#defund the police and fund our communities

[callese]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Daniel Marans at HuffPost:

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) lost her Democratic primary on Tuesday, shrinking the ranks of the House’s left-wing “Squad” and delivering another major victory to the pro-Israel and business-friendly groups that backed her challenger. Wesley Bell, the St. Louis County prosecutor, defeated Bush. Since Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, which includes all of St. Louis and many of its northern and western suburbs, is overwhelmingly Democratic, Bell is all but assured of a seat in Congress come November.

Bell’s victory over Bush marks the second “Squad” member in recent months to fall to a challenger heavily funded by pro-Israel groups. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), who, like Bush, ousted an incumbent in 2020, lost his race to Westchester County Executive George Latimer this past June. Justice Democrats, the left-wing group that backed Bush’s first successful run, cast the race as yet another referendum on the power of big money to decide elections. “This race is about the future of our democracy and the soul of our Democratic Party, frankly,” Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, told HuffPost on Monday. “This is a question about whether we want to let a handful of Republican mega-donors dictate the outcome of Democratic primaries, or do we want to move forward to elect more nurses and everyday people to represent the community’s best interests.”

Bush, an ordained pastor and registered nurse, indeed faced a massive fundraising deficit. As Andrabi noted, Bell had the support of some local Republican donors — and many national megadonors from both parties, through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Super PACs supporting Bell outspent those supporting Bush by a more than 3-to-1 margin. Spending by pro-Bell groups included about $8.6 million from AIPAC’s United Democracy Project, $1.5 million from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman’s Mainstream Democrats PAC, $1.4 million from the crypto-industry-backed FairShake PAC, and nearly $500,000 from the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC. Bush made national waves with her July 2021 sit-in on the U.S. Capitol steps to draw attention to the expiration of the federal government’s COVID-19-era eviction moratorium. Her action got results; President Joe Biden responded by extending the policy, though the Supreme Court stopped it a few weeks later. Later that year, in a bid to shore up support for abortion rights, Bush spoke on national television — and in a House hearing — about her experience getting an abortion after being raped at age 17.

Bush’s allies — and she retains the support of many local elected officials — see her as an authentic tribune of the Black Lives Matter movement, which was born in Ferguson, Missouri, following the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014. Unlike many other Democrats in Washington, Bush continues to embrace calls to “defund the police.” Bell, who also got his political start during the Ferguson protests and unseated a more conservative incumbent prosecutor in 2018, has, by contrast, disappointed many of his former fellow activists. They fault him for declining to prosecute Darren Wilson, the police officer who killed Brown, and for not more rapidly reducing the county’s jail and prison populations, even as he points to the creation of a conviction review unit and the expansion of drug diversion programs.

[...] Finally, Bush has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel in Congress, particularly after Israel invaded Gaza in response to Hamas’ terror attack on Oct. 7. She was not only an early advocate for a ceasefire, but has also accused Israel of genocide ― a charge that remains highly disputed. And in an interview with The New York Times out on Monday, Bush expressed ambivalence about describing Hamas as a terrorist group, though her campaign later walked it back. “Would they qualify to me as a terrorist organization? Yes,” Bush told the Times. “But do I know that? Absolutely not.” Bush’s stances cost her the support of Susan Talve, a progressive St. Louis rabbi who leads the only synagogue in Bush’s district. But they also unsettled some other allies who see her national profile as a distraction from the needs of the high-poverty, majority Black district.

In the battle of activists rising from the Ferguson protests in #MO01, incumbent Rep. Cori Bush (D) goes down in defeat to AIPAC-backed St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell (D) in the Democratic Primary. Bell is favored to win this November.

[edenfenixblogs]

What are you doing to help black people?

Several things! (A Note on My Personal Limitations: I am not black. I am unable to protest for health reasons. I do not have much money at all)

I elevate black voices whenever I can

I joined an anti-racism book club where I can learn how to be a better ally and unlearn as much systemic prejudice as I can

I do not tolerate anti-black racism from anyone in my life for any reason. I call it out every time, publicly.

I donate (when financially possible) to several causes devoted to both long term and immediate aid to to black people including: various bail funds in my current state and my home state, the southern poverty law center, the Homeless Black Trans Women gofundme, the ACLU, and others.

I consistently educate people in my life about the goals of BLM — including defunding the police — in order to reduce their knee jerk reactions and foster better understanding.

I shut the eff up unless I can help. I’m no savior; I know this. I don’t break into conversations that don’t involve me. I just listen. Most of my public advocacy is amplifying black voices on issues that affect the black community without adding my irrelevant opinions as white-passing person.

Privately, I have and continue to reach out to the several black people in my life to let them know I support them and that I am listening. I listen to them vent to me about their pain and suffering. I let them tell me if I’ve fucked up somehow without getting defensive. Then I apologize sincerely and onboard the new information and don’t do whatever the offending action was again. I have not had anyone tell me I’ve fucked up in that way in over a decade, though. I did, however, realize (during my continuing journey of learning how to be anti-racist) that I’d held problematic opinions as a teenager (nothing crazy. Just ignorant teen bullshit borne from growing up as a liberal in a red state and thinking I was more progressive than I actually was at the time) and proactively reached out to the black friend I’ve known since my teenage years to say that I know I was an idiot back then and I’ve learned a lot since then and I will continue to learn and to apologize.

