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...")
When Minneapolis finally decided to go in and rip apart George Floyd square they got a group called "Agape", a black, idk, street intervention group? I'm not sure what to call it. But they got them to go in first, while dozens of cops waited just out of sight, so what the cameras would see was people from the square yelling at black men from a christian organization, instead of fighting off a wall of cops. And, meanwhile, dozens and dozens of cops, armed and armored, ready to pour in the moment they had an excuse. I guess, from a marketing standpoint, it was really slick.