THE OUTRAGE THAT exploded over the police lynching of George Floyd — and other killings of unarmed Black civilians — forced open a discussion of policing in America that the elites would rather avoid. In a country with the highest rates of incarceration, gun ownership, and mass shootings in the world, what does it mean to be “secure”? What do defunding the police and prison abolition mean in practice? How can a movement be built to sustain and expand the consciousness created by the Black Lives Matter upsurge?
Cop City, the $80 million projected training center for the Atlanta police, has also become national news with the murder of protester Manuel Esteban Paez Terán (known as Tortuguita) last January. The project will also be rented out to other police departments so it may well become a national training center.
Just out is U.S. Justice Department’s damning 89-page report on the Minneapolis police department’s pattern of police brutality. The press reports this is probably the first step in negotiating a consent decree with Minneapolis, in which the city’s police will be required to meet new requirements.
This background is the basis for our second Solidarity pre-convention discussion, which will take place TUESDAY, JUNE 27 at 8:00 pm eastern time. The opening presentation by Malik Miah, who writes a regular “Race and Class” column in Against the Current, will take up the questions of police abuse and its roots in racial and national oppression in the USA. We want to get comments and reports from your cities as well. Has the police department in your city been studied by the Justice Department and a consent decree imposed? With what result? Has your city authorized more bells and whistle technology for the police?
A draft resolution on policing and security is attached. Note that this is discussion in preparation for our August 18-20 online convention.
All members and close friends are invited — so b4 sure to register!
PLEASE REGISTER NOW for the June 27 call!
The National Committee