26 June 2020
The City Council of San Diego, California passed their 2020-2021 budget after a 12-hour marathon meeting earlier this month. Coming in the midst of the on-going international protests against police brutality, the new annual budget includes a $27 million increase for the San Diego Police Department (SDPD).
As reported by the San Diego Union Tribune, the approved increase brings the police department’s total budget for the year 2020-21 to $566 million, a 44 percent increase over the past decade. The city is on course to spending 37 percent of its total budget on the police department.
There was significant public outcry during the meeting itself, with over 400 calls and 4,000 emails and public comments from citizens opposing additional funding for the police and demanding that the city invest the money instead in social programs.
Many residents wanted the budget to devote resources towards community and social efforts including housing for the homeless, mental health services, and rent relief for those who lost jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The city council sought to off-set the anger by allocating $3 million for an Office of Race and Equity, spearheaded by council member Monica Montgomery, a Democrat and advocate for “police reform.”
According to KPBS San Diego, the office will seek to promote minority-owned businesses and “work towards greater racial equity in the city.” Council members have also suggested that this could be a means by which the SDPD might work with community groups to foster improved “race relations” between the police and “communities of color.”
This initiative exposes the class character of identity politics, seeking to cultivate and enrich a thin layer of middle class and bourgeois elements among minority groups, while reinforcing the oppressive apparatus of the state which is used to suppress the working class.
Montgomery—the Democratic council member credited with influencing Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer to back the creation of the office—declared that as the “Sole Black San Diego City Councilmember… I did everything in my power to have the hard conversations around diverting funding and repurposing it for social and economic justice programming.”
The budget passed by the City Council, she claimed, “restored hours” for libraries and services for other community programs. However, she conveniently neglected to mention the fact that although these services were “restored,” they still suffered cuts, including reductions in hours for city workers and programs for youth.
Having initially declared that her vote for the budget represented “fighting for the things we need,” Montgomery was compelled by the extent of popular opposition to provide additional justification.
Giving what was termed a “Community Healing Address” on Facebook Live, she spoke of the protests against police brutality that had drawn thousands in San Diego alone and, in another video, claiming that she understood “the root cause of all of this... is structural racism in our system,” and that “until we go down deep and deal with [these causes]… we will find ourselves doing these reforms and never change a doggone thing.” The City Council’s budget was a “step in that direction,” Montgomery claimed, though there was still a long way to go, since “we have 401 years to make up for.”
Here the ideological component of identity politics is in full display. Although racism no doubt is a factor in police killings and brutality, the root cause of all of this is the class division of society, with its attendant poverty, inequality, and violence. If it were an independent country, California would rank third in the world in terms of billionaires, while life for working people of all races and ethnicities remains extraordinarily difficult.
San Diego in particular has one of the highest homeless populations in the country. In these explosive conditions, the “bodies of armed” men ultimately tasked with protecting and enforcing these social divisions, are bound to resort to more and more brazen forms of violence.
Following the playbook of Black Lives Matter, the national Democratic Party and the New York Times, Montgomery’s account of racism as the singular “root cause” of police killings is a way to conceal the real magnitude of the problem and sow divisions in the working class, the only class that has an interest in putting an end to police violence.A report published by the San Diego Union Tribune indicated that 217 San Diego residents have been killed by the police since 2000, with the largest share of those victims being white (39.2%), followed by Hispanics (37.8%), Blacks (14.7%), and Asians (5.5%). The vast majority of these people, as is the case throughout the nation, are members of the working class.
The angered response by many members of the public to the increased police budget shows that this strategy is wearing thin. Many took to Twitter to make clear their disgust with the council members, particularly the “progressive” Democrats. “...Our police should not be rewarded for attacking and murdering our neighbors.”
Replying to City Council President Georgette Gomez, one Twitter follower noted, “You let us down. You called for more work to be done to fix police issues. Right now, those are hollow words without a plan...when you had a vote, and a LEADERSHIP ROLE- you voted to increase FUNDING FOR POLICE. You need to retire. You don’t care about systemic inequalities when asked to VOTE AGAINST IT.”
