Bulletin on U.S. Domestic Militarization # 3

Bulletin on U.S. Domestic Militarization # 3

Bulletin on U.S. Domestic Militarization

As the United States’ imperial hegemony deteriorates around the globe, the ruling elite has stepped up its domestic militarization of police departments while continuing to install U.S. military bases across the Global South. City and state governments are allocating more funding to create police training facilities, while decreasing funds for necessary things like education, housing, healthcare, and public infrastructure. Baltimore, MD, San Pablo, CA, Atlanta, GA, and Nashville, TN are some of the most recent sites where fascism is intensifying. 

These facilities, deemed “Cop Cities” are being created, notably, in proximity to cities with substantive populations of Black people. For example, Baltimore is developing a cop city on the campus of Coppin State, an HBCU. Increased police militarization is a key sign of rising levels of fascism in the United States, but the state also relies on the targeted repression of dissent. The state execution of Tortuguita is a harrowing example of how far the U.S. settler state will go in attacking anyone who dares to oppose its global military expansion. Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, also known as Tortuguita, was an unarmed Stop Cop City activist shot 57 times and killed on January 18, 2023  by Georgia police during a raid of the Stop Cop City encampment.

In Atlanta, several organizers of the Stop Cop City movement have been charged with racketeering, corruption, and money laundering, for opposing domestic militarization. This, along with espionage charges against members of the African People’s Socialist Party, make it clear that we must continue to expose the linkages and oppose the domestic war tactics against African peoples also used to exploit our people abroad. As BAP noted in our statement on Baltimore’s activities, “What was once a fixation on a ‘war on drugs,’ is now being slated as a ‘war on crime’ to justify the approval of bloated budgets for more policing ‘to healing the wounds of the past,’ while ignoring the ongoing plight of the poor, working-class residents of the city that includes a lack of sufficient basic human needs, and any semblance of People(s)-Centered Human Rights.”

This month’s newsletter discusses the various campaigns to end pig cities in Atlanta, Baltimore, and San Pablo and provides updates on efforts to eradicate the 1033 program. 

No Compromise, No Retreat!

Baltimore

  • BAP-Baltimore’s Citywide Alliance released a statement strongly opposing “the proposal for a new $330 million joint training facility for Baltimore’s police and fire departments on West Baltimore’s Coppin State University campus.”

  • “Routinely half of Baltimore’s discretionary annual budget is allocated to police such that Baltimore spends the most per capita of any major city in the United States on policing.” - BAP Baltimore statement on the ongoing water crisis

  • Proposed Baltimore police and fire training facility has hefty price tag: $330 million

  • Baltimore PD has maintained a relationship for some years with Coppin State, going so far as to offer “career advancement” opportunities in the form of internships with Coppin State.

San Pablo

Atlanta

  • Thanks to the hard work of local Atlanta organizations like Community Movement Builders and other BAP Citywide Alliance members, Atlantans are becoming increasingly aware and opposed to using city funds for the $90 million police training facility. 

  • Legal repression is a key tool for Atlanta’s ruling elite against its residents: Despite the fact that the Cop City Vote Coalition successfully gathered over 100,000 votes to put forward a referendum on Cop City, city councilmembers are dragging their feet on putting the issue to a vote.

  • Organizers in Atlanta are working to defend the sixty-one people who have been indicted on racketeering and terrorism charges.

Additional Stories:

Banner photo: A row of militarily equipped police, clad in black armored gear with “police” across their chests. (courtesy slate.com)

Bulletin on U.S. Domestic Militarization #2

Bulletin on U.S. Domestic Militarization #2

In February, the “Bulletin on U.S. Domestic Militarization” replaced “The 1033 Monthly.” This iteration of the newsletter aims to provide a broader look at militarization in the United States, of which the U.S. Department of Defense’s 1033 program plays a role.

On April 18, four members of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) were indicted on espionage charges. The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) recently released a statement, highlighting the “assault on the efforts of Africans organizing against the violence and murders suffered at the hands of the U.S. state.” That has been made plain with the attack on those who dare to speak out against the U.S. empire. The U.S. state continues to develop 21st-century COINTELPRO tactics against organizers to sustain its fearmongering, particularly against African/Black radical formations.

Despite the radical rhetoric of establishment figures during the summer 2020 uprisings, domestic militarism has ramped up. Fortunately, Philadelphia organizers’ significant victory in eradicating the U.S. Department of Defense’s 1033 program following a recent lawsuit against the city indicates we must continue to sustain BAP’s umbrella campaign, “No Compromise, No Retreat: Defeat the War Against African/Black People in the U.S. and Abroad.” The efforts of BAP-Atlanta members in the Stop Cop City movement are a testament to how much BAP must persist in organizing for our demands.

