Senator Peters gets endorsement from police groups for proposed legislation that provides federal dollars to recruit more cops
Last Tuesday, Senator Gary Peters re-introduced legislation called the Strong Communities Act. According to his office’s Press Release:
“It’s critical to build trust between local law enforcement and the communities they serve,” Senator Peters said. “By encouraging community policing, this bipartisan bill would help build stronger relationships between local law enforcement and the neighborhoods they serve. It would also incentivize people to serve in law enforcement in the communities they call home. Community policing can lead to better outcomes and more accountability, which is important as our nation works to reform policing.”
Senator Peters had introduced this legislation last year just days after the country erupted with protests over the police murder of George Floyd. Peters introduced the legislation with U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, who used to be the State Attorney General in Texas, where he pushed a pro-police agenda.
This legislation that Senator Peters has re-introduced does two main things. First, it further legitimizes the notion of community policing as a positive way of doing policing. However, as Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing notes:
The research shows that community policing does not empower communities in meaningful ways. It expands police power, but does nothing to reduce the burden of overpricing on people of color and the poor.
In addition, the co-authors of the book, Life During Wartime: Resisting Counterinsurgency, make the argument that Community Policing is primarily about the ability of local police departments to build relationships with residents for the specific purpose of gathering information and engaging in surveillance…..thus community policing is a form of counterinsurgency, especially in response to an organized populace that is making demands of the state.
The second thing that this legislation from Senator Peters and Senator Cornyn does is offer financial incentives to recruit news cops and then have them live in the neighborhood they serve for at least 4 years. Police reform groups have long advocated that police officers should live in the communities that they serve. The group Communities United Against Police Brutality, has this response to that belief:
“Throughout our research, we have never encountered a shred of evidence that requiring or incentivizing police officers to live in the communities in which they work has any positive effect on the quality of policing,”
It is worth noting that just days before Senator Peters first introduced this legislation in June of 2020, he came out strong against the protests taking place across the US, stating:
“The death of George Floyd was a horrific tragedy and justice must be served. While I understand and respect anyone who wants to demonstrate peacefully to bring attention to this injustice, it is discouraging that what was clearly intended to be a peaceful protest quickly devolved into a riot instigated by extremists with an anarchist ideology.”
This statement from Senator Peters is rather hypocritical, especially considering that Peters sits on the Armed Forces Committee, consistently votes for massive levels of US military spending and praises US militarism abroad, such as airstrikes, drone strikes and other forces of violent tactics that often kill innocent civilians.
The last argument for seeing Senator Peters’ reintroduction of the Strong Communities Act as deeply troubling, is the fact that it has received the endorsement of the largest and oldest police organization in the US, the National Fraternal Order of Police.
The National Fraternal Order of Police has a long history of supporting police departments across the US that have a particularly brutal history, has a leadership that is all white, spends millions on lobbying Congress and endorsed Donald Trump in 2016.
In the end, for those who want to see systemic change around policing, they cannot be seduced by language of community policing and the notion that cops who live in the communities where they work will make a difference. It just doesn’t matter to people who are harassed, arrested, tasered or beaten by cops, that they live in the same neighborhood as the people they are oppressing.
West Michigan Foundation Watch: Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation still funding the Christian Right
In this edition of West Michigan Foundation Watch, we look at the 990 document for the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation for 2019.
The 2019 990 document is significant, especially since this is the first year after the death of Richard DeVos, who died in 2018. It is significant, in that the numbers are down for the 2019 contributions from the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation, which could be an indication that the foundation might be phasing out.
The only trustee listed on the 990 document for 2019, is the longtime DeVos family financial advisor, Jerry Tubergen. Tubergen is the CEO of RDV Corporation, and he is the CEO of Ottawa Private Capital LLC.
However, even though the 2019 contributions from the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation are down from previous years, they still contributed just over $31 million.
The largest contributions, ones that are a million dollars or more are as follows:
Aquinas College $1,000,000
Central Presbyterian Church of New York $1,000,000
George W Bush Foundation $2,000,000
Grand Rapids Community College $1,000,000
Grand Valley State University $2,010,000
Kings College $5,000,000
Michigan State University Office of University Development $2,500,000
Spectrum Health Foundation $3,350,000
West Michigan Horticultural Society $1,035,000
These contributions alone come to just shy of $20 million of the $31 million contributed in 2019. The contributions to local Colleges and Universities has been consistent for decades for the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation, primarily as a mechanism of influencing school policies, with GVSU as one example. https://griid.org/2018/09/13/gvsu-canonizes-rich-devos-but-some-students-push-back/
The entities to receive a million or more outside of West Michigan are due to the politics of those entities, such as Kings College, a Catholic school with a heavy emphasis on business; Central Presbyterian Church of New York, because of their conservative politics; and the George W Bush Foundation, since the DeVos family helped to elected George W Bush, with massive campaign contributions.
However, there is a longer list of entities that received foundation contributions from the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation, entities that would fall under the category of Religious Right.
In the anti-Choice category, you have the Right to Life of Michigan Educational Fund receiving $50,000, and the Pregnancy Resource Center receiving the same $50,000 amount.
Then there are Christian groups that engage in White Saviorism, listed here, with the amount of money they received from the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation:
World Renew $150,000
Partners Worldwide $500,000
Mel Trotter Ministries $50,000
Luis Palau Association $200,000
International Aid Inc. $48,200
Guiding Light Mission $75,000
Music Mission Keiv Inc. $50,000
Evangelism Explosion III International Inc. $165,000
Christian Leaders NPF $150,000
Cardus Inc. $300,000
Back to God Ministries International $50,000
Zuni Christian Mission School $100,000
Rehoboth Christian School Association $350,000
The Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation also funds private schools and organizations which work to undermine public education:
Potters House $525,000
Mackinac Center $100,000
Grand Rapids Initiative for Leaders $20,000
Alliance for Children Everywhere $200,000
There are also non-profits in Grand Rapids that do important work, but taking money from DeVos foundations also buys their silence, thus preventing them from speaking out on the harm that the DeVos family engages in, with their financial interests and their political funding.
