Back at the end of 1936 and into 1937 workers at a General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan held a sit-in strike. Michigan Governor Frank Murphy deployed the National Guard – not to break up the strike but to protect workers from Flint police and GM’s notoriously violent security forces.
Police enforce what the establishment wants, they color their law enforcement to suit political agendas, and, (not surprisingly) they frequently an operate as a unit of the Republican Party.
For example, local airwaves feature Rob Dean, a black county cop, wearing a shirt with a badge logo pledging support for Mike Parson because a Nicole Galloway victory – obviously – will lead to rioting, burning cities and mass destruction. (Remember, the head of the county cop union, Joe Patterson, ran in the Republican primary for State Representative in District 95 in 2018.)
Or, the use of David Dorn’s tragic death as a prop at Donald Trump’s Thursday night infomercial. Dorn’s long and successful career touched many lives in positive ways, yet, henceforth his memory starts and ends as a Republican martyr. And, this new memory exists just to advance the false GOP narrative that all protesters are violent, all dissent is un-American and only harsh police tactics can “save” the nation – especially upper middle class suburbs.
That view too has a history. Note that most every year Ladue, Frontenac and other ritzy ‘burbs look bad when the police stop report is issued. They look bad because their cops pull-over a lot of minorities. Each year those with troublesome numbers mumble about big stores and interstates and major roads skewing their standing. Yet, talk with a few non-white drivers and they tell of frequent, harassing “visa checks.” Still, this problematic behavior continues since, deep down, these largely GOP areas want ‘those people’ to feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.
(It happened to me about 20 years ago: I took my decade old three-quarter ton extended cab pick-up down Lindbergh one midday. The cop seemed surprised to find a white guy with a Brooks Brothers tie and a Cricketeer suit driving a well-used truck.)
Of course, society most everywhere demands police enforce order. And, voters respond when the police claim they need resources, hence the 60% vote for Prop P (‘for police’) in 2017. Remember how supporters promised two county officers in most every patrol car, better police salaries and extra money for municipal cops?
Well, since Prop P passed the county cops got a raise and most now ride around in large SUVs instead of sedans. That two cops per car hasn’t happened, community departments grumble that they’ve been short changed and ‘police money’ included pay raises for nurses in the jail (who undoubtedly deserved better pay).
In other words, in typical Republican fashion, county voters were told they were buying a dog and instead got a goat.
It was another good day for their police.
Glenn