Gomez, a Democrat who specializes in LGBTQ and “Latinx” identity politics, recently published an essay in the San D i ego Union Tribune defending her vote for the budget. Her hypocrisy of addressing “systemic inequalities” is astounding and contradictory, stating that the decision to increase the police budget was “an incredibly tough decision, especially for me—a queer woman of color,” but that “The budget we did pass has the potential to erode the systemic inequities in San Diego…”
In a video posted to her Twitter account after the first weekend of protests across the nation, in light of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis PD Officer Derek Chauvin, Gomez said, “As somebody that holds an elected position, [this] has been a time to reflect… on why I’m at City Hall, and why I’m doing what I’m doing… [it’s] an opportunity to do better.” These are hollow words. Gomez, along with every other member of the city council have been placed in these positions because they represent the class interests of the ruling layers in the city and will carry such policies out under the banner of a “queer woman of color.”
The Democratic Party has repeatedly sought to hoodwink workers by claiming that bourgeois politicians who share their race, gender, or sexual orientation are by default their friend or ally.
Six of the eight city council members who voted in favor of the budget are Democrats. In news interviews with two of the councilmembers—one Republican, and one Democrat—both threw overwhelming support behind the budget, stating that “Defunding the police would be a terrible mistake for San Diego,” and that higher salaries for cops would “entice” the “best and brightest” to come to the region to become police officers, despite record low crime rates.
The support of both parties for the police force only serves to prove once again that the Democratic Party, the oldest capitalist party in the world, is not an avenue for advancing the working class.
The root cause of police violence and inequality in all its forms is capitalism. The police exist to enforce the domination of ruling class and maintain its astronomical wealth over society. Therefore, the fight for the elimination of the police is bound to the fight by the working class to expropriate the vast wealth at the top which is hoarded and accumulated through exploitation. At its base, the fight against police violence is the fight for socialism and the unity of the working class.
Nationwide protests against police violence continue as LA County sheriffs kill two more
22 June 2020
For the third week in row, multiracial protests against police violence have continued across the United States in large cities as well as rural communities. Initially triggered by the release of a cellphone video depicting the brutal murder of George Floyd on May 25, demonstrations against police violence have taken on an international character, with thousands continuing to march in London and Paris over the weekend.
On Sunday hundreds of protesters in Washington, D.C. briefly shut down a highway that led to the US capital. In Columbus, Ohio, at the behest of Democratic party Mayor Andrew Ginther, Columbus police were given the green light Sunday afternoon to assault and teargas peaceful protesters.
In a video posted by NBC journalist Eric Halperin, Columbus police are shown ramming protesters with their bicycles and pepper spraying them. Ginther justified the brutality on Twitter writing that in order to “keep the streets open” and “protect residents from lawlessness ... increased enforcement today has been necessary.”
In New York City over 10,000 cyclists took over Manhattan streets Saturday afternoon, riding a 20-mile loop from Times Square to Harlem and down a car-free West Side Highway to Battery Park, chanting the names of George Floyd and 26 year-old Louisville EMT Breonna Taylor, murdered in her sleep by police during an early morning no-knock raid on March 13, 2020.
Meanwhile, at a half-full arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday night, President Donald Trump briefly railed against the protesters outside the venue branding them “very bad people” and “thugs.” In response to Trump’s characterization of the protesters Tulsa police were forced to admit that while there were “thousands” of people protesting outside the arena, “Overwhelmingly these encounters have been peaceful with everyone attempting to share their views.”
Over the weekend, two shootings, one in Minneapolis, the other in Seattle, have been hyped by the bourgeois press to paint the movement against police violence as more dangerous and violent than the police themselves.
In Minneapolis, one person is dead and eleven more were injured following an early Sunday morning shooting on the 2900 block of Hennepin Avenue South. Police have yet to release a description of the alleged shooters and no one has been arrested at this time.
Fred Hwang, a manager at Hoban Korean BBQ, who was working the front door when he heard the shots ring out at roughly 12:25 a.m., saw two groups of people firing at each other. Hwang helped usher people into the restaurant to avoid the gunfire as they waited for over 30 minutes for police to arrive.