Even after both Richard & Helen DeVos pave passed away, their legacy of funding the political and religious right continues.
Within the past week, the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association (GRPOA) has made two posts on their Facebook page about defunding the police. The first one stated, “For all the de-funders that follow our page, what is the solution to get this violence under control?” The second comment read, “Still waiting for an answer from the de-funders. How do we stop the violence if properly staffing the police department is not the answer?” In both instances, the GRPOA included a story about gun violence in Grand Rapids.
These posts by the GRPOA are an intellectually sophomoric way of trying to say that those who advocate for defunding the police have no answers to the issue of gun violence or crime being committed in Grand Rapids.
The fact is, the GRPOA is not even interested in what those who are advocating defunding the police have to say. Their question is nothing more than a ruse, meant as a distraction so that we don’t actually have a serious community conversation about how to reduce violence in the city and practice different forms of public safety.
The real question that we should be asking, and a question that should be posed to the GRPOA is, what evidence is there that the GRPD actually prevents violence in Grand Rapids? The reality is that with all of their resources and more than a third of the City’s budget, the GRPD rarely prevents crime. Whether it is gun violence, assaults, theft, etc, the GRPD primarily shows up after the fact with the intent of investigating these so-called crimes.
Two years ago, there was a study done by the group Hillard-Heintze, LLC, to determine what kind of calls the GRPD was getting from the community. The study demonstrated that the majority of calls from the community were not ones that required police, such as disorderly conduct, parking violations, noise complaints, etc. In other words, most of the calls received by dispatch could be handled by someone other than the GRPD.
But back to the GRPOA’s question about gun violence. First, the fact that gun-related violence has been on the rise recently demonstrates that the GRPD does not deter people from engaging in gun violence. Second, the GRPD doesn’t do violence prevention work, they show up after the fact. Third, we need to ask ourselves why there is violence in the community, and once we understand why there is violence in the community, we can address appropriate responses.
There are no simple solutions to community violence and we will not solve the problem overnight. However, if we are really serious about ending violence in our community, then we have to look at the bigger picture and not only talk about root causes of violence, but structural violence as well.
Most news stories having to do with violence are about homicides. This is understandable, since a person being shot is horrible and traumatic. However, if we expand our thinking to address structural violence, then we can see how the GRPD not only does not prevent structural violence from happening, they allow it to persist. People living in poverty is structural violence. People not able to make enough money, because of low wages, is a form of structural violence. Malnutrition is a form of structural violence, as is the for-profit driven health care system and rent/housing costs. White Supremacy is a form of structural violence.
Now, the GRPD does nothing to address these forms of violence. The GRPD doesn’t arrest billionaires who pay no taxes, they don’t arrest corporations for paying shitty wages, they don’t intervene to prevent landlords from evicting people. However, the GRPD will make sure that people who are fighting for a livable wage, Medicare for All, truly affordable housing and healthy food will, especially if they are using direct action tactics, will be harassed, intimidated, monitored and arrested by the GRPD. In other words, the GRPD defends structural violence.
Moving towards a radical community safety model requires two things. First, a divest/invest plan, which has always been part of the Movement for Black Lives agenda. If we defund the police and invest in the communities most affected by policing, it will create greater equity. We wrote about what the budget of the GRPD – $54 million, if invested in the Black community could do. Mind you, the $54 million (based on the 2020 City Budget) is just for one year, so we need to imagine what that kind of monetary investment into communities affected by policing would look like in the short term and the long term.
$54 million a year would lift thousands of families out of poverty. $54 million a year would allow people to purchase homes. $54 million a year would make sure that people didn’t have to chose between heating their homes or feeding their kids. $54 million a year would go along way to provided needed health care to people, as well as educational resources and opportunities to reduce pollution and create sustainable ways of living. Greater equity would actually reduce and potentially eliminate crime and violence, both personal and structural.
The second step needed would then be to look at models of community safety that do not relay of policing. Those of us who have been promoting the Defund the GRPD campaign are not naive and we recognize how hard it will be to not have the GRPD. However, we also believe in radical praxis and radical imagination.
Together We Are Safe already encourages people to not call the GRPD when there is a conflict or a problem in the community. They distribute a two-page document that provides reasons why not to call the GRPD and then provides other valuable resources in the community that would more effectively respond to the conflicts in our community. When the GRPD becomes involved in conflicts, it only increases the possibility that the conflict will escalate.
So what are alternatives to having heavily armed cops in our neighborhoods, which often result in a disproportionately large number of black and brown residents going to jail?
In Zach Morris’s book, We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just and Inclusive Communities, he acknowledges that we live in a failed state. What Morris means by a failed state, is that too many people do not have their basic human needs met – housing, health care, food, transportation, child care, employment/wages. The result is the Prison Industrial Complex, the War on Drugs, Gentrification, a health care system based on profits over human needs, a dysfunctional transportation system and employment that is based on exploitation. One powerful example of how the failed state impacts black people, is this statement from Prison Abolition group Critical Resistance.
While Blacks only represent 13% of drug users, Black drug users represent 38% of those arrested for drug offenses, 55% of those convicted of drug offenses and 74% of those sent to prison.
What We Keep Us Safe advocates, in the face of a failed state, is a care-based strategy for public safety that overturns more than 200 years of fear-based discrimination, othering, and punishment. In addition, the book:
“We Keep Us Safe is a blueprint of how to hold people accountable while still holding them in community. The result reinstates full humanity and agency for everyone who has been dehumanized and traumatized so they can participate fully in life, in society, and in the fabric of our democracy.”
