Despite broad popular support for legislation to curtail police violence, Congress got nothing done. Democrats, despite controlling both the House and Senate in 2021 and 2022, slow-walked the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, insisting on bipartisan support that never materialized. Ending qualified immunity, the legal standard that prevents police officers from being sued for wrongdoing even when they knowingly break the law, was deemed not urgent by Jim Clyburn, then the highest-ranking Black member of the Democratic House majority, despite that being a core demand of the protest movement. Once that slipped away, it opened the door to even smaller reforms floating out of reach.
In the end, despite the embarrassing photo op in which Democratic leaders donned matching kente-cloth stoles and knelt on the floor of the Capitol building, no reforms were passed into law. After much hand-wringing over activists’ use of the slogan “Defund the Police,” no major efforts to defund large police departments were ever implemented. Police killings continued to increase: Officers killed at least 1,232 people in 2023, the deadliest year in a decade.
Now not even a single representative who swept into Congress on the heels of the popular mandate of police reform remains.
It’s a stark outcome. Consider, for example, Georgia Rep. John Lewis, an activist during the Civil Rights Movement and the leader of the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in Selma, Alabama. Lewis continued his activist work for years afterward, arriving in Congress only in the 1980s, but he served 17 terms as a celebrated member of the Democratic House caucus until his death in 2020.
Worth noting, this opinion piece came out before Ilhan Omar’s primary took place, which she ended up winning
e; wrong archive link
They were pushed out by a foreign nation (Israeli) lobby. Let’s not forget how this happened.
Now, just over four years later, both Bowman and Bush have been routed out of Congress, thanks to a historic deluge of big-money spending against them. They battled challengers in the most and third-most-expensive congressional primaries in American history, respectively, and each was outspent roughly 4–1. In both races, the overwhelming majority of that money came from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the conservative, pro-Netanyahu lobbying group that has fast become one of the biggest outside spenders in elections, funded in large part by Republican megadonors. The cryptocurrency industry, also increasingly Republican-aligned, chipped in at least $1.5 million to knock out Bush and over $2 million to knock out Bowman too.
Thanks Citizens United! I love having an unlimited amount of dark, untraceable money from foreign powers influencing our elections!
There need to be massive protests/riots about this shit. I’m talking about showing up on senators’ lawns with 10,000 or more people with guns (to keep police at a distance) or some shit. These people need to fucking FEAR US, the fucking voters or they will continue to rape our society out of existence.
I like the energy, but if you try to organize anything like that undercover cops will infiltrate your group, push you to go beyond self defense to planning pre-emptive violence, and then get a nice commendation in their file when you’re all arrested and charged with terrorism
Sad but true. As the saying goes, when peaceful revolution becomes impossible, it’s no bueno.
If money is considered speech, it becomes the only speech that really matters…
We have a very short attention span in the usa
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent every year to make it that way
*Billions
It wasn’t that Americans forgot…
It’s that Israel spent millions of dollars to keep them out of office. Mostly because they kept mentioning Israel is activating committing a genocide, but considering their practice of giving Black Israeli immigrants birth control for years while telling them it was vaccines…
They likely weren’t a fan of BLM either.
The short attention span part is when Harris and Walz have both given speeches at the annual AIPAC conferences but people are pretending they’re perfect because they’re not 20 years past retirement age.
I’m still hoping they’ll do the right thing while in office, and they’ll undoubtedly be better than Biden or trump…
But they’re miles away from perfect. And pretending they are won’t help anything, it just means they only get pressure to move to the right.
sure, AIPAC and continuing genocide had nothing to do with it
Ending qualified immunity, the legal standard that prevents police officers from being sued for wrongdoing even when they knowingly break the law, was deemed not urgent by Jim Clyburn, then the highest-ranking Black member of the Democratic House majority, despite that being a core demand of the protest movement.
I’ll go to my grave believing the reason Bernie wasn’t the candidate in 2020 is because of coordinated primary dropouts and Clyburn’s endorsement of Biden.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Clyburn#Presidential_endorsements
You can bet Bernie would have made police reform happen.
Clyburn’s endorsement of Joe Biden on February 26, 2020, three days before the South Carolina primary, was considered pivotal in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries. Several analyses have determined the endorsement changed the trajectory of the race, due to Clyburn’s influence over the state’s African-Americans, who make up the majority of its Democratic electorate. Until Clyburn’s endorsement, Biden had not won a single primary and had placed fourth, fifth, and a distant second in the Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada caucuses and primaries, respectively. Three days after the South Carolina primary, Biden took a delegate lead on Super Tuesday, and a month later he clinched the nomination.[84][85][86] Biden went on to win the 2020 Presidential election. Clyburn’s endorsement of Biden, and subsequent political endorsements in later democratic primaries, have given him a reputation as a political “kingmaker”.
Having said all that, it seems a little shitty that they wrote this piece before the primary.
