July 8, 2020
Page 9
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O PINION
Letter to
the Editor
NAACP
Applauds
Police Bills
The Portland branch of the NAACP ap-
plauds the slew of policy accountability bills
passed in the Legislature’s historic special
session late last month—it is gratifying to see
the politics of the moment turned into action.
Of particular note is the content of SB
1604, which, after receiving bipartisan sup-
port in previous sessions, managed to escape
dilution and clear both chambers. This bill
goes a long way toward reforming the man-
ner in which police officers are disciplined
and the role of arbitration in that process.
Officers whose termination or disciplinary
action is overturned by an arbitrator do not
have credibility with the public or their peers.
Standardization, consistency, and transpar-
ency in the discipline are all important and
necessary components of police reform as
we ride this wave of transformation.
We want to pause here and stress that
these pieces of legislation are just the begin-
ning. The People of Color Caucus are to be
commended for their excellent work, and
likewise, understand that we have a long way
to go.
Here in Portland, in addition to the chang-
es that will come as a result of SB 1604,
we support the push for a truly independent
police accountability panel with subpoena
powers to avoid any perception of “The po-
lice policing the police.” This panel should
be diverse and representative.
We need to do everything we can to ensure
discipline from misconduct is in line with the
public’s expectations. We believe the trust of
the community can in fact be won by the po-
lice overtime under the right circumstances.
Right now, demonstrators across the coun-
try are demanding more from those sworn to
protect and serve. If the PPB is ever to live
up to being “Portland’s Finest,” they need to
chip away at the wall separating themselves
from the citizens they police. We imagine a
future where both the police and ordinary cit-
izens consider themselves to be on the same
side: Working together to improve public
safety and neighborhood livability.
From the Senate floor, Sen. Lew Frederick
quoted a stanza of Lift Every Voice and Sing,
often referred to as the Black National An-
them and in 1919, it became the official song
of the NAACP. In it, the lyrics encourage us
to embrace “The faith that the dark past has
taught us.”
We share Sen. Frederick’s desire to
“March on until victory is won,” although we
are unsure that our dark past should inspire
faith. Our hope is that this time is different
and that a year from now we find ourselves in
a world vastly improved from the one we are
in now. To accomplish that, perhaps a little
faith is needed.
E.D. Mondainé, Portland NAACP pres-
ident
Police Protecting Powerful Not a Public Good
Maybe now
that can change
r avi M angla
For
decades,
we’ve been told that
policing is a public
good: available to
all, for the benefit of
all. But in practice,
that’s never been
true.
One of the basic measures of a “pub-
lic good” is that it’s accessible to all peo-
ple in a society, regardless of ability to
pay. But from the beginning, policing in
this country was designed to protect the
assets of the most privileged.
Boston merchants were the first to
persuade lawmakers in 1838 that a full-
time, publicly funded police force would
serve the “collective good.” In reality,
they wanted to get the public to pay
for protecting their shipped goods and
routes.
In the South, where the economy de-
pended on enslaved labor, publicly fund-
ed slave patrols were created in 1704 to
surveil, track, and punish Black people
who attempted to escape. As historian
Sally Hadden notes, “Most law enforce-
ment was, by definition, white patrolmen
watching, catching, or beating Black
slaves” — who were legally considered
the property of wealthy white men.
Today, all across the U.S., landlords
and property managers enlist law en-
forcement to forcibly evict low-income
tenants. Police regularly remove home-
less individuals from parks and public
spaces. And cops routinely stop, search,
and threaten Black and brown people
by
when they drive or walk through white
neighborhoods.
We’ve seen these disparities in policing
increase since the outbreak of COVID-19.
And soon, with eviction moratoriums lift-
ing across the country, tens of thousands
of struggling tenants will be sent eviction
notices. When families have no place else
to go and landlords call in law enforce-
ment, who do you think the police will
serve and protect?
For centuries, police have taken the
side of power, at the expense of those
most marginalized.
Police have never protected Black lives
we had a federal jobs guarantee, people
would not be forced into an underground
economy that fuels a cruel and punishing
prison system.
But instead of addressing root causes
of insecurity, leaders of both parties have
often chosen to defund education and hos-
pitals while resisting significant reduc-
tions to policing.
What if public safety were a public
good? What would that look like?
It would mean funding nonviolent tools
to de-escalate and respond to safety con-
cerns. It would mean engaging communi-
ty members in collective decision-mak-
If people had guaranteed
housing, there would be no one
sleeping in subway cars, in parks,
or on sidewalks for the police to
round up.
as much as they protect white property.
And when people protest having their
safety threatened — as in the nationwide
protests after the murder of George Floyd
— they’re met with further violence from
police.
Safety is born out of investment in true
public goods. Policing in America reveals
a lack of it.
If people had guaranteed housing, there
would be no one sleeping in subway cars,
in parks, or on sidewalks for the police to
round up. If people had universal health
care, mental health problems might be
treated instead of criminalized. And if
ing, since each community has unique
needs. And, most importantly, it means
using an anti-racist framework to create
new approaches to public safety.
We’re in a transformative moment in
history where structural change is with-
in our grasp. Reform has failed time and
time again to address the problem of po-
lice violence. It’s more clear than ever that
we need to divest from policing and invest
in universal public goods that create true
public safety, not just the illusion of it.
Ravi Mangla is political education pro-
gram manager for Citizen Action of New
York.