In addition to ideas and examples provided in We Keep Us Safe, there are other very practical ways that people can practice community safety. One of the most important and misunderstood aspects of the Defund the Police movement is that people have not taken the time to actually read what is being proposed. We encourage people to read the Defund the Police Toolkit, which is a powerful document.
Another solid resource is an anti-racist neighborhood watch manual that was developed by people in Portland Oregon. This 31 page manual provides great practical resources and application around community safety, specifically that are anti-racist in application. In some ways, this manual builds on the work of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, which was essentially about responding to the ongoing police harassment and violence directed at black communities across the country.
A third great resource, which was produced by the Women of Color group, INCITE!, is a 121-page toolkit that focuses on why calling the police is especially problematic for women of color and trans people of color. This toolkit also covers the following areas:
- Gender Policing
- Immigration Enforcement
- Cops in Schools
- Policing Sex Work
- The War on Drugs
- Police Violence and Domestic Violence
- Law Enforcement Violence and Disaster
A second major section of the toolkit, provides great examples of practicing community safety from several organizations. This toolkit is a must read and resource for people who want to practice community safety, plus it is a great resource to help us all radically imagine how life could be without the cops.
Lastly, I think it is worth quoting from the final page of the book, We Keep Us Safe:
“Real safety happens when we bridge the divides and build relationships with each other, overcoming suspicion and distrust. Real safety comes from strategic, smart investment – meaning resources directed towards our stability and well-being. Real safety addresses harms that the current system is failing to tackle, and holds people accountable for those harms while still holding them in community. Real safety results from reinstating full humanity and agency for everyone who has been dehumanized and traumatized, so they can participate fully in society. If we are able to transform our old system and create a culture of caring and healing in its place, we may have an actual shot at creating real democracy for the first time.”
As the late historian Howard Zinn has taught is, history is often presented from the perspective of those with privilege and power.
Recently, there has been some social media posts that have suggested that Democratic members of the Kent County Commission were the ones who ended the contract that the county had with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This is indeed revisionist history, and we want to set the record straight.
My aim here, is not to convince those with power and privilege, but to present a people’s history of how the contract was ended between ICE and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department.
Kent County began its contract with ICE in 2012. In looking at previous documentation, there was never any real opposition to this contract by any members of the Kent County Commission, from the adoption of the contract in 2012, through the contract’s termination in 2019.
Beginning in the early part of 2018, the group GR Rapid Response to ICE began investigating contracts that ICE might have had in Kent County. We discovered that there was a contract that began in 2012, a contract extension signed in 2017, and a 2018 letter from the National Sheriffs’ Association sent to Congress, which then Kent County Sheriff Larry Stelma had signed onto. The letter presented a false narrative, which stated in part:
Because Congress has failed to enact the necessary reforms, our citizens and legal residents face even greater dangers, our national security is more vulnerable, and our enforcement efforts have been seriously compromised.
Once we had collected all of this information, GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimineto Cosecha GR decided to begin a campaign to End the Contract between ICE and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department. Since the Sheriff’s Department had no public meetings, we decided to plan an action at the Kent County Commission meeting in late June of 2018.
Just weeks prior to the publicly announced plan to attend the Kent County Commission meeting, the Trump administration had been detaining immigrants at the US/Mexican border, putting them in detention centers, where images of children in cages became national news. When planning the first action to end the contract, we used the national news to make it clear that ICE was not just separating families at the border, they were also separating families in Kent County.
We packed the room at the June 28, 2018 Kent County Commission, with some 250 people who came to say End the Contract Now! The Republican Commissioners left the room when we decided to take over the meeting, as did some of the Democratic Commissioners. I wrote about this action, which you can read here.
This was the beginning of actions taken to End the Contract. Here is a list of everything we did to End the ICE Contract:
- We held dozens of strategy meetings, which always resulted in planning future actions.
- We attended every Kent County Commission Meeting to continue to make our demands, to offer testimony on family separation that was happening by ICE in Kent County and to monitor any comments made by commissioners about the contract.
- Some of the people involved in the campaign met with individual commissioners
- We ran a petition campaign to End the Contract, which we delivered at one of the Commission meetings.
- We held a protest outside of Chairman Saalfeld’s home the night before one of the commission meetings.
- We organized several protests at the Kent County Jail.
- We organized several protest outside of the various ICE offices in downtown Grand Rapids.
- We organized a disruption protest during ArtPrize, on their main stage, drawing attention to family separation in Kent County.
- We created educational materials, which we distributed.
- We created artwork and had sign making parties.
- We spoke to community-based groups about the campaign.
- We utilized social media to education and get the word out about the End the Contract Campaign.
- We held a People’s Commission action during one of the Kent County Commission meetings.
- We worked with the Western Michigan branch of the ACLU and MIRC, who not only obtained their own FOIA documents, but offered their legal expertise on why Kent County was not legally obligated to cooperate with ICE.
As you can see from this list, we spent a great deal of time and energy to End the Contract in Kent County.
Then the GRPD called ICE on Jilmar Ramos Gomez, a US citizen and former Marine, who was suffering from PTSD and started a fire at Spectrum Hospital. Based on the FOIA documents that were obtained by the Grand Rapids Civilian Appeal Board, it was clear that Captain Curt VanderKooi demonstrated racial bias in the Jilmar Ramos Case. This story began to get national news and within a few months, the acting Kent County Sheriff had changed their policy with ICE, by requiring ICE to get a judicial warrant to put a hold on people who were in the Kent County Jail.
This was a victory for the campaign, since 6 months before all of this, no one was talking about the ICE contract with Kent County. The Sheriff’s decision to require a judicial warrant was a direct result of our pressure campaign to End the Contract and the constant news media attention we were getting and creating ourselves. However, the contract with ICE was still in place and was up for renewal in September of 2019.
