It's very frustrating watching knowing that quite literally everything bad that they said would happen in this hearing does in fact happen. They even directly point out that more cops will not reduce crime. I know 1994 and 2024 are two radically different time periods but goddamn. This bill has was fundamental to the expansion of the carceral and surveillance state.

It's a really long watch but I think it's worth watching. It's very long and dry and boring, but it's very insightful. I have seen clips of this C-SPAN broadcast in many different video political essays and such and never have I seen it in its entirety.

I think about this not just as it's an election year, or not even really about the DNC; Instead, I think about this is respect to all of the people who were hurt when they cranked up the police machine to 11.

( Just a reminder this isn't just a POC issue either. "Funny fact about a cage, they're never built for just one group...")

  • LGOrcStreetSamurai [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Clinton was Reaganism on steroids. At least, we had the anti-apartheid movement in the United States which culiminated in Congress passing sanctions on apartheid South Africa (back in 1986). Compare that with the next decade, the 1990s, and you begin to see that while neoliberalism may have been introduced 40 or 50 years ago, it doesn't really gain a foothold like it did during the 1990s. And that included the mass expansion of prison labor and a type of neo-slavery. The 1990s are the beginning of that.

    Nothing to add, just want to point out this is an great historical context.

    • Pluto [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Thank you!

      Yeah, I try to demarcate certain periods in history (while also trying to unify them in their, well, context with each other).