Defund The Police Seamus Harvey

So there’s been a lot of press recently about the dishonest ad placed by the Trump Campaign claiming Joe Biden wants to #DefundThePolice. Spoiler alert, he doesn’t. But what was really interesting to me, was the way in which the Defunding of police was portrayed in this dishonest ad. Press 1 to report a rape....well, if they are reporting a rape. The police sure didn’t prevent that sexual assault. And the fact that our police nationwide clear about 1 out of every 3 rapes reported shouldn’t give you a lot of hope for their priorities in solving sexual crime. In this episode we explore just how little crime solving the police actually do. By their own (massaged, distorted, dishonest) numbers.

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What does freedom mean to you? If it something you just say that we have and that’s good enough for you? Or is actually being able to exercise that freedom important? Because in Portland Oregon, your rights are being tossed aside. The Portland police have committed Geneva Convention level war crime violations against the protesters. And everyone seems to be generally ok with that. Are you? What about unidentified federal agents in unmarked cars kidnapping protest organizers off the street? Is that ok. Is that acceptable? Because if you stay silent, you are saying this is all ok. Well, I am not ok. And I really hope you aren’t either. Link to my article about the situation in Portland on medium https://link.medium.com/CwYDrKcXf8

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Today I’m talking about how screwed up the Prison system is in this country. And it’s really, really bad. I have my first guest, Sinjin Sison who is an activist in New Orleans and works for a prisoners rights initiative here. We are going to talk about Angola, the quite literal modern day slave plantation, prison in Louisiana. A veteran, Derek Harris who is serving LIFE IN PRISON for .69 grams of marijuana (like a joints worth https://theappeal.org/life-in-prison-marijuana/) quadriplegic prisoners your tax dollars pay to be tortured, and how bad the Covid-19 situation is hammering the prison population, and how that means more BIPOC people are dying at a higher rate, because they aren’t white.

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Today’s episode is a little different. I’m not going to discuss anything. I’m just going to read a letter from a listener. I’m going to read about her horrifying, violent encounter, with the police in Baltimore, Maryland, in her words. And you can draw whatever conclusions you want to from what she has to say. Warning, this episode contains descriptions of violence towards a member of the lgbt /lgbtia community.  #defundthepolice #blacklivesmatter


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We did not celebrate July 4th at our house, but we did hold DEFUND POLICE signs and take a moment of silence for all the POC Americans who have been murdered by police. Today we are talking about how there’s no freedom to celebrate until we are all free, people being so afraid of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday they would rather prop up rapey, genocidey, terrible human Christopher Columbus, and talking to people about defunding the police that aren’t aware of other experiences besides there own

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Explaining the concept of defunding the police to people is an uphill battle. The belief that they are necessary and that there are no alternatives in so entrenched inside most people that you really have to attack it from all sides. In this episode, I try to lay out a basic framework of reasons defunding the police make sense and lay out alternative programs that communities can utilize to treat both crime and the conditions that cause crime instead of policing.

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