This month, we’ve witnessed the brutal murders of several Black people by police— including Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Delrawn Smalls, and Alva Braziel.[1] And guess what? The federal government has been bankrolling the police departments that killed all four of them.
Yes. Congress and the Obama administration are spending millions of dollars every year giving grants to the same police departments that are killing and over-incarcerating Black people–and it has to stop.
Politicians can’t keep promising the change we need in local police departments and quietly maintain the status quo by failing to take real action. Pres. Obama and Congress have real power to hold police departments accountable with their funding—if they are really about stopping police terror in Black communities, this is how they show it.
Baton Rouge PD, the very police department that killed Alton Sterling, has been under investigation by the Department of Justice for civil rights violations TWICE—including for its harassment of Black people following Hurricane Katrina.[2] Yet, federal officials continue to give them money. In fact, Baton Rouge PD has received 3 million dollars from the DOJ over the past five years.[3]
In the aftermath of his death, it was revealed that Philando Castile had been stopped by police 52 times in 14 years—and subject to the same profiling, criminalization, and extraction of wealth detailed in the Department of Justice’s report on Ferguson police and replicated everywhere in the US.[4,5]
The federal government knows exactly how police departments are terrorizing Black communities—it’s past time they do something about it and hold these police departments accountable.
After thousands of people spoke out against the Department of Defense giving police military equipment, following the highly militarized brutalization of Ferguson protesters, Pres. Obama signed an executive order banning the federal government from providing certain kinds of military gear to local and state police.[6] So we’re calling on President Obama and Congress to take action again and pull all grant funds from any police department that doesn’t make reforms to protect Black lives.
The reforms we’re calling for are simple ones that President Obama himself has supported and funded research to create with the 21st Century Policing Task Force.[7] It’s time for Pres. Obama to step up and ensure these critical reforms actually happen—and he can do that by withholding funds from any police department that doesn’t do the following:
Embrace a culture of transparency
- Make all department policies available for public review, and publish demographic data on all stops, frisks, summonses and arrests.
- Collect, maintain, and analyze demographic data on all officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths.
Hold the police accountable
- Adopt policies that require all officers to seek written consent before any search & provide their name, reason for stop or search, and contact information for the civilian complaint board.
- Police cannot and should not police themselves. Require independent criminal investigations into all officer-involved fatalities and in-custody deaths.
- Enforce policies prohibiting profiling and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability, housing status, occupation and/or language fluency.
With four Black deaths in a matter of days, we’re in—and have been in—a state of emergency. We can’t afford to spend millions of dollars on police departments that will continue killing, criminalizing, and incarcerating Black people.
–Scott, Rashad, Arisha, Clarise, Enchanta and the rest of the ColorOfChange team.
References:
1. “Why Alton Sterling and Philando Castile Are Dead,” The Nation, 07-07-2016
https://www.thenation.com/article/why-alton-sterling-and-philando-castile-are-dead/
“Video surfaces of NYPD cop’s road rage shooting,” New York Post, 07-08-2016
http://nypost.com/2016/07/08/video-surfaces-of-nypd-cops-road-rage-shooting/
“Police Said They Shot A Man Because He Pointed A Gun At Them, Video Shows He Had His Hands Up,” ThinkProgress, 07-10-2016
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/07/10/3796941/alva-braziel/
2. “Feds: We’re Investigating Baton Rouge Police Too,” Pro Publica, 03-26-2010
https://www.propublica.org/nola/story/feds-were-investigating-baton-rouge-police-too
“Alton Sterling Shooting Exposes Racial Fractures in Baton Rouge,” NBC News, 07-07-2016
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alton-sterling-shooting-exposes-racial-fractures-baton-rouge-n605126
3. “Audit of the Office of Justice Programs Justice Assistance Grants Awarded to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office,” Office of the Inspector General, 11-01-2014
https://www.oig.justice.gov/reports/2014/g4015004.pdf
4. “Philando Castile stopped by cops in Minnesota 52 times in past 14 years for a slew of misdemeanors,” NY Daily News, 07-09-2016
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/philando-castile-stopped-cops-52-times-14-years-article-1.2705348
5. “The 12 key highlights from the DOJ’s scathing Ferguson report,” The Washington Post, 03-04-2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/03/04/the-12-key-highlights-from-the-dojs-scathing-ferguson-report/
6. “Obama bans some military equipment sales to police,” USA Today, 05-18-2015
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/18/obama-police-military-equipment-sales-new-jersey/27521793/
7. “Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing,” U.S. Department of Justice, 05-01-2015
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf
The “Strategy of Tension” is applied inside and outside the USA by US “Deep State”!
