Statements

It’s been several months since George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor were murdered, sparking an ongoing uprising against racist state violence. The Durham2Palestine coalition remains in full solidarity with the abolition movement and is working to divest our society from sources of violence—not only the police, but also prisons, border enforcement, and the military—and instead invest in real solutions. By funding the police, cities make the choice not to put that money towards robust social services, living wages for city workers, more green spaces, free public transportation, affordable housing, quality education for all, and so many more of the things that truly make a community safe and well.

As the uprising continues around the world, it is crucial to understand how policing is embedded in international systems of exploitation and oppression. Fundamentally, the ruling class of this country values private property over Black lives, particularly those of trans, poor, and working class Black people living in under-resourced, over-policed neighborhoods. This system is called racial capitalism. We witness its effects clearly as COVID-19 kills disproportionately more Black and brown people due to the convergence of an inadequate public health response with existing racist inequalities in wealth, housing, healthcare, safe jobs, and other factors causing high exposure risk and comorbidities. Consistent with this devaluation of non-white life domestically, the US exports violence around the world through military invasions, sponsorship of right-wing coups and death squads, and economic strangulation. This global empire ultimately serves the interests of US-based multinational corporations who profit from war and instability through the sale of military technology, hyper-exploitation of labor, and privatization of public resources, all at the expense of the people. Invariably, the violence of this global empire turns back inwards, as military weapons, techniques, and ideologies are transferred to the police, who then further occupy and terrorize poor, Black, brown, and immigrant communities at home. And as we’ve observed recently in Portland, these tactics are even being used in majority-white communities, where unmarked vehicles are kidnapping people off the street, and heavily armed federal officers join militarized local police to tear gas, beat, and even blind protestors.

As an example of this violent cycle, US police target marginalized communities with strategies like Broken Windows policing, which assumes cracking down on minor offenses will improve public safety, using tactics like stop-and-frisk and racial profiling. These tactics have been exported to US allies like Israel, where they are used to brutalize and suppress the indigenous Palestinian people, as well as African migrants and residents. In return, Israel offers trainings to US police departments that promote “worst practices” developed for a militarized, counterterror framing of policing. This framing defines all Palestinian resistance against occupation as a form of terrorism, rather than occupation itself. Who in our communities do we expect the police to criminalize and target upon their return?

In 2018, our coalition successfully campaigned to end these police exchanges between the Durham Police Department and the Israeli Defense Forces and Israel Police. Our campaign, Demilitarize! Durham2Palestine, refused ideas of “safety” modeled on occupation and apartheid practiced by the Israeli state in Palestine: we know our community is safer when our police are not participating in military-style or “counterterrorism” training. However, while this win was a step towards community safety in Durham, ending police exchanges is not enough.

Early in the wave of actions, Durham was hailed as an example of progressive policing. But showing enough restraint not to tear gas peaceful protestors at specific protests does not change the fundamental role of Durham’s police: to criminalize poor, Black, and brown Durham residents; to raid houses and enforce evictions; and to incarcerate our neighbors. In fact, on Saturday, July 18, we saw Durham’s police arrest 23 protesters en masse and charge all but one with blanket felony charges. When push comes to shove, the Durham PD is capable and willing to use violent measures to suppress public dissent. Organizing by visionary groups including the FADE Coalition, SpiritHouse, BYP100, and Durham Beyond Policing makes Durham safer—not our “model” police department. Our city council took the right step in ending police exchanges with foreign militaries, including Israel in 2018. Now, we fully support calls by Durham Beyond Policing and BYP100 for our city to defund the police and fund social services. Our community should have more of a say in how our money is spent so we can shift resources away from practices that harm us and communities around the world. We will continue to fight to make this better world a reality.