You can bet Bernie would have made police reform happen.
He would have tried. But there’s a real and persistent fear that corporate money would have turned on him during the general election and sunk his campaign.
Consider that Biden only squeaked by with 40,000 votes across three states, even in a media environment that was heavily favorable.
I can see Sanders going out to Trump like Corbyn did in the UK, and for the same reasons.
I see your point, but also still feel the primaries were intentionally manipulated. (twice)
I absolutely agree.
I just don’t think the manipulation would have ended at the convention.
Fair point, but I don’t know when we’re going to get a shot at someone like Bernie in office again. AOC is an up and comer, but the right has already vilified her Clinton-style since she took office, so I’m slightly worried that’s not in the cards for her. I guess I’m just lamenting that, even while realizing that even as president they can only do so much.
I don’t know when we’re going to get a shot at someone like Bernie in office again
If we keep losing quality candidates like Cori Bush and Jamal Bowman to money bombed hacks, I don’t know if we’ll see another Sanders in my lifetime.
I guess I’m just lamenting that, even while realizing that even as president they can only do so much.
Presidents don’t just fall out of the coconut tree. They’re a consequence of their material conditions and everything that came before them.
While MeToo and BLM were fairly short-lived political movements, they had an incredibly large and positive impact on the culture.
I remember a time just before covid when saying “black lives matter” was a controversial phrase. Now, not being able to say it is fairly scandalous. But for gay marriage, I can’t think of many things which were as widely accepted as the fight for racial equality (in slogan, at least).
I’m not excited for the pendulum to swing back, led by corporate america, joy.
While MeToo and BLM were fairly short-lived political movements, they had an incredibly large and positive impact on the culture.
I think MeToo is still felt, and its my perception that it’s changed culture and attitudes in a way that will persist, even as I acknowledge it’s not complete.
I’m expecting another BLM-style country-wide protest in about another twenty years when it turns out once again we’ve done nothing but wallpaper over the status quo on police brutality. The only thing that gives me some hope is that we’re clearly into the era where everyone having a good camera in their pocket is a wildcard that so far seems to be a very positive detail most of the time.
they had an incredibly large and positive impact on the culture.
I wish this was true, but I’ve only seen our financial commitment to police violence increase over time.
But for gay marriage, I can’t think of many things which were as widely accepted as the fight for racial equality
Yeah…
Look at all the people who get REAL fucking pissy if you say “LGBT” instead of “LGB”
And as for racial equality? At the same time people were acknowledging the systemic prejudice against black people (but not acknowledging TOO hard because still gotta get theirs) EVERYONE, left and right, were making snide remarks about how COVID was China’s fault and Asian elders were being attacked in the street. And we were told to shut up because it was detracting from the real issues. And… we did because that is what we have been trained to do.
The BLM protests were a beautiful thing and I marched as part of my state efforts. But, like with most activist movements, it was immediately forgotten once something else happened (or, in this case, we were allowed outside again). But it was incredibly specific and mostly just highlighted people’s inability to care about multiple things at a time.
But hey, we solved racism in the same exact way we solved sexuality and gender!
Less ‘allowed out’ and more ‘forced to return to work’. Good luck getting mass unemployment when another pandemic happens (when, not if). People not being wage slaves worried about their survival opens up a lot of dangerous freedom to demand change.
“The white man will try and satisfy us with symbolic victories rather than economic equity and real justice” - Malcom X
If there were all of two, did the “era” ever really start?
Came here to ask the same question. Hopefully, it doesn’t require a handful of activists to change policy and change institutional norms for the positive.
Democrats promised leftists they would do a thing then didn’t do the thing? I’m shocked I tell you shocked.
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I guess Americans are still racist AF then.
Not necessarily? Just because these politicians supported BLM doesn’t mean they represent other qualities that their constituents want. You can’t run or sustain your position on a single issue
Edit I think the AIPAC funding is more about creating a legend about how big and bad and effective it is, but couldn’t unseat Omar, a bigger thorn for such a funding body. I think these Squad politicians need to reflect their constituents more
Outrageous claim that democrats had both the house and the senate. Manchin and Sinema are not democrats.
Literally
How you say… AIPAC
Good. The whole “defund the police” movement was just stupid. Crime will ALWAYS be an issue in a country like the US, where there’s millions of people with different types of background, cultures, and beliefs. No other country on the planet has this same type of society. We need tough law enforcement, and we need to be able to enforce those laws. Go to any ghetto or run down neighborhood in America and ask them if they want “less cops” on the streets…
Tell me you don’t understand what “defund the police” was actually about without telling me…
I can’t recall… Was it the motte or the bailey?
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Have you ever actually LIVED an a bad area in an inner city? I have, in Southern California and Central California. The neighborhoods are victims to drugs, gangs, and violence. The only thing stopping an all out war happening in these areas is law enforcement. I’d rather risk the chance of “being harassed” by cops, over being killed by gang violence any day.
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