My work involves public communications. In my role, I continually advocate for anti-racist, black-affirming language in our company guidelines and publicly disseminated materials, even when that means confronting my boss—who is a white man.

I vote in every election in which I am able, researching every politician and bill thoroughly from multiple sources and voting as leftist as possible and educating people in my life about these bills details and the politicians platforms and records.

I am not perfect and don’t claim to be. I only claim to try my best to continually improve.

I don’t make a habit of sharing private communique and am only doing so now because this post asks for receipts. Here are some excerpts from conversations had during 2020 when tensions were a little higher. I decline to share receipts from more recently, as those conversations include more private and more identifying information. The pictured conversations involve friends I’ve had since pre-school, high school, and college. Again, this is not something I would normally share, because saying “I have black friends” is tacky and gross. But I am trying to respect your request for my commitment to the black community, which does of course include my friends. It feels wrong not to mention them in this context, even though I feel awkward saying it at all. Im also sharing only the start of longer conversations, as my friends’ pain and concerns are not for public consumption.

Idk if replying to your question alerts you, so tagging you just in case. @phantomdiebe

[zarohk]

Animorphs in particular is about combating imperialism, and the way that it subjugates not only those little disenfranchises, but those that it claims to elevate and lift up.

Strong Female Protagonist is perhaps the most blunt version of superheroes fighting systemic injustice, rather than crime, and because of that frankly it struggles a lot because it’s something very difficult right well.

dipping a toe into dangerous waters, here, but indulge me:

For purposes of more casual discourse (ie we are not getting caught up about strict definitions), are there any “hero” capes that we would not consider cops? Worm sets up a very explicit paradigm with Taylor repeating the “cops and robbers” framing multiple times but we don’t get to dive into that too much. And I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to categorize capes that work for government institutions as cops.

I know we’ve talked Victoria “Cop” Dallon as a subject to death

But what about other “good” capes? Other ones on independent teams? Are there even enough of those to merit a discussion? I dunno, spitballing, I’d like input

[intothestacks]

But if you turned to your local New York Public Library this past Sunday, one of this summer’s hottest days yet, you were out of luck. Last year, the New York Public Library received a $23.6 million cut in funding, which resulted in its decision to close on Sundays. Recently, Mayor Adams proposed an even bigger cut of $58.3 million for the 2025 fiscal year, citing the “need” to move more funds toward the police, who received $5.8 billion in 2024. After months of protest, a compromise was found.

Unfortunately, this attack on public libraries is not contained to New York. Thanks to the efforts of some lawmakers, libraries all over the U.S. are having an increasingly difficult time serving their communities.

In the ongoing culture war, conservative politicians have been taking drastic measures to stop the distribution of “age-inappropriate books,” which primarily target children’s books by and about LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color. Last year in Missouri, the Secretary of State enacted an administrative rule defunding libraries that carry such content.

[eretzyisrael]

by Adam Pack

The Biden administration is facing mounting pressure to dole out tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to a left-wing nonprofit that advocates for defunding the police, prison abolition and the “liberation” of Palestinian territories before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The left-wing advocates lobbying President Joe Biden include members of his own administration’s staff.

A group of federal government employees, dubbed the “federal environment and energy workers for justice in Palestine,” wrote an open letter to the White House, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy (DOE) published on Medium on Thursday. The anonymous career staffers are demanding that the administration disburse all designated federal funds to the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) and end collaboration with Israel.

🚨Last year, the EPA selected Climate Justice Alliance, a Berkeley, California-based nonprofit, to receive a $50 million grant award despite the entity promoting the “defund the police” movement. CC: @elonmusk, @VivekGRamaswamy, @DOGE pic.twitter.com/BtaTg5ioRf — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 25, 2024

“While our work typically does not engage on foreign policy issues, the ongoing genocide in Gaza has compelled us to speak truthfully on the hypocrisy of protecting human health and the environment within U.S. borders while our government continues to fund and facilitate the destruction of entire communities and ecosystems overseas,” the group of federal government employees wrote. “We call upon EPA and DOE to end their collaboration with Israel until there is a permanent ceasefire and an end to the occupation of Palestine. We also urge EPA Administrator Michael Regan and the White House to release all designated federal funds to Climate Justice Alliance.”

“Palestine is an environmental and climate justice issue,” the group added. “There can be no climate and environmental justice within the United States while we perpetuate climate and environmental disasters abroad.”

With just 30 days until Trump takes office, the EPA has not moved forward in obligating the grant money to the left-wing nonprofit. Given CJA’s history of engaging in anti-Israel advocacy following Hamas’ October 7th attacks and promoting the “defund the police” movement, the Trump administration will almost certainly decline to transfer any taxpayer dollars to the nonprofit.

