The Hawley Amendment and The Police State
By: People'S Programs
Tags: New Afrika, BlackLivesMatter, Socialism, Anti Racism

by Delency

Photo by Bryan Berry

This piece was published and put on Patreon a few weeks back, if you’d like early access to writings from Delency & Abbas click here.

“How can you build political institutions that will begin to meet the needs of Oakland, California? The need of Oakland, California is not 1,000 policemen with machine guns. They need that least of all.”- Kwame Ture

It has been a little over a year since cries for defunding the police took over mainstream media and so called “political pop culture” following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. And after the facade of change being on the way in places like Minneapolis (where they removed campus pigs but brought in former pigs to serve as “safety support specialists”) and Oakland (where there were claims of defunding OPD because 18 of 27 million that was allocated for their budget was given to violence prevention groups, so they were left with only a 9 million dollar increase leaving their budget at a measly 337 million dollars) you saw nonprofits, local government agencies, and other neo-liberal fronts make claims that the shift from a police state was in motion. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Especially here in Oakland, as mayor Libby Schaff is now having the California Highway Patrol roam and patrol our streets! And so across the country- from the local level, all the way to the Senate, we are seeing the expansion of the police state, and I’m curious to see how the neo-liberals talk themselves out of this one.

On August 11th 2021 The Hawley Amendment (which was proposed by Missouri Senator Josh Hawley) passed with almost a unanimous vote (95–3) in the *democratic heavy* Senate. If moved into legislation, the amendment would lead to the hiring of 100,000 pigs across the country by giving grants to local communities. And although it hasn’t been put into legislation yet, I just simply don’t understand how even in theory (this is sarcasm), the so-called democratic left could support an amendment like this (the three objections came from Bernie Sanders and 2 Republicans). Was it not just last summer in which they positioned themselves as the leaders of the defund the police campaign?

As we look at the possibility of this amendment becoming law- it’s important that we ground ourselves in not only what this symbolizes (the strengthening of the police state), but the material impact this will have on the people- Particularly the Black colonies in Amerikkkan ghettos. Increased pigs, means increased violence — Simple math and science. And the U.S. fascists couldn’t be happier about its potential.

“I am thrilled there is near-unanimous support for increased funding for police and for putting more cops on the beat.” — Senator Hawley

Before I go any further, let’s take a brief look at where the pig enforcement derives from:

The very first form of policing derives from the plantation and the chattel slavery economy. You had overseers policing the production of the slave, working in tandem with the slave patrollers to ensure that the master’s property (The Afrikan captive) did not escape. In 1863 when the emancipation proclamation so called “freed” slaves from the plantation (and in the process making them slaves to capitalism)- the role of the overseer and the patroller made a slight shift, but still had these goals:

protecting property (the land, the stores, the factories, and homes of the capitalist), ensuring exploitation of labor (sharecropping. low wage jobs, prison labor) and capturing/killing the New Afrikan captive (high numbers of New Afrikans in prisons and murders of thousands of New Afrikans by pigs).

So here we are, 158 years later after the emancipation proclamation and the pigs are still functioning as they always have — and after the passing of the Hawley Amendment we see the clear trajectory of them growing even stronger. And with the history of police departments in Baltimore, Arizona, and California traveling to Palestine to train with the colonizing Israeli army, we can expect to see the further militarization of local departments.

The purpose of the Hawley amendment is being marketed as the United States of Amerikkka’s effort to combat the war on crime — but who’s crime exactly? They aren’t increasing the pigs to stop Jeff Bezos from making his employees urinate in bottles so they aren’t late to deliveries. They couldn’t be here to arrest former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for all his violent acts of sexual assault. Are they here to stop the crime of the Amerikkkan facist government that allows for its citizens to sleep on the street deprived of the basic necessities to exist as a human in this world? Of course they aren’t. So what crime are we speaking of exactly? (which must be understood as a war on the New Afrikan lumpen-proliteriate)…

First, let’s define crime: an action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare or morals or to the interests of the state and that is legally prohibited.

We must integrate this idea that crime is determined based on “the interests of the state”. In other words, the same colonial apparatus that has exploited and enslaved the masses (for centuries) gets to define what a crime is based on if it goes against its’ interest (interest being control and power via production, exploitation, and expansion). History has shown that the state will define and craft society in a way that benefits the rulers. Not the [slaves] workers.

Now back to the Hawley Amendment- The increase in pigs means the increase in power for the state. It means more opportunities to lock folks up for exercising their right to survival. It means more murder and brutality to keep other capitives and neoslaves in a constant state of fear. It means less money to the services that could actually benefit the people( clinics, schools, community centers, clothing drives, HOUSING) and more investing in the interests of the wealthy/powerful and their allies.

