Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired*
The recent protests against police violence and murder of black folks in particular has opened up an important discussion on the police and their role in society. There are calls to "defund" the police a vague term that has many aspects to it, namely shifting monies to social programs and programs directed at the poor and marginalized communities in particular. Los Angeles spends over $1 billion on the police and the US over $100 billion nationally.
There are also calls for banning certain procedures like the "no knock" warrant that has been highlighted by the murder of Breonna Taylor in Louisville or the "choke hold" that has been responsible for numerous deaths. Adding more counselors and other professionals has also been suggested as the police have no real training to deal with mentally ill people.
There may be some reforms in response to the incredibly powerful movement that has followed the recent spate of cop killings. But these recent murders are only the sparks that unleashed a wider anger at the present state of US society but also centuries of violence, racism and social exclusion of black people and other people of color from society in general. These protests are not simply contained within the black community and are much more inclusive and indeed, global. Part of this is solidarity with the black American experience but also for so many young people, the disgust and alienation they feel about what the future holds for them.
The NYC cop in the video making this public statement reflects the pressure black cops are coming under due to the protests. While this is significant in that it shows there are some fissures opening up in what are the state security forces it is important for workers to understand what the police represent. It is not just about individuals, obviously there are differences between them and not all people who become cops do so to kill people. But this "armed body of men" is sworn to defend the laws of society and in capitalist society, the rights of private property. When you can't pay the moneylender your mortgage it will be the cops that forcibly evict you on their behalf. When a judge, on behalf of the employers, issues an injunction against your strike or that orders you to reduce pickets to a level that doesn't harm production, it will be the police who enforce it if you don't comply.
If the police "served" working class and poor people, there would be no slumlords in urban areas and yet the inner cities are full of them.
While it is in our interests to oppose racism and sexism wherever it exists in society. We must not lose sight of the fact that the role of the police is to defend the capitalist system that is the root cause of poverty, racism, sexism, social inequality and the destruction of the environment. "Peaceful" protests are tolerated as long as they don't work. Strikes are legal until a judge representing the interests of capital determines they are not and calls on the cops to smash them. While the social power of the working class in motion, and we are witnessing a mass movement of the working class in these protests, will cause splits and differences to open up among the security forces and the ruling class itself, it is important to not to forget that the police are the front line defense of an inherently exploitative and racist social system.
Consciousness tends to lag behind events and it is inconceivable that the present situation has not placed many issues on the table. The role of the state, the police, how history is taught and why. What is a political party and why is it that we don't have a national health care system and why are so many people in prison and so on?
The call to simply "abolish" the police will not be supported by most workers for obvious reasons. What do we replace them with? They might change the name or ban some of the most despised aspects of their methods, or introduce some other cosmetic changes, but the ruling class in the US will never abolish this important function for maintaining social control.
The important discussion for working class people has to center around how we take the important activity of pubic safety out of the hands of the state and in to the hands of the working class and our communities. This issue has to be linked to the causes of crime as well. In other words, the need for jobs, free education, housing and a massive investment in social infrastructure for example.
The protests show what actually brings change in society. Corporations are getting rid of racially insensitive images and brands. Others are throwing money out there for black communities. The head of Netflix is donating over $100 million to black colleges "chump change" is the expression that comes to mind here. And after four years, the billionaires that own the National Football League have decided that Colin Kaepernick who "took a knee" to protest racism in US society and demonized for it, was right and they were wrong. Wonder why?
Take what the uprising has produced but don't get conned by the carrot because the stick is still there.
*These views are my own and don't necessarily represent the views of others who are supporters of this blog.
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