[thestrangestthlng]

Hear Me Out...

When I say Defund the Police, this is what I mean.

For fiscal year 2023 (July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023) New York City paid out 1.45 BILLION (with a b-b-B) in settlements from 13,227 claims and lawsuits against the NYPD. This is ALL directly from the tax payers pocketbooks. In a city that had to cut over five million from HIV funding and over 50 million dollars from the public library system. In a city with the highest cost of living AND the highest unhoused population.

This number is down only slightly from FY 2022, which was 1.56B. While it may look like it's heading in the right direction, the number of claims increased for 2023 from 12,188 for the 2022 FY. So they paid LESS for an increase of over 1,000 claims.

The NYC taxpayers are on the line for these because the department isn't responsible. Their officers are able to do whatever the hell they want for the most part and are not only held accountable administrationally, but the department has a free and clear card.

You want to see excessive force and misconduct claims go down and an actual change in accountability within the police? Make it so those claims and lawsuits have to come from their union. Once they see their dues start to skyrocket (like our car insurance rates) you'll see a massive change. Increase their dues and actually make it so that it doesn't take an actual arrest of an officer to dismiss them from the force. You don't have to get arrested to be fired from any other job, why are the people who are allegedly there to serve and protect us - civil servants - except from this?

One tweet about a political stance an employer doesn't like gets people who are professors, doctors, teachers, cashiers--anyone really-- get fired, but physically assaulting, wrongfully searching, coercing, even killing someone doesn't?

Why are police the exception to the rules they supposedly are supposed to enforce? If I slammed a person's head into the sidewalk., I'd be in jail on felony assault charges, but a cop gets a paid vacation to appease the public and gets to go back to work the next Monday?

That 1.45 billion is in ADDITION to the 5.83 BILLION dollar budget the NYPD had for FY 2023.

Now before you come into my messages and comments with some bootlicker nonsense, I know in a city with over 8 million residents there is going to be more spent on the police department. But, how about we relax with the overtime.

Before y'all even come in my comments with the racist/homophobic comments about several ISOLATED incidents yesterday at the park, remember that white men celebrating a fucking sports team winning a game causes more chaos.

Anyway,

I was at NYC Pride yesterday, and there were more cops than I think I've ever seen at any Pride event they have had. They were flooded in the streets and the subways. They were even riding the subways with us. I wonder what cost all those extra and unneeded officers (who were mostly standing around talking and just giving attitude all day) cost the city.

This isn't to say that police presence shouldn't be at crowd control and safety monitoring events, especially in today's political climate. Still, the fact that the majority of the officers that I encountered yesterday were giving people attitudes and being aggressive in their presence for no reason is astounding. If you can't handle a crowd of people behaving like a crowd of people, maybe you shouldn't have a job that involves dealing with crowds.

That being said, if that money that was taken from the city budget to cover these lawsuits for excessive force, misconduct, and wrongful deaths, wrongful arrests, etc. had to be paid by the police officers directly, not only would we see accountability and liability, we'd see the amount of their crimes go down. Now, if we used that money and funded mentorship programs, anti-recidivism (especially for youth/young adults) community actions, programs to ensure that people's basic needs are being met, job readiness, affordable job training, addiction services, veteran's services, mental healthcare, affordable healthcare, and other community-based programs that could do a world of change if they had the funds) we'd also see a lot of crimes start to diminish as well because the fact of the matter is that a lot of crimes that we tend to associate with urban areas are crimes of poverty. If we help solve the root of the issue, you'll see many of the chain of events start to ebb.

HOLD THE POLICE DEPARTMENTS AND THE POLICE OFFICERS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

If you're going to sit here and cry about not all cops or some nonsense, then you should be the first person who would want the "bad apples" out of the picture. If you're a "good cop" you should want the ones who make you look bad and ultimately make your job harder to be held accountable. The good ol' boy culture HAS to end. You want the public to blindly "back the blue" while you literally kill us. I am aware the many officers who try to report misconduct by their coworkers are harassed and threatened, often to the point where they leave the force. Is that what we are supposed to be backing?

AND THEN THEY HAVE THE AUDACITY TO WANT TO PUT A COP CITY IN QUEENS? Why should tax payers be on the line for 225 MILLION DOLLARS to continue to militarize the police? The price tag could fully fund multiple community-based non-profits for a year or one for multiple years. Make it make sense.

Make them pay where it hurts the most: their wallets.

[foreverlogical]

The White House on Monday called the House Freedom Caucus’ budget proposal a ‘five-alarm fire,’ arguing that their spending cuts would endanger Americans’ safety.

The White House referred to the conservative GOP group as the “extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus” in a statement and said their proposal would be “a disaster for families in at least five key ways.”

The key ways, according to the White House, include endangering public safety, raising costs for families, shipping manufacturing jobs overseas and undermining American workers, weakening national security, and hurting seniors.

