I m compelled to respond briefly to Bro. Cedric Muhammad s column on police privatization, for two reasons. The second reason that I m compelled to respond is because Bro. Muhammad s arguments have a direct bearing on the BRC s current national campaign, which involves a petition to make police brutality and misconduct federal crimes. I take issue with the thrust of Bro.
Police departments are public agencies, funded through public money.
More generally, we have a right to demand access to public services in their entirety. As professed activists, we have a responsibility to assert our people s right to the levers of public power within the existing society, even as we simultaneously seek to fundamentally transform power relations. This is an assertion of our rights and dignity as citizens and human beings, not begging. The BRC s on-going national petition is a concrete example of activists making an attempt at policy reform. Few on this listserve are naive enough to believe that a law making police brutality a federal crime will, by itself, solve the problem of police violence.