Author: Josh Ceretti On Monday June 15th, a delegation from Whatcom Peace and Justice met with Rick Larsen, who represents the area in between Bellingham and Everett in Congress. Participants included WPJC Executive Director Aline Prata, board members Yoav Litvin and Josh Cerretti, WPJC interns Devan Gunther, Marii Herlinger, and Aisha Mansour, Alternatives to Military Service volunteer Zi Zhang, as well as Gene Marx from Veterans for Peace and three of the Congressman's staff.
After the requisite technical glitches, Aline began by explaining to Larsen some of the problems with the proposed Justice in Policing Act, which he had highlighted for our feedback. Aline pointed to the failure of existing rules and punishments to reduce police violence, suggesting that more regulations to be continuously broken are not what is needed, but a transformation in the very idea of policing and the carceral state. Josh then pressed the Congressman on the specific problem of police militarization, particularly as it is enabled through the Department of Defense's 1033 program, an issue to which we will return. Yoav provided Larsen with information on community control of police and how that model differs substantially from the community policing model for which many politicians are seeking more funding. Zi continued with a story from another volunteer about police presence in our local schools, asking the Congressman to support legislation that would remove School Resource Officers from their embedded positions within educational institutions. Last but not least, Gene placed these concerns in a global context by detailing multiple ways the Pentagon could save billions of dollars and asking Larsen to commit to a smaller Department of Defense budget in the next cycle. We appreciate the Congressman taking the time to meet with us, but those familiar with his record will not be surprised to learn that we received little support and no solid commitments from him. He promised to bring our concerns about too-little-too-late reforms in policing, community control, the school-to-prison pipeline, as well as local and global militarisms to Washington DC. At the same time, Larsen responded evasively or defensively to many of our propositions, so we're asking for your help to make sure he fulfills his obligations to the people he represents and acts to demilitarize law enforcement here in the United States. In recent weeks, many thoughtful critiques and examinations of the DoD's 1033 program have demonstrated how local police increasingly got their hands on military equipment that they are now using to brutalize Black people and other marginalized communities across the country. This program was instituted in the 1990s to help the military deal with a surplus of equipment needlessly stockpiled during the Cold War and Gulf War. In the wake of the LA Uprising and the mainstreaming of antiblack 'law and order' politics, many state, city, and county police forces sought gear that would allow them to more easily dominate and control large groups of civilians. This program deployed millions of dollars of military weapons within the borders claimed by the United States before a temporary halt in 2015 in the wake of reactions against militarized policing of Black-led uprisings in Ferguson, Baltimore, and elsewhere. The fragility of this sort of progressive reform became clear when the 1033 was reinstated in 2017 and even a cursory scan of coverage from recent protests demonstrates that responses to civil unrest have only become more militarized in recent years. Congressman Larsen responded to our initial critique of this program by pointing to the fact, flogged in many recent reports defending the program, that the 1033 program also involves transfers of office furniture and a large quantity of non-martial goods. What such a position fails to grasp is that all of these transfers, whether it's the mine-resistant vehicle owned by the Whatcom County Sherriffs or a comfy office chair used by a county health department worker, increase militarization. Militarization is the step-by-step process through which a person, institution, or idea comes to depend upon the military for its well being. The 1033 program makes local governments more dependent on the military for their functioning, drafting them to serve military ends with tricks to alleviate budget constraints. Furthermore, the program reduces the costs of decommissioning gear that often should not have been built in the first place, promoting careless spending by the Department of Defense and artificially disguising the costs of the waste they produce. That's why Whatcom Peace and Justice has supported attempts to end the program for years, even though most of the 'fixes' proposed so far only restrict the transfer of weapons and leave this militarizing program intact. An example of one of these good, but not good enough, responses to the 1033 program is the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act introduced by Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson in March of 2019. We were pleased to see that on June 11th, 2020, Congressman Larsen