I know what this possible legislation could mean for Oakland and the broader Bay Area. Those extra pigs in our region will lead to more police terror. Plain and simple! It’ll lead to more situations like the pigs escorting Gavin Newsome to a houseless encampment in Berkeley and trashing residents belongings and evicting them while knowing they have nowhere else to go, or more encounters with bart pigs that like to beat Black women bloody for skipping on a $3.60 fare. This is the reality that the senate (filled with democratic neoliberals) is shaping for Black/New Afrikan people in Amerikkkka.

As an organizer it’s important I point out these contradictions of how democrats present themselves vs. how they actually are: which are fascists. It’s the contradictions that force people to take a step back and analyze (objectively) what is happening in the world around them. For example, the many people who claimed victories of defunding and put their trust in the democratic party are now being put in the position to admit that they have been misled and lied to. Leaving them with no other choice than to challenge those who lied to them, or fall in line. While simultaneously, folks who do want to see an end to the police, an to end exploitation, an end to colonial subjugation- they have a clearer picture of who their enemy is and can continue to organize and work in the name of freeing the worker and the poor from the shackles of neoslavery via monopoly capitalism. They can work at freeing the land from the grips of the capitalists who view it as nothing more than an opportunity for profit! Amendments like the Hawley act pave way for a revolution because it continues to show the priorities of the state — to protect it’s property, to subject the worker to exploitation, and to keep the New Afrikan and other third world colonies captive to economic slavery!

The guidance towards the polls and the plea for belief in the United States government is not a new tactic when it comes to putting a lid on civil unrest. This has been a tactic of the rulers of this country for centuries. So when the workers and the poor [rightfully] revolted last summer, the democrats got behind the “defund the police” movement to contain the revolutionary energy of the people. They essentially said “Stop the revolting. Washington D.C. finally see’s where it went wrong. No need to loot, to fight back against the pigs and the state. Go to the polls! We will fix this via legislation.” This must be understood as a counter-insurgent tactic to revolutionary behavior. Now, one year later- with a new President and a Black woman as his VP, they gave Amerikkka the Hawley Amendment. From defund — to an increase by at least 100,000. Each person must wake up. It’s clear what is happening.

The Hawley amendment and other neoliberal legislation and practices continue to amplify the conditions for New Afrikans and other oppressed people to build within their nations by way of organizing and political education. It is through organizing that the people build the decolonization programs and services (clothing, education, health care, community safety) that are required to lessen (and eventually) remove their reliance for sustainability from the same systems and people that benefit from their exploitation. It is through building an alternative that we show the people the reality of an independent future. It is through political education (community classes, workshops, study groups, webinars, spoken word events, art shows, concerts, movies) that New Afrikans and oppressed people everywhere will deepen the understanding of their position in the neo-colonial world, and with that — the understanding of the cultural and economic conditions Euro-Amerikkkan colonizers and their allies have forced upon us. It is through this new consciousness and embodying of the revolutionary ideologies (I.E. We Are Our Own Liberators, Consciencism, Revolutionary Suicide, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Combating Liberalism, -just to name a few) that colonized people everywhere will understand how our development has been stunted. It is through the building of decolonization programs that we bare witness to the possibilities of power and control over our bodies, communities, businesses, and culture. Total liberation and self determination!

May this quote from George Jackson guide our actions:

“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and love in revolution.”

Free The People!

Free The Land!

Glossary:

*

New Afrikan- “We of the New Afrikan Independence Movement spell ‘Afrikan’ with a ‘K’ because Afrikan linguists originally used ‘k’ to indicate the ‘c’ sound in the English language. We use the term ‘New Afrikan’, instead of Black, to define ourselves as Afrikan people who have been forcibly transplanted to a new land and formed into a ‘New Afrikan nation’ in North Amerikkka. But our struggle behind the walls did not begin in Amerikkka.” — Sundiata Acoli

“New Afrikan identity evolved from the miscegenation of Afrikan people with the many tribes off the Afrikan continent brought to this country (Amerikkka), plus the miscegenation with the portugueses, British, Spanish, and dutch.” — Jalil Muntaqim

Neo- slave- The new slave. The 21st century slave. Many people believe slavery ended in 1863 with the emancipation proclamation- not true. The 13th amendment makes slavery legal as punishment for a crime, and for those of us who aren’t in jail we are slaves to capitalism. Hence “neo-slave”.

The State- not to be confused with the “state of california” or “the state of new york”. In this context it is being used as a collective entity that iscontrolled and enforced by the Amerikkkan government- the courts, prisons, police, health care system, and military.

These are essential readings: We Are Our Own Liberators, Consciencism, Revolutionary Suicide, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Combating Liberalism