cities , the cost of police already eats up more than 50 percent of the local budget .
Defunding COPS is part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ growing number of groups , to dismantle and replace the 1994 Crime Bill itself .
It is only one of several federal initiatives that advocates want to end ; another is the Department of Defense ’ s 1033 program , which transfers equipment from the military to police and which critics say has contributed to certain communities ’ perception of police as an occupying force .
Advocates are also calling for an end to Operation Relentless Pursuit , a $ 71 million initiative that was introduced by Attorney General Bill Barr in December @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal law officers in seven “ of the country ’ s most violent cities , ” according to the FBI ’ s announcement of the initiative .
And they want Congress to reexamine the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program and other federal grants that fund a criminal justice system they say has long failed to deliver either safety or justice .
“ Federal resources that continue to perpetuate police violence and harm against Black and Brown communities must end , ” the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in a statement earlier this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defunding COPS and other programs .
“ Congress must reinvest those dollars into resources that end systemic racism , inequality , and disparities in Black and Brown communities .
Congress must invest in true health and safety in communities that have for too long been harmed by the status quo.
” As the movement to defund the police picks up momentum , those looking to learn from the experiences of past divestment campaigns can look to efforts to get police out of schools as a blueprint .
One of the most immediate outcomes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the local school board to end its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department .
Days later , the Minneapolis City Council announced plans to dismantle the department altogether .
“ In the last few weeks , we ’ ve seen suddenly an echoing of the defunding police narrative across the country , ” said Dmitri Holtzman , director of Education Justice Campaigns at the Center for Popular Democracy .
“ But where some of the most specific articulations and policy pushes around the broader defunding police framework have gotten most traction has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ specifically around police-free schools.
” “ School is a microcosm of society , ” he added .
“ There is actually a very clear path towards abolishing police in schools , which I think presents an opportunity for the broader movement as we think about defunding police more broadly.
” Through the 1994 Crime Bill , the federal government has played a leading role in the escalation of school-based police .
COPS , for instance , has provided some $ 1 billion for law enforcement initiatives in schools , most of it going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officers.
” As The Intercept has previously reported , school-based police have greatly contributed to the criminalization of children , and their presence has proved particularly devastating to students of color and undocumented students .
But schools are also where calls to redirect funds from police to initiatives that keep students safe and thriving , like mental health counseling and job programs , have been the longest running and most successful .
In Milwaukee , for instance , black students have led a campaign to rewrite the public school system ’ s racist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a $ 1 million divestment from school-based police , reducing the number of police officers in their schools from 16 to six , said Dakota Hall , executive director of Leaders Igniting Transformation , the youth group behind the effort .
The group has now joined others across the country in calling for an end to federal incentives to police , particularly school-based police , and for a reinvestment of more than $ 300 billion into K-12 education .
“ Congress was the genesis for a lot of this with their programs in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crime , ” said Hall , in reference to the criminalization of youth of color .
“ So they have a very important role to play in the defunding of police departments , as well as removing cops from schools.
” Hall noted that Milwaukee students were continuing to put pressure on state and local officials , for instance , calling for the repeal of a “ truancy abatement and burglary suppression ” state law that mandates that Milwaukee schools must have police .
But Congress , he added , needed to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ placed on the shoulders of local officials , ” he said .
“ And many senators in Congress , people who are still in office who voted for these bills back in the ’ 90s … they definitely should be held accountable as well .
”

As tens of thousands of Americans have descended into streets for nearly two weeks to protest police violence, they have articulated a clear demand among the calls for justice and accountability: defund the police.
In a matter of days, the demand some groups had been raising for years — that officials reallocate resources from police terrorizing communities to invest in initiatives and social services that keep those communities safe — became a rallying cry that pushed city councils to reevaluate their budget proposals and forced some mayors who had at first disdained the idea to give in. For the most part, campaigns to defund police have been aimed at local governments, which control police departments and their budgets — some $100 billion annually nationwide.