became a co-sponsor of this bill that was introduced with 66 original co-sponsors, of which he was not a part, fifteen months ago. Oddly, when praised for this, Larsen questioned the accuracy of Congress.gov, told our team to 'dig a little deeper,' and claimed to have been working on the issue with Johnson since 2015. While evidence exists of the two collaborating on small business loans and other projects, the fact remains that Larsen is not an original co-sponsor of this bill and did not sign up to be one until weeks after police murdered George Floyd and then responded with military force against protestors. We would have been open to hearing the Congressman explain how recent events had pushed him to take a stronger position on this issue but he instead claimed to have always been on top of this issue and, in our estimation, took credit for the work of his Black colleague. As of July 10th, it would seem clear that the Justice in Policing Act, despite being passed by the House, will not pass the Senate and become law. This makes it even more imperative to have a focused piece of legislation that takes action on the militarization of policing instead of speaking out against it publicly while voting to fund it when Congress is in session. Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez has introduced a Demilitarizing Local Law Enforcement bill (HR 7143) that would repeal the military surplus program entirely (instead of just restricting certain transfers). The bill has 14 co-sponsors, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Barbara Lee, but not Larsen. In June, the bill was referred to the House Armed Services Committee on which Larsen sits, but he has made no statements in favor of this bill or taken any action to advance it. We demand more from our representatives. So, we're asking you, supporters of Whatcom Peace and Justice to reach out to Congressman Rick Larsen. Let him know you oppose the militarization of policing, the militarization of civilian governance, and the camouflaging of military spending's true costs through the Department of Defense's 1033 program. This program needs to be ended and we need to re-assess the presence of military equipment in all security forces, from local police departments up to federal agencies like ICE and Border Patrol. Here's a template for your message: [This template is designed for people in the 2nd Congressional District (Find your rep). Feel free to modify it to contact your Representative if you don’t live in the 2nd] Dear Congressman Larsen, I am writing to encourage you to take action on the militarization of policing and to support H.R. 7143, the Demilitarizing Local Law Enforcement Act of 2020. In recent weeks, many thoughtful critiques and examinations of the DoD's 1033 program have demonstrated how local police increasingly got their hands on military equipment that they are now using to brutalize Black people and other marginalized communities across the country. This program was instituted in the 1990s to help the military deal with a surplus of equipment needlessly stockpiled during the Cold War and Gulf War. In the wake of the LA Uprising and the mainstreaming of antiblack 'law and order' politics, many state, city, and county police forces sought gear that would allow them to more easily dominate and control large groups of civilians. This program deployed millions of dollars of military weapons within the borders claimed by the United States before a temporary halt in 2015 in the wake of reactions against militarized policing of Black-led uprisings in Ferguson, Baltimore, and elsewhere. The fragility of this sort of progressive reform became clear when the 1033 was reinstated in 2017 and even a cursory scan of coverage from recent protests demonstrates that responses to civil unrest have only become more militarized in recent years. I appreciate your co-sponsorship of Congressman Hank Johnson’s Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act as well as your vote in favor of the Justice in Policing Act, both of which would limit transfers of military equipment to civilian police if passed into law. Unfortunately, neither piece of legislation goes far enough and many barriers stand in the way of their adoption. So, I urge you to become a co-sponsor of House Resolution 7143, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez’s Demilitarizing Local Law Enforcement Act of 2020, and to do everything in your ability to move this bill forward on the Armed Services Committee. Your constituents do not want tanks, rifles, and armored stormtroopers on the streets of our communities. We see the connections between the last two decades of senseless wars initiated by the US abroad and the resultant militarization of life at home, exemplified by recent waves of police violence. As my Representative, I’m asking you to take action and help demilitarize local law enforcement. Best, [Your name]
Micki Jackson
7/17/2020 08:36:19 pm
Thank you, Josh Ceretti, for this clear, cogent report on your recent meeting with Congressman Larsen. Comments are closed.
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