The statement argued that the proposal would make the border less secure because it would eliminate funding for more than 2,000 border agents and allow for “an additional 150,000 pounds of cocaine, nearly 900 pounds of fentanyl, nearly 2,000 pounds of heroin, and more than 17,000 pounds of methamphetamine into our country.”��

Biden’s budget included funds to hire an additional 350 Border Patrol Agents, $535 million for border technology at and between ports of entry, and $40 million to combat fentanyl trafficking.

And, the White House argued the Freedom Caucus proposal would defund the police and make communities less safe because it would eliminate 400 local law enforcement positions and could mean a hiring freeze at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

The White House also said the proposal would scale back rail safety inspections, especially in the wake of the train derailments in Ohio that lead to a politically-charged situation over President Biden not visiting the site. The statement claims the proposal would lead to 11,000 fewer rail safety inspection days next year alone and 30,000 fewer miles of track inspected annually.

And, it said the proposal would jeopardize air safety and increase airport security wait times by an average of 30 minutes because it would shut down services at 125 Air Traffic Control Towers across the country. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last week said there have been “more mistakes than usual” in U.S. air travel after dozens of close calls, calling for the industry to figure out the causes.

The Freedom Caucus has said they want to cap overall discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels for 10 years while allowing for 1 percent growth per year, which would be a $131 billion cut from current levels.

Citing the Congressional Budget Office, the White House said on Monday that Republicans would need to eliminate everything in the rest of the federal budget if they want to balance the budget in 10 years without raising taxes on the wealthy or corporations and without cutting Social Security, Medicare, defense, and some veterans’ benefits.

The White House has been using the Freedom Caucus as a foil as Biden prepares to launch his reelection bid, seeking to cast the group as the face of the GOP.

Biden released his budget on March 9 and the next day he went after the House Freedom Caucus during remarks, saying there isn’t much to negotiate with the conservative group after they released their new spending demands. 

He argued that the Freedom Caucus' demands include cutting all spending other than defense by 25 percent, which is a characterization the group later disputed.

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

What are your thoughts on police reform/abolition?

lmao you are the second anon to ask me this question since last night.

so police. i think law enforcement as an institution is good. police abolition is just stupid. i think people have a fairy tale idea of what something like that would entail. the reality is that it probably wouldn't be pretty.

i do, however, think we should probably abolish police /unions/. and, ideally, i would love to see police departments just entirely purged and wholly replaced with new blood. at the very least the largest and/or most corrupt police departments. i know this is unrealistic though (would be so expensive to train wholly new recruits and we'd lose so much experience and expertise). it's just a fantasy of mine. but i do think get rid of police unions will make it a bit easier to get rid of the bad apples. this is important. we want to facilitated the removal of bad cops as much as possible.

not sure exactly how we'd do it but we need to figure out a way to identify the bad apples and keep them from policing. maybe some kind of public database of police that have a history of misconduct or excessive force? also having higher standards and enforcing them more strictly. and maybe some way to incentivize police officers to report misconduct from fellow officers?

instead of defunding the police i actually think we should considerably increase their funding. so they can have better training, recruit more police, update equipment, and hire social workers/mental health professionals.

which leads me to my next point: i am cool with the idea of making social workers/mental health professionals and /additional/ supplementary part of policing. but i believe they would still require a police escort. so, a call that might normally require 2 officers will now include 2 officers + a (probably educated, more expensive) mental health professional. so again, we need to /increase/ funding.

police are overworked. they are spread too thin. they do too many different jobs. i think police should be more compartmentalized and specialized. instead of expecting cops to be masters of all trades there should be dedicated community police, "regular" police, (probably state/federal-level) dedicated paramilitary/SWAT/crime suppression units, crisis intervention specialists, etc.

on top of all that, i really would love to see more involvement from the community itself. i want to see more neighborhood watches, citizen patrols, militias, civic guards, etc. i want everyone to be armed and vigilant.

more funding for state and federal oversight and investigating and prosecuting public corruption.

some people say police should be demilitarized. i agree with this to some degree, which is why i mentioned "community police" above. these would be mostly demilitarized. probably unarmed or equipped with non-lethal weapons (though, in certain circumstances, maybe one or two or all members of a given patrol unit could be armed). but i don't think we can reasonably expect to demilitarize the police across the board and, in some case i think we should even make the police /more/ militarized (the state/federal paramilitary i mentioned above). we live in a very violent and widely armed society. i think it's reasonable that police are equipped to deal with these risks. as long as we want to be an armed society we should expect the police to be armed as well. thinking otherwise is absurd to me.

also, some people bring up ending qualified immunity. i think this is dumb. it shouldn't end it. i think it's required for police to effectively do their jobs. i do think we need to rein in the scope of it or make some more clearly established standards because some rulings based on qualified immunity are really stupid. but i'd say that 99% of the time they are fair.

but if i'm really being honest, i think this issue is mostly overblown. of the most pressing issues facing our country right now this doesn't even make the top ten or twenty imo. of course, i think there's always room for improvement but i think people take for granted the excellence of american police. people want to talk about police corruption and police brutality but they've never been to another country, except maybe some european countries. if you want to see real police corruption visit mexico. our police are like knights in shining armor in comparison. we have third world crime but first world quality policing. i think that's a noteworthy achievement on its own.

i think it's more of a public perception issue (largely because of exacerbation by the media) than an actual issue. people say "the police" are corrupt but there is no single organization called "the police." we have thousands of different police departments. i don't deny that there are probably some individually corrupt police departments but this seems to be more of a localized issue (with its own unique causes) than something widespread or systemic.

