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<font size="1"><a href="https://theappeal.org/cops-marching-in-police-violence-protests/?fbclid=IwAR0sdOwto72Fm07qMKgYN5yMjVlYE5l1lpYtVX9zmwuF8Esuunzd8VQ61UM">https://theappeal.org/cops-marching-in-police-violence-protests/?fbclid=IwAR0sdOwto72Fm07qMKgYN5yMjVlYE5l1lpYtVX9zmwuF8Esuunzd8VQ61UM</a></font>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Don’t Let Cops Join Our Protests</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Derecka Purnell
Jun 02, 2020</div>
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<h2>Cops who turn marches against police violence into parades don’t actually want substantial changes to policing.</h2>
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<p><em>This piece is a commentary, part of The Appeal’s collection of opinion and analysis.</em></p>
<p><span>Sunday is my Sabbath. I rest and rejuvenate. Every now and
then, I steal my own phone from the shelf where I pretend to hide it and
check on the world. The other day I was shocked by what I witnessed.
Police officers were participating in protests against police violence.</span></p>
<p><span>In Flint, Michigan, the sheriff looked down on a sea of Black
people sickened with the waves of recent police violence. The sheriff
joined them,</span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/us/flint-michigan-protest-police-trnd/index.html"> <span>saying</span></a><span>:
“I want to make this a parade, not a protest!” In Kansas City,
Missouri, a Black police officer and a white police officer held up a
sign that read “End Police Brutality.” Camden, New Jersey, officers
marched in the front of local protests. NYPD officers took a page from
Colin Kaepernick’s playbook: They kneeled. </span><a href="https://twitter.com/diabliitax/status/1267326881717719041"><span>One hour later</span></a><span>, they stood up and attacked the crowd that surrounded them.</span></p>
<p><span>For many, acts of police solidarity are wins. Some people
believe that “good cops” lead by example for “bad apple” cops who bring
shame to the profession. Police reformers hope that relationship
building, diversity, and dialogue will make policing less violent. It
cannot. And we must never invite or encourage police to march with us in
protest against their own violence. </span></p>
<p><span>Initially, my plea appears divisive. Wouldn’t you rather have police marching with you instead of</span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/05/31/atlanta-mayor-fires-2-officers-who-tased-man-in-shocking-video/#38f6230a65e0"> <span>breaking your windows</span></a><span>, pulling you out of your car, and shooting you with a stun gun like they did to a </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/us/atlanta-cops-fired-excessive-force/index.html"><span>Black couple in Atlanta</span></a><span>? Isn’t marching with police better than getting</span><a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2020/05/31/third-day-protests-move-through-downtown-detroit/5302581002/"> <span>tear-gassed</span></a><span>
by them like I did in Ferguson, Missouri? Why can’t we try to see eye
to eye with the police, instead of losing an eye after one of them
shoots you in the face with a rubber bullet,</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/us/minneapolis-protests-press.html"><span> like journalist Linda Tirado</span></a><span>?</span></p>
<p><span>Yet history and my spirit tell me that the police who stand
with us today will not sacrifice anything to end police violence
tomorrow. Will any of them agree to firing police officers en masse?
Will they march to cut their multimillion- and </span><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nypd-defends-its-massive-budget-social-services-and-youth-programs-are-cut"><span>multibillion</span></a><span>-dollar
budgets and urge city councils to invest in Black communities? Will
those officers conduct sit-ins to build more schools than cop academies
and jails? Will they call on their police unions to retract their </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/09/18/494451660/the-nations-largest-police-union-endorses-donald-trump"><span>endorsements</span></a><span>
of President Trump? Will they refuse to enforce laws that criminalize
poverty, Blackness, and sexual orientation? And will these officers
demand that their departments release disciplinary records and disclose
complaints against them and their colleagues? No to all of the above. </span></p>
<p><span>Why not?</span></p>
<p><span>Marching officers will refuse significant changes to policing,
in part because they receive their orders from politicians who empower
police to be violent. These politicians, too, will yell “Black lives
matter” in Black churches on Sunday and veto cuts to police budgets on
Monday. Several legislators sponsored </span><a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/05/19/blue-lives-matter-bill-police-brutality/"><span>Blue Lives Matter bills</span></a><span>,
and President Barack Obama chose to sign federal legislation to protect
police officers at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, even
though Black people were getting run over by cops and bystanders alike,
tear-gassed, shot with rubber bullets, and beaten. </span></p>
<p><span>We must also reject police from our protests for strategic reasons. </span><a href="https://www.nj.com/essex/2016/11/newark_to_announce_expanded_patrols_that_link_cler.html"><span>Cops befriend activists and community leaders</span></a><span> to build records and intelligence about local activism. </span><a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/4/10/18365993/watchdogs-undercover-cops-rahm-aides-kept-tabs-on-protesters"><span>Undercover officers</span></a><span>
spy on Black activists and plant devices in their homes, schools, and
meetings. Additionally, encouraging police officers to join weakens the
power of protests in the future. Why would you go into the streets to
fight against the police who turned your protest into a fun parade? Why
would police officers confront the violence in their departments if they
have self-appointed spokespeople of the Black community on speed dial
