POLICE & REPRESSION

Probably the biggest task is building strong networks of solidarity, even with liberals when possible. This is a long-term project and there are no shortcuts. Be trustworthy, up front, and consistent. Be humble and patient. Don’t compromise your principles but don’t draw yourself into a corner with hard lines. Avoid spreading rumors and conspiracy theories. The more you can build these relationships before the repression hits the better. But it’s never too late to start working on it either.

Usually the most obvious thing is to organize legal resources like raising money for bail and legal fees and mobilizing sympathetic lawyers. But the behind the scenes support infrastructure is just as important: the jail support, the prisoner support, the court support, the public support campaign. The best support doesn’t usually come from legal professionals or activist experts but rather your friends, family, comrades.

SERGIO RODRIGUEZ—“The first thing to consider is that blacks in the United States represent 13% of the population. And that segment is overwhelmingly a Democratic Party voter. So, in electoral terms, Trump is attacking an opposition sector, which was not favorable to him before these events. On the other hand, in more structural terms it must be said that racism is a permanent phenomenon in the United States, it is intrinsic to that country…”

JIM KAVANAGH—So, sure, finding themselves with some power for a couple of days—the power of their numbers and rage—black and white working-class people are going to enact, in the streets, their version of “I’ll take mine!” (and “I’ll destroy what’s yours!”) that celebrated capitalist sharks enact, with the power of their money, in boardrooms every day, deciding which businesses and communities they’re going to prey on and drain of their wealth. There’s nothing rational about any of it. Capitalism produces social inequality, social injustice, and social pathologies to which no one is immune, but whose destructive effects are only visited upon the owning class on very rare and special occasions.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—Police abolishment advocates are pushing for something which would require the complete reconfiguration of power in society to accomplish, where the prison industrial complex and the war on drugs are ended and what we think of as policing can for example be mostly replaced by something more akin to social work. Police “reform” proponents are advancing a decoy agenda which people have been distracted by for generations while the police force has become increasingly militarized behind a veil of meaningless verbiage about community outreach and training programs.

William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), comments in his usual lucid and outspoken manner about the problems faced by America with its bloated police and military.