„Police Brutality Against Black Americans: Is There „More“ Behind it Than „Only“ the Inherent Racism?“: https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2016/07/10/police-brutality-against-black-americans-is-there-more-behind-it-than-only-the-inherent-racism/
&
„Staged „prevented“ Terror Attacks – Staged Terror?!“ https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/staged-prevented-terror-attacks-staged-terror/
Cordial regards
Andreas Schlüter
Sociologist
Berlin, Germany
Strategy of Tension is working but to what end? Seems the US will bring about it’s own downfall as tension is very contagious and does not discriminate.
Well, in the end, as I always say, all common People, whether Black, Brown, Yellow or White, are just like vegetables for that Power Elite. But depending on the various methods, the strategy discriminates in the sense of dividing, White against Black, Christian against Muslim and so on. With all their riches (of which part is only virtual) they have less and less real basis (apart from the destructive force of Military incl. Biowar, Cyber war, manipulation and Food destruction), which is shrinking compared especially to BRICS states. For their final aim of shrinking mankind they have to busy the majority in the US and the Western countries with fear, one Group for the other! If knowing the true course, a majority would stand against them, because that course means chaos and instability for allmost all of mankind.
Great Troubles ahead!
Weekend hugs
Can you find the 2 symbols of fascism on either side of the flag in the photograph? The folks in that room are not likely to cut the funds for the very people that protect them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasces
They cover each other’s back, one reason this problem, now an epidemic, is longstanding. If Congress will not act, it’s time to vote them out of office. However, voting is rigged: ballots thrown out, tampered machines, legal voters denied access and MSM intentionally disseminating false and biased information. The future is not looking so good these days.
I see your point about the 2 symbols, did not appreciate it before.
Took me a while to realize what exactly I was looking at also.
Above the flag it says: “In God we trust”. Is that the same God who allowed the transatlantic slave trade? (Just to name one abomination, eh?)
Given all those fine God abiding citizens hanging around in Congress (and other eerie places), as well as that most members of the African-American population worship that God too, no matter what, nothing will significantly change for a long time to come. Yeah, some people will (again) make a lot of noise from the safety of their living rooms, keep ranting ad nauseam, and even predict some kind of apocalypse, but Prophet Roald says: “Tomorrow it will be a little dirtier, and then a little cleaner (or vv), but when it comes right down to it, there will simply be more of the same old shit.”
http://www.history.org.uk/library/1010/0000/0110/slavery_advert_452.jpg
Um…….did y’all sign that petition already?
Yes, I signed it despite not agreeing with the suggested policies. Seems to me the threat of defunding some police departments is a good counter measure that could reduce police brutality and police corruption.
Can’t be a defeatist. Never, ever give up! http://wp.me/p2oZth-1aZ
If you keep on doing what you already did, you can expect the same outcome over and over again. If that outcome is to your satisfaction, then keep on doing your stuff from here to eternity. If not…………………
And…….
https://saharmedfasblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/wedn-1.jpg
I usually leap and find wings on the way down. So how would you fly in this situation?
What situation are you talking about?
Police brutality, police corruption, police violence and police terrorism.
Oh that one. Well, I would fly away. Or I wouldn’t fly at all, but would join the force, monitor its members’ actions closely, and invade the mind of the rotten apples in such a way that they either would commit suicide or leave the force in agony.
Join the force? Like Frank Serpico, you could end up hiding in Amsterdam, or, ..Aruba, like some other whistle blowers have done. Then there is Mark Dougan, who like Ed Snowden, is enjoying his freedom in Moscow. Flying away seems like a good option to me.
Huh? “whistle blowers”? I could/would never be one. I would be one of the gang, dude. Nobody would suspect anything.
Since you threw in a couple of names, think, for instance, of a remotely related version of Abed al-Hader.
Onno, I sent you an email. Would like your advice on a project, please.
Interesting that I did not see the above image on my mobile devices.