In the meantime, families affected by ICE violence and some of the lawyers who represented them, shared with us that as a way of getting around the County’s requirement to get a judicial warrant to hold people, ICE was now waiting inside the Kent County Jail and apprehending people who were about to be released from the jail and taking them to detention in Battle Creek.
We were still receiving calls every week from people in the community who had family members arrested and detained by ICE, so we continued with the work to End the Contract.
In late August, we organized another march/protest at the Kent County Jail, where we took over the lobby area in the jail. During the protest inside the jail, we invited several people to share their stories about how ICE had been waiting inside the Kent County Jail to apprehend their family members, just as they were about to be released. This action also generated a great deal of news media attention.
The very next day, the day after our action at the Kent County Jail, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office released a statement saying that ICE would be terminating their contract with Kent County in September and would not be renewing their contract with the jail. This, we believe, was a direct result of the End the Contract Campaign, which had begun 13 months prior.
This is how the contract with ICE had ended. For members of the Kent County Democratic Party to claim they ended the contract is not only absurd, it is an out right lie. In fact, Democratic Kent County Commissioners fought the movement to End the Contract, engaged in gaslighting of some of the latinx organizers and made no public effort to support our demands or work to End the Contract. One Democratic Kent County Commissioner went so far as to mock the very organizers of the End the Contract Campaign, often referring to what we were doing as Bolshevik cosplay.
The ICE contract with Kent County happened because the of the countless hours and deep passion that organizers and volunteers put in to force the end of the contract, since the campaign was polarizing so many people. The End the Contract campaign was the direct result of the immigrant justice movement in Kent County, demonstrating once again the power social movements can have in our communities.
Critical Thinking in the Age of Neo-Liberalism: Part II
In Part I of this post, we presented an updated version of the Branded Alphabet and invited people to test their ability to recognize both branded products and high ranking officials in the Biden Cabinet. https://griid.org/2021/06/21/critical-thinking-in-the-age-of-neo-liberalism-part-i/
In the second part, we want to present information on the members of the Biden Cabinet that are part of this media literacy exercise, shown again here below.
Critical thinking is vitally important today, with both of overload of images and messages we are constantly bombarded with. In addition, it is vitally important to think critically about the US political and economic system, which can be accurately described as Neo-liberal. For a solid explanation of what NeoLiberalism is, go to this link. https://corpwatch.org/article/what-neoliberalism
Thinking critically is especially important in this moment, since there are plenty of people that believe with a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic Party majority in Congress, that we can all relax now, because Trump is no longer in charge.
However, we can not simply assume that just because President Biden does not spend hours playing golf or tweeting offensive messages, that things are fundamentally better off for the majority of people living in the US. We can’t afford to get caught up in the spectacle of politics, but must learn to focus on policy and historical facts.
People may have watched the various hearings that were being held earlier this year, hearings to decide on whether or not the Biden Cabinet members shown below would be accepted. Of course, we always need to think about what kind of questions were being asked of the nominees and also what additional information or analysis was provided by the national news media. However, since most members of Congress are bought and paid for by members of the Capitalist class and since the dominant national news sources have internalized the values of those with economic and political power, we want to provide some independent information of the members of the Biden Cabinet. Just look at the revolving door of corporate interests represented in the Biden Cabinet in the excellent resource and visual provide by the Revolving Door Project. https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/personnel/
Secretary of State Antony Blinken – Blinken was a top aide to Biden when the then-Senator voted to authorize the US invasion of Iraq, and Blinken helped Biden develop a proposal to partition Iraq into three separate regions based on ethnic and sectarian identity. As deputy national security adviser, Blinken supported the disastrous military intervention in Libya in 2011, and in 2018 he helped launch WestExec Advisors, a “strategic advisory firm” that is secretive about its clients, along with other Obama administration alumni like Michèle Flournoy. Jonathan Guyer writes in the American Prospect, “I learned that Blinken and Flournoy used their networks to build a large client base at the intersection of tech and defense. An Israeli surveillance startup turned to them. So did a major U.S. defense company. Google billionaire Eric Schmidt and Fortune 100 companies went to them, too.”
Source: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/joe-biden-administration-cabinet-picks-pro-war-hawks
Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen – Janet Yellen, who served as Federal Reserve chair from 2014 to 2018, had raked in millions from speeches to Wall Street firms and other corporate interests. After spending the past four years criticizing the Trump administration’s corruption, some liberals are now arguing that Yellen’s paid speeches aren’t relevant or worth reporting — even though the payouts are sizable and germane to her position as Secretary of the Teasury. Yellen’s financial disclosure shows she made more than $7 million from speaking fees in just the three years after she left her government job. The bulk of the money, $4 million, came from companies and trade groups that have reported lobbying the Treasury Department in the past two years.
Sources: https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11/18/the-coronation-of-janet-yellin/ https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-cabinet-janet-yellen-antony-blinken-lobbying
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin – Austin was until recently, listed as a partner at Pine Island Capital Partners, which is a private equity firm. In addition, Austin has endorsed current Biden positions on US funding for Israel, the subversive war on Venezuela, the continued US occupation of Guantanamo, the use of drone strikes, maintaining roughly 800 US military bases around the world and the proposed 2022 US Defense Budget, which is actually a slight increase from the Trump Administration.
Sources: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/biden-administration-access-sirota-flournoy-austin-pine-island-capital-partners https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/06/15/the-pentagons-untouchable-budget/
US Attorney General Merrick Garland – Garland gave an absurd defense of the extraordinarily generous funding that police departments enjoy because Capitol police officers were attacked by white supremacist Trump supporters on January 6. He told senators during his hearing that he is of the same mind as the current liberal president: “Biden has said he does not support defunding the police, and neither do I.” Garland said he believes “in giving resources to police departments to help them reform and gain the trust in their communities.” In other words, he understands there is deep racism in American society but is unwilling to take the hard steps to dismantle it.