But on Wednesday, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, in a striking rejection of the growing movement demanding better use of public dollars, reminded Americans that there is also plenty of money for police coming from the federal government when he called for an additional $300 million in federal incentives “to reinvigorate community policing in our country.”
“I do not support defunding police,” Biden wrote in an op-ed for USA Today. “The better answer is to give police departments the resources they need to implement meaningful reforms, and to condition other federal dollars on completing those reforms. … Every single police department should have the money they need to institute real reforms.”
As the force of the defund police movement has taken some by surprise, Biden has hardly been the only politician to seek to defend the status quo. Even his one-time rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, indicated in a recent interview that he objected calls to defund the police. “I think we want to redefine what police departments do, give them the support they need to make their jobs better defined,” said Sanders. “So I do believe that we need well-trained, well-educated, and well-paid professionals in police departments.”
That’s what officials have promised for years. Proponents of police reform, including some who sit on Biden’s criminal justice task force, have been pitching solutions to police violence that include more resources for police at least since the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The protests that followed ushered in an era of massive investment, much of it with federal dollars, to pay for things like bias training, as well as body cameras and, especially, more officers to staff “community policing” initiatives flooding already over-policed neighborhoods and schools.
These proponents usually call for “procedural” reforms that do little to tackle the underlying problems of the institution itself, said Alex Vitale, author of “The End of Policing.”
“Procedural justice is the idea that if police take the time to explain what they’re doing, hear your side of the story, act in a professional manner, that people are going to accept police actions,” Vitale told The Intercept, “and therefore that you can reform the police by making them more professional and nicer, and people won’t question them or protest them, and they will let the police go back to doing what they do with no interrogation whatsoever of whether or not what the police is doing is actually right.”
While an industry of consultants has boomed around police reform, those who have been calling for an end to police violence for years say the police reforms Biden is once again proposing have already failed. Minneapolis, which starting in 2014 received millions of dollars in federal funding as part of the pilot National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, is a poster child for such a failure, and community members there have been demanding — and so far, winning — a much more radical approach to ending police violence by reducing the presence of police altogether.
“The COPS Program has helped precipitate the policing crisis that we find ourselves in today. This is money that should have gone directly to people instead of policing.”
But as communities across the country push their local officials to redraw next year’s budgets, a number of groups have also begun calling on Congress to do its part to defund the police.
In a letter sent this week to the House Judiciary Committee, a coalition of national advocacy and local grassroots organizations have called on representatives to “permanently end and cease any funding to local law enforcement in any form.”
Specifically, the group called on Congress to defund the COPS Program — which stands for “Community Oriented Policing Services” — a federal initiative that critics have long accused of hiding behind the sweet-sounding notion of police developing relationships with communities while de facto flooding those communities with more officers. “The COPS Program has helped precipitate the policing crisis that we find ourselves in today,” the group wrote. “This is money that should have gone directly to people instead of policing.”
The COPS Program was established as part of the 1994 Crime Bill and to date has granted more than $14 billion to state and local governments, much of it used to hire more police. In the first few years of its existence, it contributed to the swelling of local law enforcement agencies by some 100,000 officers. The program has also funded new equipment and technology for police across the country and has resulted in the escalation of militarized SWAT teams even in small-town departments.
Just last week, as the nation was reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and as protests against police violence raged, the COPS office announced almost $400 million in grants to hire nearly 3,000 new police officers in more than 500 agencies across the country. And the $300 million Biden is now calling for comes in addition to $300 million that was just allocated to COPS as part of the HEROES Act for Covid-19 relief.
“What’s been particularly insidious about the COPS program is that the name masks what is really happening, which is that we’re essentially just flooding the streets in communities of our country with more and more police under the guise that it is going to be community-oriented,” said Kumar Rao, director of the Justice Transformation Program at the Center for Popular Democracy, one of the letter’s signatories. “It’s obvious to anyone living in communities across this country that are heavily policed that there has been nothing about policing that has been community-oriented, and the actions of this last week have revealed that in dramatic fashion to even people who have not been living under this heavy policing apparatus.”