[callese]

Story

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Marin Cogan at Vox:

Listen to the way Democrats talk about guns, violent crime, and the criminal justice system these days, and you’ll notice that things sound different from the way they did in 2020. That year, following a national protest movement centered around the high-profile police killings of unarmed Black Americans, including Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, Democrats focused their message on protecting citizens from police abuses and overhauling the criminal justice system, rather than reducing violent crime. But four years later, after a historic spike in gun homicide and an election cycle where Republicans attacked them over the issue, Democrats have found a new message. Leaders are still talking about ending gun violence — an important issue for their base, given that it’s the core reason that the United States has a homicide rate that is much higher than other comparable countries. They’re also still supportive of police reform, though it has been less prominent as a campaign issue this year.

But now, with Republicans opposing nearly all of their gun control legislation, they’re highlighting their other efforts in crime prevention and public safety, too. “We made the largest investment, Kamala and I, in public safety, ever,” President Joe Biden said at the Democratic National Convention in August, referring to the $10 billion in funding committed through the American Rescue Plan to public safety efforts for cities and states. Vice presidential nominee Tim Walz touted his administration’s investment in fighting crime as Minnesota governor at the DNC, and Chris Swanson, a sheriff from Genesee County, Michigan, took to the stage to declare that “crime is down and police funding is up,” in a speech that would have been almost unthinkable at the 2020 Democratic convention, when activists and other prominent voices on the left were calling to “defund the police.” Mayors leading major cities are now highlighting increases in funding and support for programs built around more recent innovations in violence reduction, including community violence intervention and hyperlocal crime reduction programs.

“Community safety is a year-round, collaborative effort,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said earlier this year, unveiling a new summer safety program for the city, which has seen a major drop in gun homicides in 2024 compared to the previous year. “Our comprehensive approach to reducing gun violence is working,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said, crediting the work of the city’s group violence reduction strategy in contributing to the city’s largest year-over-year reduction in murders last year. It’s not just that Democrats are responding to the rise in gun homicides in 2020 and 2021 and the political backlash that came with it. The change reflects a broader shift in thinking among Democrats and their nonpartisan allies who work in violence reduction, criminal justice, and police reform. It’s one that acknowledges the seriousness of preventing and reducing violent crime — the core concern of the “tough on crime” crowd — without accepting the idea that the solution is mass incarceration. There is a growing sense that increasing public safety, ending gun violence, and reducing mass incarceration, rather than being separate or even in tension, are pieces of the same pie, and that efforts to improve one should help improve the others.

[...]

As researchers deepened the body of existing research on racial bias in the criminal justice system, and activists organized to press lawmakers for change, a series of police killings of Black Americans brought the issue into the public’s view. By 2020, the movement for police and criminal justice reform had already made important progress, thanks to a network of organizers and activists, and funding from foundations and bipartisan coalitions. That support had helped build momentum for drug sentencing reform during President Barack Obama’s administration as well as his administration’s creation of a task force aimed at police reform. Those efforts helped pave the way for the most significant sentencing reform bill in years, the First Step Act, signed by President Donald Trump. The bill gave judges more flexibility to avoid lengthy sentences dictated by federal mandatory minimums, allowed incarcerated people to earn time credits that could move up their release date if they participated in rehabilitative programs, and made retroactive the earlier reform passed under the Obama administration, eliminating the sentencing disparity between those convicted of possessing crack versus powdered cocaine. By the last election cycle, the Democrats’ platform included the most progressive police reform agenda in modern American history. The bill focused on greater accountability for police, but also included proposals to invest more in community-based violence reduction.

But as reformers were making strides, violent crime began to rise again in cities, due to a number of factors related to the pandemic, policing after the George Floyd protests, and the ubiquity of guns. By the end of 2020, the country had seen the largest increase in its homicide rate in nearly a century, and the problem got more difficult to ignore. The following year, homicides remained high. Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans increasingly pointed their fingers at Democrats running big cities, arguing that their policies were responsible for rising violent crime and attempting to connect them with the left’s “defund the police” movement. By 2022, six in 10 registered voters listed crime as a “very important” issue for them in the midterm election cycle that November. Then, a new crop of Democrats, responding to voters’ concerns, launched campaigns for mayor across the United States. Many made violent crime reduction their primary campaign issue.

