Hey everybody, I'm Eli Gerber from the
policy team here at Indivisible.
Thanks for tuning in to the third episode of our webseries COVID Corruption.
Today's episode is about police violence against Black people and the protests happening
across the country right now in response
to that violence. In a society like ours
it's pretty common to listen to people
who look like me. In this episode I'm
going to talk less and join all of you
in listening to people who have been
impacted by a culture of police violence
for their entire lives
so that we — and especially white folks
like me — can learn about the racist
history of policing, how it hurts Black
communities, and why defunding the police
and investing in supporting each other
is the best path to a more just future.
But before we get started, I wanted to
let you know that there will be some
images from recent days of police
brutality directed at protesters in this
episode. It's important to see because
despite the fact that these protests
began because of the incredible violence
police inflict on Black people,
police won't stop. They are still
brutalizing and arresting protesters and
journalists. Black lives matter that
rallying cry is at the core of the
protests that have swept the nation
since police in Louisville and
Minneapolis murdered Breonna Taylor and George Floyd earlier this year. But the
threat of police violence is one of the
oldest fears Black people and
communities face in America. Watch Felice León from The Root explain how
modern policing traces its roots back to
slavery. Those who did survive the
horrors of the slave trade and were
brought to what would become the U.S.,
were also subjected to the first form of
organized policing in the South, known as
the Slave Patrol. In case you missed it,
the Slave Patrol and slave catchers
were the first form of organized police
in the South. The Slave Patrol kept tabs
on the whereabouts of the enslaved. And
that meant if black men and women were
off the plantation, then the slave patrol
could demand to see a slave badge and
noting their occupation, Slave Patrol
could stop and search whomever's
belongings just because. I wonder who that sounds like...
Then there was the slave catchers. That
role is pretty self-explanatory.
The slave catchers chased and returned
runaways. They also intentionally scared
the bejesus out of the enslaved to
instill a sense of fear and prevent
revolts. There was some overlap between
the role of the slave catcher and the
Slave Patrol. But together they enforce
the idea that Black people were
second-class citizens and that white
people were the authority. And organized
Police Departments, they enforce the
social hierarchy, too. In South Carolina,
for example, by 1837 there were dozens of officers in the Charleston Police
Department whose jobs were essentially
to monitor the enslaved. And though
slavery was abolished after the Civil
War, the spirit of tracking and policing
black folks lives on. That hyper
surveillance hyper policing and state
endorsed violence against Black people
and communities has never stopped. Listen
to activist, educator, and prison
abolitionist Miriame Kaba describe how
policing is used as a way for white
people to preserve the existing racial
hierarchy in America. Just the history of
all the different uprisings you can go
back to the early 1900's and all of
those are cases that are sparked by
police brutality, and the reason that's
the case and it's always been the case
in this country is because it is the
most clear example of being treated
unjustly in the country. It's the
clearest way that almost every Black
person can see that they are
second-class. Just not having the right
to exist, to walk down the street without
being harmed, that consistent knowledge
of that is something — by people who
taxpayers are financing to supposedly keep order and safety?
Exactly — the gatekeepers of the state are turning they're literally their guns on us. And
so it is a, like, it's a sight that makes
sense where people feel a direct
visceral sense that this is freaking
unfair. What are they doing to us and
that's been along the way. That's why it's important to put
the movement for Black lives that's
currently been happening, that continues to
happen right now in its proper context.
It's only part of a long freedom
struggle that has gone on in this
country for as long as Black people have
been here. Both local and national Black-led organizations have called for local
officials to divest from police forces
locally, and invest those funds in
resources and programs in black
communities that will actually provide
the things people need, instead of
continuing to hand out massive funding
increases to police forces that put
Black lives at risk.
Here's Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of
the Black Lives Matter movement and the
chair of Reform LA Jails, talking about
why their effort to defund the police
and invest in community is so important
to building a more just future.
Really the national demand as you'll see is the defunding of law enforcement. Minneapolis
is calling for it, Los Angeles, is calling
for it, Chicago is calling for it,
DC is calling for it. We have created a
system that over relies on law
enforcement and prioritizes their money,
their budget, their needs over everything
else. Now is the time that we redirect
resources back into our communities.
There is a reason
protesters on the ground are chanting
"Who do you protect?" And it's because for many people in Black communities, the
police are a symbol of oppression — not
protection. Police agencies command huge
budgets — over a third of many cities'
total expenditures. The Coronavirus
outbreak has made clear how badly we're
falling short of meeting people's basic
needs. Instead of giving billions of
dollars a year and annual multi-million
dollar budget increases to the police, we
should be investing that money into
meeting people's basic needs: housing,
food, clean water, and ways of staying
safe that don't put Black communities at
risk of violence. And let's be clear — the
police have continued to inflict
violence on people during these protests.
Before we show you any clips, I wanted to
warn you again these images of police
attacking protesters are upsetting. We've
seen officers drive their cars into
crowds, pepper spray people indiscriminately, shove and beat protestors, and many of
these people have been killed or badly
hurt.
That's people like Justin Howell in
Austin, who was at a protest on May 31st
when he was shot in the head by police
with a beanbag round, resulting in skull
fractures and brain damage. You can see a video here of the police shooting at the
people trying to carry Justin to receive
medical treatment. And police have
continued attacking people who had
already been caught up in the criminal
justice system before the protests
started, like Jamel Floyd in New York, who
was killed by police in his cell in
Brooklyn on June 3rd. Think about that.
The police are convinced that their best
response to protests that started
because of police brutality is to
continue brutalizing people until
they're too scared to show up anymore.
Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner,
Atatiana Jefferson, Tony McDade, countless more. Centuries of police violence
against Black people that have gone by
with no justice in sight. Black people my
age who have been killed by police.
People who were younger or older. People
who had families, and hopes, and dreams,
and fears. Of course we're protesting. Of
course we are demanding that leaders
address this epidemic of violence. And
remember what the issue is here. This is
a story about police violence. Not about
any tactics protesters are using, or any
sensationalized stories about looting or
property damage. The Black lives that
have been lost to police violence are
irreplaceable, and that is where our
focus needs to stay. So here are three
things you can do right now. Call your
member of Congress and tell them to
sponsor the resolution from
representatives Presley and Omar
condemning police violence. There will
likely be more bills coming in the near
future too, so we'll keep you up to date
on those. Call your local officials and
tell them to defund the police
department and invest in Black
communities to fund schools, health
programs, youth homelessness programs,
conflict intervention programs, and other
things that people actually need. And
donate to a local Black-led organization
that's working on defunding the police
and protecting their community to make
sure they have the resources they need
to organize and keep people healthy and
safe, especially right now. That's it for
our third episode of COVID Corruption.
Don't forget to Like and subscribe, and
make sure to take action to support our
Black siblings in fighting for justice.
Thanks everyone, we'll see you next time.
