There is one, exactly one, cop in Oakland in charge of stolen vehicles. He files paperwork. He does not find stolen cars.
Joanna
----- Original Message ----- Unless we get the cops off the streets there is little hope for a serious left movement in the United States. And that is NOT an impossible goal. How many of the men and women in local jails are an immediate physical threat to the people of the community? How many crimes were _prevented_ yesterday by cops on the street? Of course this change would have to be accompanied by the legalization (and not merely the decriminalization of all drugs. And a growing mass movement would _in effect_ (and rather rapidly) stop all or most police attempts to arrest retail drug dealers.
I think useful illumination of this question is provided by the debate on this list, in the summer of 2003, whether or not the "anti-war movement" should demand immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq or, rather, should insist that first the U.S. should repair the damage it had done. Armies of Occupation, of course, _always_ increase damage. Failure to recognize this flows can be labeled "Crackpot Realism." Endless attempts to "reform the prison system" have the same intellectually vacuous grounds. The prison system and police behavior are getting _worse_, and only the kind of resistance provided by a movement for abolition can provide even limited resistance to this intensification of repressive measures.
The phrase "serve and protect" should be altered to "Serve PERIOD." They provide damn little protection, and no reform will change that.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Carrol Cox Sent: Saturday, January 23, 2016 2:35 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: [lbo-talk] Slogans Demands etc
In the first instance (and even in the last instance) a slogan or demand is NOT addressed to the government or the corporation or the City Councl: It is addressed to those who haven't joined the movement yet but are sympathetic. That is why intelligent slogans or demands ALWAYS seem impractical or unachievable.
This is absolutely elementary; it is the fundamental truth to be grasped by those attempting to build a movement. Everything else follows from it.
*Carrol
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