BAP’s Research and Political Education Team hopes this installment of the “Bulletin on U.S. Domestic Militarization,” and the organizing efforts underway, reveal the promise around BAP’s effort to end the 1033 program.

MILITARIZATION NEWS

Philadelphia Will Pay $9M to Settle George Floyd Protesters’ Suit Over Brutality
March 21, 2023, Truthout

  • Protesters were awarded nearly $10 million in a lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia for police violence during the course of the 2020 summer uprisings

  • Part of this settlement included the dissolution of the 1033 program from Philadelphia’s police department

  • Earlier in March, New York City also paid out a minimum of $21,500 to about 320 protesters from the 2020 summer uprisings

It’s Time to End the Outrageous Militarization of America’s Police Force
February 21, 2023, by Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation

  • A short editorial piece exploring the significance of ending militarization of U.S. law enforcement

  • Goes over the historical development of the 1033 program, including the various reforms instituted under the Obama and Trump administrations

  • Highlights the efforts of organizers, such as from a group called Decarcerate Memphis, in efforts to remove 1033 in the Tennessee city

ADDITIONAL NEWS

No Compromise, No Retreat!
Research and Political Education Team
Black Alliance for Peace

P.S. Freedom isn’t free. We are doing this work with no full-time staff and no big foundation support. Consider giving today.

Banner photo: Protesters faced off with police during a demonstration Oct. 27, 2020, in Philadelphia. Hundreds of demonstrators marched in West Philadelphia over the death of Walter Wallace Jr., an African/Black who was killed by city police. Community members said there is a well-documented past of the police department’s racial discrimination and brutality against the African/Black population. (Michael Perez/The Associated Press)

Bulletin on U.S. Domestic Militarization #1

Bulletin on U.S. Domestic Militarization #1

The “Bulletin on U.S. Domestic Militarization” replaces “The 1033 Monthly.” This iteration aims to provide a broader look at militarization in the United States, of which the U.S. Department of Defense’s 1033 program plays a role.

The internal war in the United States continues on the working class and on people outside the point of production, such as the poor and others unable to work. As the cost of living continues to rise, so does the budget for policing. This serves as a painful reminder that the U.S. government is less concerned with meeting the needs of people living within its illegitimate borders and more concerned with protecting the property and capital of the ruling class. In the last year alone, police killed 1,185 people in the United States, with African/Black people accounting for 26 percent of those murdered.

The United States currently operates an estimated 800 to 1,000 military bases across the globe. Likewise, U.S. police forces, such as the New York Police Department, have international outposts in more than 12 countries, in cities such as Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv, Paris and London. That these outposts have been deemed necessary for “counter-terrorism” should raise eyebrows for anyone familiar with the ongoing struggle in Atlanta against a $90 million police-training facility dubbed “Cop City.” It is no mistake that a terrorism law passed after a white supremacist murdered nine African/Black churchgoers in South Carolina is being weaponized to repress activists and organizers.

“Terrorism,” in the eyes of bourgeois law, includes the activity of climate activists, reproductive-rights activists, anti-fascists and those who oppose racial capitalism. This information should leave little doubt in anyone’s mind about the international character of our struggle against the domestic occupying force known as the police. 

No Compromise, No Retreat!
Research and Political Education Team
Black Alliance for Peace


MILITARIZATION NEWS

The Most Militarized Local Police Departments in America

  • This article dives into the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency’s reporting to evaluate which police departments receive the most in military equipment through the federal 1033 program.

  • Most notably, the city that has received the most in military surplus equipment (on record) is Sacramento, California. The $8.3 million acquisition includes a utility helicopter and excavation equipment.

  • Equipment that appears to correlate to higher amounts in surplus received are mine-resistant vehicles, helicopters, and trucks.

Check Out Which Coastal Georgia Police Departments Have Federal Military Equipment

  • This article evaluates the specific types of equipment and materials that Georgia police departments use and procure through the 1033 program.

  • A clear breakdown is provided of items Georgia police departments have received, including equipment acquired by leveraging 1033.

  • The logic of using military equipment as a means of helping combat climate change continues to be a logic levied by police departments, even if they do not acknowledge any clear applications that necessitate mine-resistant vehicles, for instance.

ADDITIONAL STORIES

Banner photo: Atlanta police detain demonstrators on May 30, 2020. (Associated Press/Mike Stewart)