Sources: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/02/corporate-power-amazon-big-law-department-of-justice-biden
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland – Haaland is the first Native American to hold this position. Haaland did announce recently that she would be investigating the historic impact that boarding schools had a Native communities. However, watching this interview with Native organizers who are presenting what the call the Red Deal, which goes much further than the proposed Green New Deal, making Native Sovereignty and anti-colonialism central to Climate Justice. https://www.democracynow.org/2021/4/22/the_red_deal_extended_interview_with
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack – Villsack was Obama’s Ag secretary and before that was himself part of the AgriBusiness sector. Vilsack will perpetuate the unsustainable agribusiness system, which is most reflected in the US Farm Bill.
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo – Gina Raimondo has been a steadfast ally of Wall Street and corporate America throughout her time in politics: as state treasurer, she sold out her state’s pension fund to Wall Street hedge funds, whilst compelling a regime of cuts to benefits for retirees, over strenuous objection from the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the International Association of Fire Fighters, and others. A Koch-funded conservative libertarian advocacy group later tried to spread this policy nationwide.
Sources: https://nocorporatecabinet.com/persons-of-interest/gina-raimondo
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/gina-raimondo-rhode-island-governor-covid-coronavirus
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm – While Governor of Michigan, Grandholm supported the government bailout of the US automakers, which perpetuated a fossil fuel-based transportation system. Granholm did not really penalize or hold accountable the Enbridge Corporation, despite the Kalamazoo River oil disaster during her tenure as Governor in Michigan. Granholm also has historically supported Line 5 in Michigan.
https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/914443
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain – Klain, along with Rahm Emmanuel, helped craft the Biden-led 1994 Crime Bill, which provided a massive increase in funding for the police and further criminalization of Black and Brown communities.
Source: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/bill-clinton-biden-crime-bill-1994-rahm
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas – A Cuban American Mayorkas will be a good soldier in the Biden Administration and perpetuate the continued militarization of the US/Mexican border. Mayorkas is also committed to maintaining current levels of ICE operations, which means the continued arrests, detentions and deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Sources: https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/bidens-border-briefing-tni-feb14.pdf
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/05/us-mexico-militarized-border-immigration-crisis-rhetoric
Critical Thinking in the Age of Neo-Liberalism: Part I
I have been using the Branded Alphabet for more than twenty years as a teaching tool on critical thinking.
Of course, I always have to update it, with every new White House administration, sometimes during administrations, as key staff changes are made.
This version of the Branded Alphabet includes members of the Biden Cabinet, since those seats have now been filled.
The Branded Alphabet media literacy exercise is a great way for people to:
- Understand the pervasive nature of advertising in our society and how we are all being targeted by advertising campaigns.
- Understand how the news media functions and how they decide what information to give us, when to give it to us, and how to give it to us.
- Juxtapose the Branded Alphabet with the current administration cabinet as a way to demonstrate the gap between our knowledge of products vs our knowledge of politics.
- Understand how the media system is constructed in such a way as to make consumerism a priority over an informed public
We invite you to test your knowledge, by participating in this Media Literacy Exercise. First, see if you can identify the product for each letter of the alphabet. Second, see how many people you can name in the Biden Cabinet, along with what position they hold in his administration.
Now think about why it is easier for people to identify branded products, than to identify politicians that have a significant impact on policies that affect all of our lives. Some of the most common reasons that people give are:
- The products have been around for decades, but administration officials change regularly.
- The images of the alphabet are different, colorful and engaging, whereas the image of politicians are very similar.
- As a society we are inundated by commercial images, but the faces of administration officials are only on certain news channels or websites that focus on national politics.
- We consume products, but we don’t consume politicians.
Can you come up with more reasons why we know more of the Branded Alphabet over members of the Biden Cabinet?
In Part II of this post, we will then discuss how much or how little people know about the actual members of the. Biden Cabinet.
Last week, MLive reported that State GOP Representatives are pushing legislation that would allow local law enforcement officers to coordinate with federal officials on immigration status checks.
“House Bills 4197 and 4539 would prevent counties, cities and other local governments from passing ordinances preventing or limiting law enforcement from contacting federal immigration authorities,” according to the MLive article.
House Bill 4197 states:
A bill to prohibit local units of government from enacting or enforcing any law, ordinance, policy, or rule that limits local officials, officers, or employees from communicating or cooperating with appropriate federal officials concerning the immigration status of individuals; to prescribe the powers and duties of certain state and local officers, officials, and employees; and to prescribe penalties and remedies.
This proposed legislation also states that after 2 months of the bill is adopted by the stated, if local governments do not comply, “the attorney general shall bring an action to enforce this act in the circuit court in the judicial district in which that local unit of government is located.”
House Bill 4539 will do the exact same thing, except it identifies county governments specifically to comply with the proposed legislation. HB 4539 was introduced in March, while HB 4197 was introduced in February. As of right now, the bills were just discussed in committees and could be presented to the full house for a vote in the near future.
Previous iterations of this legislation have been proposed since 2017, as an ongoing way to both undermine and punish local governments that became sanctuary cities. In addition, this legislation also provides some push back against all of the criticism that police departments across the state have received since the 2020 uprisings that took place throughout the country and the state after the police murdered George Floyd.