to successfully discourage dissent?</span></p>
<p><span>Police, ultimately, are the problem. Not merely the collection
of their individual brutal acts. This is exactly why we can learn from
several LGBTQ organizations that</span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/13/cops-out-of-pride-lgbt-police"> <span>oppose officers at parades.</span></a><span>
Cops wreak havoc in queer communities. LGBTQ Americans are incarcerated
at a rate three times higher than the general population because of </span><a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/sexual_orientation/publications/equalizer/2019-july/impact-of-incarceration-and-policing-in-our-community/"><span>police profiling</span></a><span>. Almost </span><a href="https://www.transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS%20Full%20Report%20-%20FINAL%201.6.17.pdf"><span>90 percent of LGBTQ respondents</span></a><span>
surveyed reported that during sex work or allegations thereof, the
police harassed, attacked, mistreated, or sexually assaulted them. The</span><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/nypd-apology-for-stonewall-not-accepted/"><span> Stonewall Rebellion</span></a><span>, which historians suggest catalyzed the gay rights movement, was a response to a police raid on a gay club. </span></p>
<p><span>Today, it would be absurd if</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/03/19/philadelphias-cinco-de-mayo-festival-was-just-canceled-amid-fears-of-an-ice-raid/"><span> ICE agents led a Cinco de Mayo</span></a><span> parade, or if</span><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/08/cia-helping-nypd-spy-probably-muslims/338695/"> <span>CIA agents</span></a><span>
wished Eid Mubarak to Muslims after Ramadan. Why? Because those
agencies are responsible for the surveillance, imprisonment, and death
of people in those communities. The absurdity is not simply about
whether individual bad people work in those careers, but rather—as one
of my favorite rappers, J. Cole, explained—the job is bad. </span></p>
<p><span>To eliminate police violence, we must do the opposite of
building relationships with police: reduce and eliminate contact between
them and us. “Us” is literally everyone: people of color, Native
people, Black people, homeless people, poor people, gay people, people
with disabilities and varying mental health struggles, women, trans
women, immigrants—nobody is safe. Including white people, who represent
about </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6080222/"><span>half of police victims</span></a><span>. So even if police treated everyone like white people, many will still die. </span></p>
<p><span>Institutions must also sever their relationships with police
departments. We should follow the example of Jael Kerandi and other
college students who pushed the University of Minnesota</span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/28/864469597/student-actions-prompt-umn-to-rethink-its-relationship-with-minneapolis-police"> <span>to stop using Minneapolis police for large events</span></a><span>. School boards and teachers unions must call on their school districts to cut ties with</span><a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/05/29/minneapolis-school-board-calls-on-district-to-cut-ties-with-city-police"> <span>police officers inside schools</span></a><span>,
just as the Minneapolis board and union did last week. Essential
workers must protest partnership with police officers who lock up people
en masse and learn from the Minneapolis bus drivers</span><a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bv8zaw/minneapolis-bus-drivers-refuse-to-transport-george-floyd-protesters-to-jail"> <span>who refused to transport arrested protesters to jail.</span></a><span> We must support campaigns from the Advancement Project that demand</span><a href="https://advancementproject.org/wecametolearn/"> <span>cop-free schools</span></a><span>, and from organizations like BYP100 calling to</span><a href="https://www.sptdc.com/press-releases/2018/7/17/byp100-black-lives-matter-dc-and-stop-police-terror-project-dc-statement-on-the-tragic-death-of-makiyah-wilson-and-ongoing-community-and-police-violence"> <span>decriminalize sex work and end stop-and-frisk</span></a><span>. We who believe in freedom should have supported Assata’s Daughters’ fight against a </span><a href="https://nocopacademy.com/"><span>new police academy</span></a><span> in Chicago and the Dream Defenders’</span><a href="https://dreamdefenders.org/freedom-papers/freedom-from-prisons-and-police"> <span>Freedom Papers</span></a><span> demand to be free from police and prisons. </span></p>
<p><span>Unlike the police officers who kneel, these activists and
organizations understand that body cameras, civilian review boards, and
extra training </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/opinion/the-police-cant-solve-the-problem-they-are-the-problem.html"><span>cannot stop police violence</span></a><span>. Thus, we must always search for ways to</span><a href="https://medium.com/@derecka/dont-just-boycott-starbucks-boycott-the-police-57747d08f78"> <span>reduce police contact</span></a><span>, reduce the </span><a href="http://criticalresistance.org/abolish-policing/"><span>reasons people think</span></a><span> they need police, and reduce the size and scope of policing. Without moving toward</span><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/big-dreams-and-bold-steps-toward-a-police-free-future/"> <span>police abolition</span></a><span>, people will continue to die and cities will continue to burn.</span></p>
<p><span>In my faith tradition, we believe in altar call, an opportunity
for people to experience transformation through joining a community for
collective struggle and growth. Altar calls are deeply emotional. We
ask people to leave behind what the world values: greed, power, and
indifference to human life. If officers are serious about joining a
struggle against police violence, they must also leave these behind.
Badge and gun, too.</span></p>
<p><em>Derecka Purnell is a human rights lawyer, writer, and organizer.</em></p>
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