Some, like New York’s Eric Adams, who won in 2021, and Philadelphia’s Cherelle Parker, who won in 2023, campaigned on more funding and support for police. (Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that they had indicted Adams on federal corruption charges, and the NYPD has been under heavy scrutiny for illegal stops on citizens, a recent subway shooting, and a separate investigation that resulted in the police commissioner’s resignation in September.) Others, like Wu and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, have focused their efforts on outreach and intervention programs, and focused on investing in community partnerships. The details of each city’s violence prevention program are different, but the broad elements are largely the same: They include more funding for both the police and for community organizations aimed at addressing the people and places most likely to suffer from high rates of violent crime, especially gun homicide.

There has been a major difference in how the Democratic Party is approaching the crime issue this cycle than the 2020 cycle.

[olympicjournal]

Peninsula Pulse

[No. 001] Nov 17, 2024

Clallam County: Where the Action Never Stops

Fentanyl Chaos + Law Enforcement Upheaval Let’s talk Clallam, where the OPNET drug task force is on life support. State officials just pulled the plug on its $180,000 annual budget, leaving law enforcement scrambling. Local officials are calling this a disaster amid a record-setting fentanyl overdose crisis. With Clallam County staring down its highest-ever annual overdose death toll—potentially crossing 50 lives lost—defunding seems as logical as a screen door on a submarine.

Meanwhile, a tragic crash on Highway 101 near Gardiner took the lives of a mother and her child. This heartbreaking incident has reignited conversations about road safety and seatbelt use in the region. Let’s hope some good policy emerges from this sorrowful event.

SEQUIM’S ARTISTIC REVOLUTION Our little lavender town is stepping up its game! A local photographer is breaking free from the frame, proving that art isn't just for your grandma's living room walls anymore[1]. This rebel with a cause is joining the Strait from the Artists tour, probably to show us all how to think outside the box – or should I say, outside the frame?

PORT ANGELES GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS Hold onto your wallets, folks! Port Angeles is implementing an annual business license fee[1]. If you're raking in over $25k, prepare to shell out $190. Because nothing says "support local business" like another fee, am I right?

WITCHES ON WATER In a twist that would make Salem proud, about two dozen witches paddled from Northwest Maritime to the Pourhouse pub[1]. No word on whether they used broomsticks or kayaks, but I'm betting it was a spell-binding sight!

Jefferson County: Keeping It Classy

Jefferson County: Progress with a Side of Dystopia Jefferson’s main stage featured a sobering blend of hope and bureaucratic theatrics. On the one hand, local organizations are scrambling to pick up the slack as OPNET funding disappears, hoping advocacy and recovery efforts can stem the tide of addiction. Yet, there’s no escaping the fact that losing proactive policing might leave communities more vulnerable.

On a brighter note, the arts are alive! Port Townsend is buzzing about an upcoming film festival, showcasing the creative resilience of this quirky enclave. A friendly reminder to support local filmmakers because Hollywood doesn’t have a monopoly on storytelling.

FROM WAR TO PEACE In a heartwarming turn of events, we're seeing a shift from "inhuman to humane"[2]. It's almost like someone's been reading my Julius Evola collection and decided to turn over a new leaf. Who says right-wingers can't appreciate a good redemption story?

HONORING OUR HEROES Veterans Day ceremonies are popping up faster than organic kale in my garden[2]. From Gardiner to Port Townsend, we're showing our vets some well-deserved love. Because nothing says "thank you for your service" like a good old-fashioned ceremony and maybe a free coffee at the local diner.

Kitsap County: The Quiet Achiever

Kitsap County: Storms and Showdowns Over in Kitsap, heavy rains and strong winds recently knocked out power for thousands. Our neighbors weathered the storm with admirable grit, but the incident underscores the need for robust infrastructure in an era of increasing climate volatility. Also, Kitsap’s ongoing push for better public transit has sparked heated debates, with locals torn between economic feasibility and environmental urgency. Cue the popcorn; this saga isn’t over yet.

Folks, I scoured the interwebs for some juicy Kitsap news, but it seems our neighbors are keeping it on the down-low.

BELL HILL HINT

Here on East Bell Hill, we know that self-reliance isn’t just a hashtag; it’s a lifestyle. Whether it’s OPNET’s funding woes or a highway tragedy, these stories remind us of the importance of community resilience. The world can be chaotic, but we’ve got donkeys to hug, gardens to tend, and a local arts scene to uplift. Let’s keep questioning the narratives, supporting each other, and building something real.

THE KAI-LIGHT REEL

Now, let's zoom out for a second. While we're all caught up in our local bubble, remember that we're living in a world that might just be a giant computer simulation. So next time you're arguing with your neighbor about property lines, just remember – it might all be ones and zeros, baby!

But hey, simulation or not, there's something beautiful about our little corner of the world. From the artists pushing boundaries to the witches making waves (literally), we're keeping it real – or as real as it gets in this matrix.