Another instructive component of the MLive article is that it only cites the Michigan Municipal League and the ACLU of Michigan as opponents of this legislation. However, the ACLU of Michigan did submit written testimony, which cites a case in Kent County at length, stating:
Take ICE detainers1 for example, over fifty jurisdictions outside of Michigan have abandoned their prior practice of automatically honoring ICE detainers. In 2019, Kent County changed its detainer compliance policy after ICE unlawfully requested the detention of Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, a United States citizen and decorated military veteran. Kent County, which received the largest percentage of detainer requests from ICE in Michigan, now requires that ICE provide a judicial warrant in order for the Sheriff to hold individuals for immigration purposes. ICE has tried to minimize those disturbing patterns by claiming that its detainer requests only target people with serious criminal records. But ICE’s own data shows that this is false. The vast majority of detainer requests are issued against people with little to no criminal history. Indeed, two-thirds of the people targeted for deportation have no criminal convictions of any kind. The reality is that ICE detainer requests are indiscriminately issued against almost anyone who comes into contact with local police—immigrants, refugees, students, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, grandmothers and grandfathers—instilling fear in already scared communities. The liability risks are large in magnitude and high in probability. Federal courts have consistently held that local agencies and officials can be sued for complying with ICE detainers. First, courts agree that extending a person’s detention based on an ICE detainer constitutes a new arrest. Second, courts agree that a local agency violates the Fourth Amendment when it makes a detainer arrest without sufficient probable cause.Third, courts agree that because detainers are fully voluntary, local officials can be held liable for damages when they effectuate a detainer without probable cause. As a result, police and sheriffs across the country have paid millions of dollars in damages, settlements, and attorney fees for detainer arrests. As an example, the City of Grand Rapids recently paid $190,000 for its participation in the unlawful detention of U.S. citizen Jilmar Ramos Gomez, who was held on an ICE detainer. Detainer-related lawsuits have continued to impose major legal costs elsewhere in the country as well. And the federal government has consistently refused to reimburse these costs. Moreover, the time period in which a person is detained via such a request is not reimbursed by the federal government. The proposed legislation guarantees local communities are put in the impossible position of being stuck between costly litigation or in violation of the statute and subject to injunctions and fees.
Since the case ICE/Police case against Jilmar Ramos Gomez was cited at length by the ACLU statement, one would think that MLive would want to get an opinion by immigrant-led groups that are based in Grand Rapids, like Movimiento Cosecha GR. Movimiento Cosecha Michigan is working to get Driver’s Licenses for all adopted in the state. Driver’s Licenses is an important quality of life issue, since allowing the undocumented immigrant to obtain a driver’s license would provide greater freedom to go to work, pick up children from school, access health care and other basic necessities. In addition, if undocumented immigrants had a driver’s license, they would not end up in local jails after being stopped by local police in Michigan. (Failure to have a driver’s license or an expired license are some of the main reasons why immigrants end up in ICE custody.) Once they are in jail, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is often contacted, which then lands members of the undocumented community in detention center, with the possibility of deportation. The proposed legislation would solidify and expand this relationship between local law enforcement and ICE agents, thus further terrorizing the immigrant community.
I asked Gema Lowe, with Movimiento Cosecha GR, what she thought about the proposed legislation:
“Local police doesn’t need another law that would further more their cooperation with ICE. As it stands, police already cooperates with ICE and intimidates the undocumented community in Michigan. The argument in favor of these bills that would make Michigan a safer place is so far away from reality. The undocumented immigrant workers in Michigan don’t pose a safety threat to the state, on the contrary, our labor and our consumption sustains the economy and we are an essential part of the state. Undocumented workers want to live a dignified life without the fear of driving without a license and being detained by the police, questioned and being turned over to ICE. Undocumented workers just want to get to work.”
We also asked Karen Meyers, with GR Rapid Response to ICE, what the proposed legislation would mean. Their response was:
“If passed, this bill would not protect communities. It would only further protect police from being fired when they racially profile people, which harms the immigrant community. We know this is true from the many people we have provided support for after a police traffic stop or other minor offense has led to detainment by ICE. We also know from the case of GRPD Captain Curt VanderKooi that when an officer racially profiles someone, that person can end up in ICE custody even if they are a citizen, and the officer responsible will not only not be fired, they will not be punished at all. Bills like these are evidence that–regardless of what party is in power–grassroots immigration rights groups need to be alert and ready to do direct action and provide mutual aid for our under-documented community members.”
Lastly, it is worth noting that there are 17 GOP legislators who either introduced or cosponsored these two pieces of legislation. Of those 17 State Representatives, over half have received a substantial amount of campaign contributions from the DeVos family, which essentially means that the DeVos family has backed state legislators that want to further criminalize the undocumented immigrant community and give more power to local law enforcement agencies to target the undocumented immigrant community.
Millions for an Amphitheater, while tens of thousands in Grand Rapids face poverty, eviction and structural racism
On Wednesday, MLive reported that the Grand Rapids City Commission has approved exercising the option agreement to purchase property from the County located at 1500 Scribner Avenue NW.
The MLive article also reports that the cost of purchasing the property from the county would total $7,450,000. If the City of Grand Rapids follow through with this purchase, it would then house the following departments at the new location – Public Works Department, Parks and Recreation Department and Office of Special Events.
All of this, is of course, due to the proposed 14,000 seat outdoor amphitheater that would be somewhere on Market Ave. SW. We began reporting on the amphitheater proposal back in October. We have also written the following articles as this project has unfolded:
DeVos controlled Amphitheater Project using public money will be voted on at the February 9th Grand Rapids City Commission meeting
How is it that we allow groups like Grand Action 2.0 to get away with the shit they do?
Now, since Grand Action 2.0 first began proposing the 14,000 seat outdoor amphitheater, the City of Grand Rapids, along with the Convention and Arena Authority and the DeVos-owned 63 Market Holdings LLC have agreed to collectively pay for the relocation of the eastside trunk sewer, with the City of Grand Rapids paying $6,252,643. Next, the Convention and Arena Authority has entered into an option agreement that allows the authority to purchase 11.6 acres along Market St. which includes the City of Grand Rapids property that houses the Public Works Department, the Parks and Recreation Department and the Office of Special Events. The estimated purchase cost of the 11.6 acres is $24.5 million, according to MLive. The most recent news is that the City of Grand Rapids will likely purchase the 1500 Scribner Avenue NW property from the County for $7,450,000.
