STEPHEN LENDMAN | Clarion India
THE measure introduced by House Dems “(t)o hold law enforcement accountable for misconduct in court, improve transparency through data collection, and reform police training and policies” is an election year PR stunt going nowhere. More on this below.
On issues of law, order, and police state control, Republicans and undemocratic Dems are on the same page against international and constitutionally mandated freedoms they disdain and won’t tolerate at home or abroad.
Moments in US history that delivered positive change were short-lived.
The Constitution, landmark legislation, and Supreme Court rulings that affirmed fundamental rights failed to halt their erosion — notably not human, civil and labor rights.
The US is profoundly unequal on matters of race, class, religion, ethnicity, healthcare, education, taxation, public services, and distribution of wealth.
Democracy, equal justice, due process, and habeas rights are figures of speech, not reality — except for the US privileged class.
Voting and civil rights laws of the 1960s greatly eroded for lack of commitment to enforce them.
The landmark 1935 Labor Relations Act that let organized labor negotiate with management on a level playing field for the first time in US history was unravelled by Taft-Hartley legislation (1947) and other anti-labor laws that followed.
Virtually all hard won civil rights in the 1960s were lost or were greatly eroded.
Years of anti-war activism that ended US aggression in Southeast Asia was followed by 1980s Central American proxy wars, then Pentagon and CIA aggression against numerous Middle East, Central Asia, and north African countries — along with endless wars by other means against targeted nations.
The US is a belligerent state, an unequal one from inception, a lawless one by tradition.
Social justice is on the chopping block for elimination altogether to free up maximum money for warmaking, militarized homeland control, and generous corporate handouts — at the expense of peace, equity and justice for all, along with respect for the rule of law long ago abandoned by the US ruling class.
Intelligence community Big Brother mass surveillance violates the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Without warrants or probable cause, the FBI in cahoots with local police infiltrate, disrupt, sabotage, and destroy activism for ethnic justice, racial emancipation, and real economic, social, and political equality across gender and color lines — notions not tolerated by the US ruling class.
Anti-war, human and civil rights activists, political dissidents, and individuals of the wrong race, religion, ethnicity, and/or nationality are mistreated like 5th column threats in the US.
Time and again, congressional legislation is politically motivated or designed to serve special interests over the public welfare.
Introduced by House Dems on Monday, so-called Justice in Policing 2020 legislation is supported by the same leadership that’s consistently on the side of privilege at the expense of constitutionally affirmed rights.
Their backing is more hypocrisy than about wanting police killings and other brutality curbed, an issue they largely or entirely ignored before days of protests nationwide got their attention.
The new legislation is far from what co-sponsor Rep. Pramila Jayapal called “a bold step towards justice and accountability (in response to) those rising up and speaking out, marching and protesting, demanding accountability and fighting for justice.”
They won’t get it from Trump or Biden, nor from congressional leadership and most House and Senate members, just feel good legislation like the introduced measure.
It lacks teeth and commitment by lawmakers and the White House to enforce prohibition of discriminatory law enforcement practices.
It has virtually no chance for Senate adoption or will get Trump’s support
Without actions at the state and local levels with teeth, it won’t stop cop killings and other forms of brutality against people of color and other targeted individuals.
It won’t end militarization of police nationwide with weapons used on battlefields that have no place on US streets.
Nor will it stop abusive police practices against society’s most vulnerable — or get white supremacist courts to hold abusive cops accountable for their wrongdoing, rare exceptions proving the rule.
It clearly won’t end federal, state, and local funding for police, let alone replace cops with a new form of social control.
In 1751, a generation before America was created, the US first city police force was established in Philadelphia.
Others followed in succeeding years as the US expanded nationwide.
The US Secret Service that today protects the president and visiting foreign officials was established in July 1865, three months after the Civil War ended.
America is a violent culture, how it’s been from inception, showing up domestically and abroad.
A society based on might makes right won’t be transformed into an equal justice according to law one by legislation introduced for political reasons, not enforcement — notably not without majority support in both houses, by the White House, along with state and local authorities onboard.
There’s nothing transformational coming from days of street protests without sustaining them longterm for long denied justice.
If a decade of 1960s and 70s anti-war activism failed to beat swords into plowshares, what chance does House legislation introduced solely for political reasons have to end abusive police practices nationwide.
Both right wings of the US one-party state support privilege over governance serving everyone equitably, according to the rule of law.
That’s the disturbing reality of today’s America.
At war on humanity at home and abroad with support from the White House, Congress, the courts, and establishment media shows America’s true face.
The only solution is popular revolution, the only way for transformational change no congressional legislation ever accomplished.