And you know what? In a world that sometimes feels like it's spinning off its axis, our community's commitment to honoring veterans and shifting towards more humane perspectives warms my heart. It's a reminder that even us skeptics can appreciate the good in people.

So, whether you're a right-wing homesteader like yours truly, a left-leaning lavender farmer, or somewhere in between, remember – we're all in this together. Unless, of course, we're not, and this is all just a highly sophisticated computer program. In which case, I hope I'm at least coded as devastatingly handsome!

Stay free, stay skeptical, and for the love of all that's holy, stay away from those business license fees! This is Kai, signing off from the hilltop. Until next time, stay wild and wonderful!

Citations: [1] https://www.myclallamcounty.com [2] https://www.peninsuladailynews.com [3] https://www.sequimgazette.com

[anna-mellgren]

The 33 reasons Bill Ackman is voting for Trump:

(1) Open the borders to millions of immigrants who were not screened for their risk to the country, dumping them into communities where the new immigrants overwhelm existing communities and the infrastructure to support the new entrants, at the expense of the historic residents.

(2) Introduce economic policies and massively increase spending without regard to their impact on inflation and the consequences for low-income Americans and the increase in our deficit and national debt.

(3) Withdraw from Afghanistan, abandoning our local partners and the civilians who worked alongside us in an unprepared, overnight withdrawal that led to American casualties and destroyed the lives of Afghani women and girls for generations, against the strong advice of our military leadership, and thereafter not showing appropriate respect for their loss at a memorial ceremony in their honor.

(4) Introduce thousands of new and unnecessary regulations in light of the existing regulatory regime that interfere with our businesses’ ability to compete, restraining the development of desperately needed housing, infrastructure, and energy production with the associated inflationary effects.

(5) Modify the bail system so that violent criminals are released without bail.

(6) Destroy our street retailers and communities and promote lawlessness by making shoplifting (except above large thresholds) no longer a criminal offense.

(7) Limit and/or attempt to limit or ban fracking and LNG so that U.S. energy costs increase substantially and the U.S. loses its energy independence.

(8) Promote DEI ideologies that award jobs, awards, and university admissions on the basis of race, sexual identity and gender criteria, and teach our students and citizens that the world can only be understood as an unfair battle between oppressors and the oppressed, where the oppressors are only successful due to structural racism or a rigged system and the oppressed are simply victims of an unfair system and world.

(9) Educate our elementary children that gender is fluid, something to be chosen by a child, and promote hormone blockers and gender reassignment surgeries to our youth without regard to the longer-term consequences to their mental and physical health, and allow biological boys and men to compete in girls and women's sports, depriving girls and women of scholarships, awards, and other opportunities that they would have rightly earned otherwise.

(10) Encourage and celebrate massive protests and riots that lead to the burning and destruction of local retail and business establishments while at the same time requiring schools to be shuttered because of the risk of Covid-19 spreading during large gatherings.

(11) Encourage and celebrate anti-American and anti-Israel protests and flag burning on campuses around the country with no consequences for the protesters who violate laws or university codes and policies.

(12) Allow antisemitism to explode with no serious efforts from the administration to quell this hatred.

(13) Mandate vaccines that have not been adequately tested nor have their risks been properly considered compared with the potential benefits adjusted for the age and health of the individual, censoring the contrary advice of top scientists around the world.

(14) Shut down free speech in media and on social media platforms that is inconsistent with government policies and objectives.

(15) Use the U.S., state, and local legal systems to attack and attempt to jail, take off the campaign trail, and/or massively fine candidates for the presidency without regard to the merits or precedential issues of the case.

(16) Seek to defund the police and promote anti-police rhetoric causing a loss of confidence in those who are charged with protecting us.

(17) Use government funds to subsidize auto companies and internet providers with vastly more expensive, dated and/or lower-quality technology when greatly superior and cheaper alternatives are available from companies that are owned and/or managed by individuals not favored by the current administration.

(18) Mandate in legislation and otherwise government solutions to problems when the private sector can do a vastly better, faster, and cheaper job.

(19) Seek to ban gas-powered cars and stoves without regard to the economic and practical consequences of doing so.

(20) Take no serious actions when 45 American citizens are killed by terrorists and 12 are taken hostage.

(21) Hold back armaments and weaponry from our most important ally in the Middle East in the midst of their hostage negotiations, hostages who include American citizens who have now been held for more than one year.

(22) Eliminate sanctions on one of our most dangerous enemies enabling them to generate $150 billion+ of cash reserves from oil sales, which they can then use to fund terrorist proxy organizations who attack us and our allies. Exchange five American hostages held by Iran for five Iranians plus $6 billion of cash in the worst hostage negotiation in history setting a disastrous and dangerous precedent.

(23) Remove known terrorist organizations from the terrorist list so we can provide aid to their people, and allow them to shoot rockets at U.S. assets and military bases with little if any military response from us.

(24) Lie to the American people about the cognitive health of the president and accuse those who provide video evidence of his decline of sharing doctored videos and being right-wing conspirators.