This whole project so far has involved roughly $42 million, between the City of Grand Rapids, the Convention and Arena Authority and the DeVos-owned 63 Market St LLC. This is a great deal of money, which demonstrates that when a multi-billionaire family the the DeVos family wants something, they usually get it. Sure, building an outdoor amphitheater will bring more people, including more tourists to Grand Rapids, which means more money will be spent in the city. But, we must always ask ourselves who are the primary beneficiaries of such projects?
The primary beneficiary will be the DeVos family, since they own several hotels in the downtown area, a restaurant and a wine bar. The other beneficiaries will be other major property owners in the downtown area, many of which are part of the Grand Rapids Power Structure. Parking dollars go to the City of Grand Rapids and Ellis Parking. Most of the restaurants and bars owned in the downtown area are owned by those who own multiple establishments. It is true that all of the bars and the hotels rely on workers, but those workers will generally not see an increase in pay, which means the majority of the money will go to the ownership class, some of whom are millionaires and billionaires.
The other thing, which is important to ponder, is the fact that when it comes to the economic interests of the wealthiest in this community, the City of Grand Rapids can move rather quickly and invest lots of public money to accommodate private economic interests. Millions of dollars will be spent by the time the outdoor amphitheater will be built. Imagine if those millions were being spent to provide decent housing to families facing housing insecurity? Imagine what millions could do if they were transferred into neighborhoods that have high concentrations of poverty, particularly Black and Brown neighborhoods, and those residents got to decide on how these millions would be spent? Imagine how much relief these millions, which are going into development for an amphitheater, could provide to families who are struggling to survive?
It is never a question of a lack of money or a lack of resources when it comes to creating real equity in this city, since millions will be spent for an amphitheater. The question is really about priorities. When will people realize that the priorities the Grand Rapids Power Structure (which includes government officials) is to look out for their interests. Sure, they will always provide charitable donations, but they will never make it a priority to end the poverty and racism that thousands face in this community. We have to build a robust social movement that will not only challenge those with power in this city, but dismantle the power that is responsible for so much suffering in Grand Rapids.
This is our latest installment of The Devil is in the Details, which takes a critical look at Grand Rapids politics and policies, based primarily on the public record, such as committee agendas and minutes. In this installment we look at how the City of Grand Rapids is once again promoting ArtPrize and providing subsidies to the annual Art Spectacle. We will also take a look at some budgetary expenses of the GRPD, expenses we rarely hear about.
ArtPrize will be coming back to Grand Rapids this year. In the Fiscal Committee Agenda packet for June 15 (beginning on page 20), there is a resolution to approve City funding for ArtPrize. The Grand Rapids Fiscal Committee is recommending that the City approve a $50,000 sponsorship Fromm Mobil GR and $50,000 of “in kind services.”
In a separate resolution, the Fiscal Committee (page 23) is asking for:
“a $50,000 General Fund sponsorship contribution to ArtPrize in support of their 2021 event, scheduled September 16 – October 3, 2021. Funds would be supplemental to planned sponsorship investment from Mobile GR and the Parking Services fund, and allocated from budgeted event support/reactivation dollars made available through the American Rescue Plan Act.”
The Fiscal Committee claims that using American Rescue Plan Act funding is consistent with giving ArtPrize this additional $50,000, since the event will respond to the, “health and economic impacts of COVID-19.” The Fiscal Committee does not clarify how giving public money to ArtPrize will respond to the health and economic impacts of COVID 19, most likely because they don’t feel like they have to. ArtPrize has been given preferential treatment by the City of Grand Rapids, since it began over a decade ago, even though the so-called economic impact of the art spectacle has primarily benefited a small sector of the business community, as we noted in an article from 2011.
ArtPrize economically benefits the owning class and the so-called creative class, which is ultimately about promoting an enterprise culture. This sentiment was best described by local businessman Sam Cummings (CWD) in 2009. “Our long-term goal is really to import capital – intellectual capital, and ultimately real capital. And this (ArtPrize) is certainly an extraordinary tool.”
ArtPrize has reached an elite status, so much so, that one can not question or challenge who the real beneficiaries are. In fact, the bulk of the agenda packet for the Committee of the Whole for June 15, is devoted ArtPrize.
The other issue we want to address in this addition of The Devil is in the Details, has to do with funding elements for the GRPD. There are two police funding elements that will be decided by the City Commission. First, is the matter of a Professional Services Agreement between Bluestone Psych LLC and the GRPD. According to page 3 in the Fiscal Committee’s Agenda packet, it states:
The Grand Rapids Police Department requests authorization to enter into a new contract effective January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021 with Dr. Robert W. Lamson, PhD, Bluestone Psych LLC. Dr. Robert Lamson will provide psychological services for the Grand Rapids Police Department as assigned by, and under the direction of Eric Payne, Chief of Police. The services may include Post-Conditional Offer of Hire Evaluations at rate of $465.00 per evaluation, as well as Fitness-for-Duty Evaluations at a rate of $240.00 per hour. Payments under this contract will not exceed the total amount of $40,000.
Bluestone Pysch LLC works almost exclusively with professions that are part of the Prison Industrial Complex, such as cops, DEA agents, corrections officers, etc. It would be interesting to know more about this business and Dr. Robert Lamson, especially since it appears that he does evaluations for cops in the GRPD. Since the Grand Rapids Police Department claims they are committed to transparency and accountability, will the evaluations that Bluestone Psych LLC is conducting be accessible to the Office of Public Accountability? I would argue that the public also has a right to see these evaluations, which could protect the identity of individual officers, unless those evaluations reveal serious concerns about individual officers in the department.
The second funding issue with the GRPD, is also reflected in the Fiscal Committee’s Agenda packet, on page 59, which has to do with a request for a budget amendment for the GRPD. This budget amendment is for analysis software, which the GRPD has been using, known as PenLink PLX and would be a total of $6,622.92.