In Seattle a 19-year-old man is dead and another critically injured after an argument escalated Saturday morning shooting in the area of downtown known as CHAZ for “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.” Police have stated that they were unable to assist after being, “met by a violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims.” Video evidence filmed by protesters shows that police were allowed to enter the zone after the shooting and state investigators were in the zone gathering shell casings Saturday morning.
In Los Angeles, a rally for the recently murdered Andres Guardado exceeded expectations with thousands participating Sunday afternoon. The march began at 1 p.m. with roughly 100 people, but by the time the march reached the front of the Los Angeles County Compton Sheriff's (LASD) office, which was surrounded by riot police, the crowd had swelled into the thousands.
It has been over 72 hours since police gunned down the 18-year-old Guardado, who was working as a security guard at the Freeway auto body shop located on the 400 block of Redondo Beach Blvd. According to Captain Kent Wegener of the LASD, deputies were “observing Guardado,” who allegedly spotted the deputies looking at him. Upon seeing the police, Guardado supposedly “produced a gun” before running away from the police. Wegener stated that after a short foot-pursuit an as-yet unnamed deputy “fired six shots” into Guardado, killing him. No deputies were injured.
Andrew Henney, the owner of the body shop, described Guardado as “a good friend” and disputed the police retelling of events. In a video interview with Memo Torres of LA Taco, Henney states that Guardado, “was standing near the curb ... talking to two girls and then the police approached him and right away drew their guns, pointing them at him, and he got scared and he ran.”Police have stated they recovered a gun at the scene that had an illegal large capacity magazine and was devoid of any serial numbers of identifying marks. No video footage or pictures have been produced to corroborate the police allegations. The police have yet to state why they were “observing” Guardado to begin with, as there had been no calls placed for police assistance at that address.
Gesturing down the alley, Henney states he saw Guardado, “on his knees with his hands behind his head, that’s when the cops shot him.” In a separate interview with CBS KCAL Henney noted that Guardado had “a clean background and everything. There’s no reason."
Henney also questioned police reports that Guardado was armed, “I don’t think so, I never knew him to be armed, he wasn’t a gang member, he had never been so much as arrested, he was the coolest kid.”
Notably, which has gone unreported in mainstream versions of the events, Henney states that investigators Thursday night locked down his store and proceeded to break and confiscate several security cameras Henney had installed at the shop. Police also took his DVR, all before obtaining a warrant, which Henney noted police produced several hours later.
Guardado’s cousin, Celina Avarca, in an interview with CBS, also disputed police accounts of Guardado being armed:“I’d never heard or seen him have any kind of weapons,” Avarca said. “He never talked about them.” Avarca also said her cousin was working two jobs and was in the process of applying to school to become a nurse
Jennifer Guardado, the slain man’s older sister, also speaking to CBS, noted the bright future the family saw for Andres, “He was gonna make it in life. He was gonna make it and become a good, professional man in life, but they took that away from my family and me.
“My parents are completely destroyed. We’re all dead already inside.”
“I lost a part of me, it’s empty, and I’m never gonna have him back,” his sister added. “I’m never gonna see him, he’s never gonna talk to me, I’m just, I can’t, I just can’t believe this happened to my brother. It really hurts me.”
In an interview with author Julissa Natzely Arce Raya, Guardado’s father, Cristobal, who works in the restaurant industry, noted that his son recently started the job to help his father pay for the bills: “He told me he wanted to help me. But this didn’t help me. He just came to meet his death.”
“He had just graduated high school. He didn’t deserve this. El era un buen hijo.” (He was a good son.)
Guardado was the second man shot to death by LA County sheriffs in a 48-hour period. Terron Jammal Boone, half-brother to Robert Fuller, who was found dead hanging from a tree last week in Southern California, was shot multiple times by deputies after an alleged traffic stop turned violent last Wednesday.
As was the case with Guardado, none of the detectives, deputies, or police cruisers were equipped with cameras.
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