While COPS provides federal incentives for local governments to hire more police, those governments are then left to pay for the cost of keeping the officers when the federal funds expire. “So we’re getting $100 million of ‘free’ money to hire police officers,” said Rao. “But two years later, you have a dozen new police officers on the force, and you need to pay their salaries and their pensions and their overtime and their brutality settlements with local money.” In some cities, the cost of police already eats up more than 50 percent of the local budget.
Defunding COPS is part of a broader push, by a growing number of groups, to dismantle and replace the 1994 Crime Bill itself. It is only one of several federal initiatives that advocates want to end; another is the Department of Defense’s 1033 program, which transfers equipment from the military to police and which critics say has contributed to certain communities’ perception of police as an occupying force. Advocates are also calling for an end to Operation Relentless Pursuit, a $71 million initiative that was introduced by Attorney General Bill Barr in December and aims to increase the number of federal law officers in seven “of the country’s most violent cities,” according to the FBI’s announcement of the initiative. And they want Congress to reexamine the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program and other federal grants that fund a criminal justice system they say has long failed to deliver either safety or justice.
“Federal resources that continue to perpetuate police violence and harm against Black and Brown communities must end,” the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in a statement earlier this week, as it also called for defunding COPS and other programs. “Congress must reinvest those dollars into resources that end systemic racism, inequality, and disparities in Black and Brown communities. Congress must invest in true health and safety in communities that have for too long been harmed by the status quo.”
A protester carries a “defund the police” sign on West Division Street during the March of Justice from Union Park to Cabrini-Green on June 6, 2020 in Chicago to demand police accountability. Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Learning From Schools
As the movement to defund the police picks up momentum, those looking to learn from the experiences of past divestment campaigns can look to efforts to get police out of schools as a blueprint. One of the most immediate outcomes of the Minneapolis protests was the decision by the local school board to end its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department. Days later, the Minneapolis City Council announced plans to dismantle the department altogether.
“In the last few weeks, we’ve seen suddenly an echoing of the defunding police narrative across the country,” said Dmitri Holtzman, director of Education Justice Campaigns at the Center for Popular Democracy. “But where some of the most specific articulations and policy pushes around the broader defunding police framework have gotten most traction has been at the school board level and specifically around police-free schools.”
Schools are where calls to redirect funds from police to initiatives that keep students safe and thriving, like mental health counseling and job programs, have been the longest running and most successful.
“School is a microcosm of society,” he added. “There is actually a very clear path towards abolishing police in schools, which I think presents an opportunity for the broader movement as we think about defunding police more broadly.”
Through the 1994 Crime Bill, the federal government has played a leading role in the escalation of school-based police. COPS, for instance, has provided some $1 billion for law enforcement initiatives in schools, most of it going toward the hiring of “school safety officers.” As The Intercept has previously reported, school-based police have greatly contributed to the criminalization of children, and their presence has proved particularly devastating to students of color and undocumented students.
But schools are also where calls to redirect funds from police to initiatives that keep students safe and thriving, like mental health counseling and job programs, have been the longest running and most successful. In Milwaukee, for instance, black students have led a campaign to rewrite the public school system’s racist discipline code. They have also won a $1 million divestment from school-based police, reducing the number of police officers in their schools from 16 to six, said Dakota Hall, executive director of Leaders Igniting Transformation, the youth group behind the effort. The group has now joined others across the country in calling for an end to federal incentives to police, particularly school-based police, and for a reinvestment of more than $300 billion into K-12 education.
“Congress was the genesis for a lot of this with their programs in the ’90s that were tough on crime,” said Hall, in reference to the criminalization of youth of color. “So they have a very important role to play in the defunding of police departments, as well as removing cops from schools.”
Hall noted that Milwaukee students were continuing to put pressure on state and local officials, for instance, calling for the repeal of a “truancy abatement and burglary suppression” state law that mandates that Milwaukee schools must have police. But Congress, he added, needed to do more.
“The accountability has been placed on the shoulders of local officials,” he said. “And many senators in Congress, people who are still in office who voted for these bills back in the ’90s … they definitely should be held accountable as well.”