According to the PenLink site, the PLX software is designed to, “Investigate all communication types – collect, analyze, and export large volumes of social media, email, and other internet communications data.” In other words, the GRPD is using the PenLink PLX to monitor the digital information being shared in this community, information that they can used against any form of public dissent. An example of this would be the extensive amount of monitoring that the GRPD has done on Movimiento Cosecha GR. (See the FOIA documents obtained from the GRPD from 2019.)
The funding for this monitoring software will be coming from property that is seized by the GRPD, also known as asset forfeiture. Assets, like cars, tech equipment, real estate, even cash, can be seized by the cops and then used to fund things like the PenLink PLX software.
Should the City of Grand Rapids be using public money to subsidize ArtPrize, an event that is run by the wealthiest family in West Michigan? The public has a right to know how their money is being used, along with greater transparency of GRPD funding issues. Without transparency, it is difficult to have accountability, which is exactly why many in the community have been demanding a participatory budgeting process. With a participatory budgeting process, people can not only be informed about how their tax dollars are being spent, they can take an active role in determining how their tax dollars are spent.
The US role in the Middle East is a complex and vitally important role that is grounded in imperialism, particularly when we look at Israel and Palestine.
With recent attention given to yet another round of Israeli assaults on Gaza and continued aspects of Israeli Apartheid, it has generated a great deal of news coverage and public outrage.
My partner wrote to Michigan Senator Gary Peters a few weeks ago and just now received this response from Peters:
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am closely monitoring the developments between Israel and the Palestinians. I share your concerns about the construction of settlements and the annexation of Palestinian territory. Unilateral annexation would destabilize the region and jeopardize prospects for a two-state solution. That is why, last year, I sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz urging them to reject any proposals for annexation. The best hope for peace is a negotiated two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian people. Such a solution should include mutually agreed upon borders that can allow Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace. To this end I have supported annual foreign aid for both Israel and the Palestinian people. This has been the bipartisan policy of the United States for decades and any plan to deviate from this policy would be counterproductive and would undermine the prospects for peace negotiations.
While I believe the United States should continue to play a critical role in fostering constructive dialogue, only Israelis and Palestinians can make the difficult decisions necessary to ensure peace. I agree with President Biden’s support for a ceasefire and urged the Administration to work to de-escalate this conflict. Let me be clear, there is no military solution to the disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian people. Israel has the inherent right to defend itself and its citizens from indiscriminate rocket fire from terrorist organizations like Hamas and I urge the Israeli government to ensure civilians in Gaza and the West Bank are not targeted by the Israeli military. I remain hopeful that a two-state solution can be achieved and that there is a more peaceful and prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians. As the Senate considers policies related to Palestine and Israel, I will be sure to keep your views in mind.
Here is my deconstruction of Senator Peters’ response.
First, it is important to note that as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Peters is essentially acting as a broker with US military contractors to make sure that the $3.5 Billion annual aid that the US provides Israel, also includes military hardware.
Second, when Peters says he shares concerns about the construction of Israeli Settlements, he is lying. Israeli Settlement construction and expansion on Palestinian land has been going on for decades, and it has been condemned by the international community as an illegal action, since it violates the Fourth Geneva Convention. In addition, Peters cannot really share concern over the construction of Israeli Settlements, since the US (especially Sen. Peters) has never called for an end to the construction of Israeli Settlements, nor has the US (and Sen. Peters) ever made US Aid to Israel contingent on the termination of settlement construction.
Third, when Sen. Peters says he supports US aid to both Israel and the Palestinian people, he is being deceptive. The US has consistently provided over $3 billion in aid to Israel as long as Peters has been a US Senator, but the Palestinian people have only received a paltry amount, averaging around $300 million, with a contribution of only $150 million in 2021. In addition, US Aid to Israel includes lots of military hardware, whereas the Palestinian people get no US military support. Senator Peters goes on to say, in regards to US aid, “any plan to deviate from this policy would be counterproductive and would undermine the prospects for peace negotiations.” What Senator Peters is saying here is that the US will continued to provide massive amounts of aid to Israel regardless of how brutal the Israelis are to the Palestinians.
Fourth, Senator Peters statement that the US can foster critical dialogue and assist with negotiating peace, he is once again perpetuating a bold-faced lie. There is no way that the US can be sincere about wanting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, not while the US provides $3.5 billion in US aid to Israel and not while the US continues to vote against the international community’s condemnation of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land. (See Nassar Aguri’s book, Dishonest Broker: The Role of the United States in Palestine and Israel)
Fifth, Senator Peters uses language that is instructive, where he refers to “indiscriminate rocket fire from terrorist organizations like Hamas”, but only wants to, “urge the Israeli government to ensure civilians in Gaza and the West Bank are not targeted by the Israeli military.” The fact is that recent Israeli bombing of Gaza has killed 256 Palestinians, including 66 children. In Israel, 13 people were killed, including two children. The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that more than 1,900 Palestinians were injured, and as of 12 May Israel reported at least 200 injured Israelis. What we need to ask ourselves here is, who are the real terrorists?
Sixth, Senator Peters ends his response with yet another lie when he states that he remains hopeful, “that there is a more peaceful and prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians.”
Senator Peters knows that as long as the US maintains its massive aid to Israel, that there will be no peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Senator Peters knows this and embraces this reality, since Senator Peters is a significant recipient of PAC money from the Pro-Israeli Lobby in the US. According to OpenSecrets, the Pro-Israel lobby has contributed $174 million to candidates since 1990, with roughly two-thirds of their money going to Democratic candidates. Since Gary Peters became a Senator, he has received about $400,000 from the Pro-Israel Lobby. Whatever Senator Peters has to say about Israel and Palestine, know that his allegiance to weapons contractors and his allegiance to the Pro-Israel Lobby are contributing factors in his unconditional support for Israel.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 