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Hawkins and Walker Oppose Trump Sending Secret Police to “Democrat” Cities
“Militarized police should not be used as campaign props,” says Hawkins
Green Party candidates Howie Hawkins for president and Angela Walker for vice president decried President Trump’s deployment of uninvited secret police against Black Lives Matter protesters.
(Syracuse, NY and Florence, SC, July 21, 2020)Yesterday, Trump said in an Oval Office interview that he will be sending federal police to New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland. Trump, seeking to make this an election year message, emphasized that these cities were run by “liberal Democrats.”
“Heavily armed federal police who do not wear any identification and attack people with tear gas and rubber bullets will undermine public safety and instigate escalating protests in response. Unidentified police snatching people off the street into unmarked vehicles without any probable cause is unconstitutional. It’s what the US decries in dictatorships abroad. It will be rejected by people across the political spectrum,” said Hawkins. “Trump is losing by a landslide. He is using militarized police as props to try and rescue his failing campaign.”
“Protests against police brutality and racism should not be met with violence,” said Walker. “People are rising up against systemic police violence, especially against Black people. The Ggovernment should listen to the legitimate concerns of the people. Racism and violence have no place in policing.”
“Trump is going in the opposite direction of what is needed. We need community control of the police and a transfer of funding from over-policing and harassing impoverished communities to providing living-wage jobs, affordable housing, and good schools, health care, and social services to these communities. We do not need a would-be dictator in the White House sending secret police to cities to escalate violence,” said Hawkins. “Trump is trying to rule by dividing people, but his abusive use of secret police will backfire and result in an even larger defeat. And, if the Republican Party fails to stand up to Trump, they will also pay a price at the polls.”
Hawkins and Walker have called for the democratic community control of the police so people decide how their neighborhoods are policed and police are accountable to the people. Hawkins has criticized Democrats for rejecting the call to defund the police. “Defunding the police means to stop paying police to harass, exploit, and control poor communities of color over non-criminal behavior and low-level offenses like homelessness, drug possession, and mental health crises. It means focusing police resources on serious crimes of violence and theft. It means investing the savings in real solutions, like homes for the homeless, legalizing marijuana, and medical treatment for the addicted and mentally ill,” Hawkins said.
“The real solution for increasing security in urban areas and reducing crime is to invest in those communities. We are campaigning for a Marshall Plan to rebuild impoverished communities and an Economic Bill of Rights to end poverty and economic despair. We need a sustained multi-trillion dollar federal investment in affordable public housing, community schools with wrap-around services, neighborhood health clinics, grocery stores in food deserts, more convenient and affordable public transit, parks and recreation programs, a job guarantee, and a guaranteed income above poverty. That is how we will build public safety in our cities,” said Hawkins.
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