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Page 6 August 3, 2016 O PINION Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Shocking Videos on Systemic Police Violence I can’t watch another police killing J oshua s errano Philando Castile and Alton Sterling be- came the latest black Americans to turn into Twitter hashtags when videos of their deaths at the hands of police circulated on social media. But I couldn’t bring myself to watch them. I still remember the helpless frustration I felt, my stomach twisting in knots, as I watched the video of Eric Garner being choked to death while screaming “I can’t breathe.” Over and over again, I subjected myself to the emo- tional and psychological trauma of watching someone who could have easily been me being mur- dered. Afterward, I decided that it’s by not worth my wellbeing to ever watch another video like that. That’s meant taking long breaks from social media and TV news. But it’s not like I can’t see what’s going on. In my 23 years as a New Yorker, liberal and conser- vative mayors alike — from Rudy Giuliani to Bill de Blasio — have aggressive- ly targeted struggling black and Latino communities in the city with policing. Coupled with the war on drugs that the U.S. has been waging on poor communities of color for decades, that means poor black people are more likely to have encounters with the police. And we’ve all seen how those encoun- ters can end. Similar patterns play out all over the country. Despite a news cycle driven by the latest videos of black people dying at the hands of police — with individual circum- stances endlessly debated each time — it’s beyond clear that the men and women who are killed aren’t just unlucky people in iso- lated encounters. Instead, as Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayer writes, “They are the canaries in the coal mine whose deaths, civil and liter- al, warn us that no one can breathe in this atmosphere.” There’s ample data to support that the U.S. has a big problem with police violence and racially biased policing. According to The Guardian, nearly 600 people have been killed by the police so far this year. And young black men are 9 times likelier than other Ameri- cans to die at the hands of cops. Shocking videos will come and go. But this violence will be pres- ent regardless of whether we’re watching. The problem is system- ic, and demands a systemic solu- tion. That means analyzing federal, state, and local laws that drive pat- terns in police behavior and leave no room for accountability. This can give us specific things to rally around for change. For example, special prosecu- tors, not secretive grand juries, should prosecute all police officers accused of unjustified shootings. And every department should have civilian review boards em- powered to conduct independent investigations and provide over- sight. Congress should strengthen existing laws against systemic police misconduct by lowering the legal threshold for bringing civil rights lawsuits against po- lice departments, and allowing private citizens and organizations to bring pattern-or-practice law- suits, not just the Department of Justice. Additionally, when depart- ments are found to have violated people’s civil rights, instead of simply entering an agreement to reform, these departments should have their federal funding imme- diately suspended. And cases of abuse should be brought to trial in a federal court. Moreover, all officers should get racial bias training, and train- ing that emphasizes de-escalating tense situations. Thinking systemically also means supporting community organizers and protesters work- ing to bring the anti-blackness of policing in the United States to the forefront of our national consciousness — and applying strategic, sustained pressure on our elected officials until they do something to end police violence. Finally, it also means keeping up on the news — while avoiding the urge to click “play” every sin- gle time there’s a new video of a police shooting. In a country with a not-so- distant history of lynching black people and leaving their bodies hanging to terrorize entire com- munities, these state-sanctioned executions must never seem nor- mal. Joshua Serrano is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Distributed by OtherWords. Capitalism with No Government Intervention is a Myth There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Free Market’ J ill r iChardson The debates lead- ing up to the election this year will no doubt invoke the “American value” of capitalism. But what, exactly, does that mean? And what should it mean? I’m no economist, but I took a few economics courses while earning an undergraduate business degree. Growing up in a capital- by ist society, I thought I understood the basic concepts underlying capitalism — free markets, com- petitive advantage, and so forth. Then I actually read The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, the founding work that described what we call capitalism in the first place. That was a game changer. We’re all probably fa- miliar with Smith’s ideas at some level. The market regulates itself, as each of us operates based on our own self-interest. Business- es try to earn profits, and consum- ers try to meet their needs at the best prices. The market ensures The Law Offices of Patrick John Sweeney, P.C. Patrick John Sweeney Attorney at Law 1549 SE Ladd, Portland, Oregon Portland: Hillsoboro: Facsimile: Email: (503) 244-2080 (503) 244-2081 (503) 244-2084 Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com that the demand of consumers is met with supply from business. The government’s job, the doc- trinaire thinking goes, is to get the heck out of the way. It doesn’t set prices or quotas. It just lets the market function. Adam Smith cast this arrange- ment in glowing terms in 1776. He was describing England during the Industrial Revolution. He thought onized. The British imported cotton from their colonies for their own factories, as well as wheat to feed British workers in the isles. Co- lonial India, meanwhile, suffered several massive famines. Even as tens of millions of Indians starved to death, record amounts of Indian wheat were exported to feed Brit- ish factory workers laboring in a Other British staples — tea and sugar — were also imported from British colonies. That sugar was produced by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean...Some invisible hand. it was amazing that millions of individual actors, each operating based on self-interest, could so efficiently revolutionize society without any central planning at all. Only, he was wrong. In fact, the growing British Em- pire was undertaking economic interventions on a colossal scale — and would do even more in the centuries to come. The British set out all over the globe, claiming colonies in the New World and later India and Africa, setting up trade policies that benefited the British at the expense of the col- so-called free market. Before the Industrial Revolu- tion, Indian textiles reigned su- preme. But British authorities kept industrial textile technologies out of India in order to capture the global textile market, impoverish- ing the colony further. Other British staples — tea and sugar — were also imported from British colonies. That sugar was produced by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean. Some invisible hand. Smith also overlooked the ut- ter misery textile workers lived in, even in Britain. The system “worked” at making some people rich. But the squalid and wretch- ed lifestyles of laborers, including children — which inspired the writing of Charles Dickens — were its cost. We in America have meddled in markets plenty in our own right — not least through historical crimes like slavery and colonialism. But we’ve also developed more be- nign interventions that can actual- ly help people. We ban child labor, for ex- ample, and enforce (admittedly inadequate) minimum wage pro- tections. We require businesses to offer safe and healthy workplac- es. We ban the sale of dangerous drugs. We try to regulate pharma- ceuticals to make sure they’re safe and effective. In other words, capitalism with absolutely no government interven- tion is a myth — and always was. We can debate the pros and cons of specific regulations. But if you hear a candidate claiming that capitalism means doing away with all regulations — or that any gov- ernment interference in the market equates to socialism or commu- nism — they’re being dishonest. OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food Sys- tem Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. OtherWords.org.