(25) Do nothing about the deteriorating health of our citizens driven by the food industrial complex, the fraudulent USDA food pyramid, and the inclusion of ingredients in our food that are banned by other countries around the world which are more protective of their citizens.

(26) Do nothing about the proliferation of new vaccines that are not properly analyzed for their risk versus the potential benefit for healthy children who are mandated to receive them.

(27) Do nothing about the continued exemption from liability for the pharma industry that has led to a proliferation of mandatory vaccines for children without considering the potential cumulative effects of the now mandated 72-shot regime.

(28) Convince our minority youth that they are victims of a rigged system and that the American dream is not available to them.

(29) Fail to provide adequate Secret Service protection for alternative presidential candidates.

(30) Litigate to prevent alternative candidates from getting on the ballot, and take other anti-competitive steps including threatening political consultants who wish to work for alternative candidates for the presidency, and limit the potential media access for other candidates by threatening the networks' future access to the administration and access to 'scoops' if they platform an alternative candidate.

(31) Select the Democratic nominee for president in a backroom process by undisclosed party leaders without allowing Americans to choose between candidates in an open primary.

(32) Choose an inferior candidate for the presidency when other much more qualified candidates are available and interested to serve.

(33) Litigate to make it illegal for states to require proof of citizenship, voter ID, and/or residence in order to vote at a time when many Americans have lost confidence in the accuracy and trustworthiness of our voting system.

Here is the thing, I agree with ~ 66% of the points he made.

To be exact I agree with points: 1,2,3,4,5,6,9,10,12,14,16,17,18,22,24,25,30,31,32,33.

Bill Ackman is someone I respect, which is why I did my research to understand why he is voting for Trump after being a lifelong Democrat. I think it is important for the Democratic party to understand why a good portion of the party is dissatisfied with a lot of policies as well which is why I posted Bill's reasons even though I don't agree with all of them.

Bill Ackman and I fundamentally disagree on the USA's handling of Israel. To send weapons & fund a genocidal terror campaign which has killed over 44 000 people is unconscionable. There have been no sanctions, no serious diplomatic intervention & no actual condemnation from the Democratic party. I was not born yesterday & I understand it is a complicated conflict but the silence is deafening from the Western world. I am absolutely not anti-semitic & I believe Jews have the right to live in peace but it does not give them the right to obliterate a people & tear the UN partition resolution of 1947 to pieces. I don't support the horrific events of October 7th. I also don't support the torture & mass murder of children in Gaza. Some of us can have more than one thought in our heads at the same time. This conflict is so infested that serious outside intervention is required for it to stop because it did not start on October 7th. Swedish activists tried to send aid ships to Palestine for years, these ships were only filled with food and medical supplies. The ships had no political motive but to ease human suffering. The ships were always denied entry by the Israeli navy even though the Israeli navy was allowed to inspect everything on the ship. It is not right to deny Palestinians basic human dignity for decades.

I think women should have the right to abortion for the first 3 months of pregnancy. I don't think automatic weapons should be sold at walmart so literally anyone who is mentally ill can go and shoot up an elementary school class on a whim. I don't stand by the hateful rhetoric spewed from the Republican Party where ¨comedians¨ get away with calling Puerto Rico an island of trash. This gives bullies at school the green light to bully Latino children because if adults do it, why can't they? I don't like Trump because he is a convicted sexual predator who has stained the moral fabric of America.

Don’t wait for the “perfect” candidate because you’ll be waiting a long time. Vote for the “good enough,” or the “moves things in the right direction,” or the “status quo who won’t make things worse” candidates. I'll be voting for Kamala Harris. This election is too important to stay quiet.

[hellostranger1961]

my local library has been an oasis for the community post-helene. with no internet or television and very little reliable cell service, the library has opened their doors for anyone who needs to get in touch with family members and read up on local and global news. you can even pull up into the parking lot after hours and connect. not to mention the amount of dvds and books that are being checked out by people searching for ways to entertain themselves on what is now day 5 of this communication blackout. one librarian told me they usually have 500 daily users on their internet. in the past few days, they have had 5,000. that's the entire town's population and then some!

meanwhile, in black mountain, police were guarding an ingles from "looters." black mountain is in buncombe, the hardest hit county of wnc. if i were on local government, this would make me reasses how funding is distributed. also, would love to see our county commissioners try to defund the library now because a child might find out gay people exist by picking up a picture book. suckers.

[thalkonvotes]

Democratic Socialists of America

** We want a democracy that creates space for us all to flourish not just survive and answers the fundamental questions of our lives with the input of all. We want to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation. We want the multiracial working class united in solidarity instead of divided by fear. We want to win “radical” reforms like single-payer Medicare for All, defunding the police/refunding communities, the Green New Deal, and more as a transition to a freer, more just life. 

Candidates

Steven Hudson (A: 1/22/23; Insufficient Funds)

** Excerpt taken from dsausa.org About page

Back to 2024 Party List

[callese]

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