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Why Police Reforms Are Not Enough We must end capitalism to end war and police violence By Bonnie Weinstein We can and should fight for police reforms such as outlawing choke holds, stop and frisk laws, plea bargains, bail requirements, as well as getting police out of our communities and schools. But that will not end the fundamental reactionary role of police departments in capitalist society. The job of the police is to protect the fundamental core of capitalism that commandeers the wealth that we produce through our labor, while paying us the lowest wages they can get away with—including by outright slavery—still alive and well in our prison system. Community occupation and control The whole purpose of the police is to occupy communities of the working class—especially people of color—to enforce the basic economic foundation of capitalism that puts private wealth above life itself. The police don’t protect the innocent from getting killed. They don’t prevent rapes. And they rarely capture those responsible for these crimes—including, of course, those committed by their own officers or by the wealthy elite. Criminalizing the poor Their job is to enforce obedience to laws that are designed to make even the smallest infractions punishable by death on the spot—a broken tail light (Sandra Bland who died mysteriously in her jail cell after being arrested); selling cigarettes without a tax license (Eric Garner died in a police choke hold while crying “I can’t breathe”); by allegedly trying to pass a counterfeit twenty dollar bill (George Floyd, murdered by police kneeling on his neck and chest for eight minutes and 46 seconds until he died); sleeping in bed (Breonna Taylor was shot eight times by police on a “no-knock” warrant. She was innocent of any wrongdoing), and on and on. The prison industrial complex The whole prison system is filled with people whose crimes are the product of poverty and racism. And the conviction rate is astronomical. Ninety-seven percent of federal and 94 percent of state criminal convictions are obtained through plea bargains. In an August 8, 2019 NBC News article by Clark Neily titled, “Prisons Are Packed Because Prosecutors Are Coercing Plea Deals. And, Yes, It’s Totally Legal.”1 “America is the most prosperous country in the history of the world. We excel at innovation and mass production—and nowhere is that more true today than our criminal justice system, which features a streamlined process for transforming millions of suspects into convicted criminals quickly, efficiently and without the hassle of a constitutionally prescribed jury trial. It’s called coercive plea bargaining, and it’s the secret sauce that helps us maintain the world’s highest incarceration rate. The answer is simple and stark: They’re being coerced. Though physical torture remains off limits, American prosecutors are equipped with a fearsome array of tools they can use to extract confessions and discourage people from exercising their right to a jury trial. These tools include charge-stacking (charging more or more serious crimes than the conduct really merits), legislatively-ordered mandatory-minimum sentences, pretrial detention with unaffordable bail, threats to investigate and indict friends or family members, and the so-called trial penalty—what the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers calls the ‘substantial difference between the sentence offered prior to trial versus the sentence a defendant receives after a trial.’” The wealthy are not only able to hire banks of lawyers if they are even accused of a crime, they pay the lawmakers to create laws that are to their advantage and to the distinct disadvantage of working people. These laws are designed to keep us in line—to instill in us the idea that we are powerless over them. The police are the enemy of the working class Law enforcement unions have no place in the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO). The allegiance of police, prison guards, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to capitalist law and order sets them apart from, and in direct opposition to, the working class. In fact, law enforcement organizations have nothing in common with unions and no common interests with working people. They accept the role of occupation of our communities—it’s their job and sworn duty. How else can they calmly keep a knee pressed to a man’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds without even grimacing—while stopping a human being from breathing? Read more at: http://www.socialistviewpoint.org _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
