This essay was published BEFORE the recent unveiling of the Black Lives Matter policy agenda. But now more than ever, Black Lives Matter needs a Super Pac to help win local elections and implement their policies.
Well, the United States Department of Justice investigated the City of Ferguson and
vindicated everything the Ferguson protesters said all along. The City of Ferguson actually persecutes African-Americans simply for being black. For no good reason, African-Americans are stopped by police, railroaded over to the local court, accessed fines they are often unable to pay, and then sent to jail. This goes far beyond being singled out unfairly for a traffic stop. This is amounts to being shaken down by the local government for money. And then put in jail if you cannot pay. Simply outrageous. But Ferguson, Missouri is not the only town in America that indulges the worst elements of its police force.
For example, journalist Steven Rosenfeld at AlterNet has exposed how the 'binding arbitration' clauses in many local police union labor contracts prevent local government from firing bad cops. Many of these union contracts even require that bad cops who do get fired are then rehired. It’s True! Others have documented how police departments don’t always screen bullies and predators from their applicant pools, don’t do deep background checks, don’t provide training for community policing, and don’t train officers in the art of de-escalating conflicts. This problem is widespread across America and has been the status quo in too many towns and cities for too long.
The Ferguson protests grew into the larger Black Lives Matter protests because the internet is bringing the ugliness of police abuse directly to our cell phones and tablets. For African-Americans, these videos are extremely painful to watch and getting involved in a march or a protest is a productive way to demand change from local government. And this is one of those rare times when white America can’t simply dismiss the legitimate grievances of African-Americans. Looking away is not as easy as it was in past centuries.
But getting local governments to change will be difficult. Renegotiating police union contracts, screening police candidates more deeply, and training police officers more effectively costs lots of money. Money which must come from either raising taxes or cutting expenses for other city services. And local politicians don’t like to raise taxes or cut city services. Unfortunately, protest marches are not enough to prod local governments to make major changes. But electing brand new city councils and mayors could make these changes happen rather quickly. This is why Black Lives Matter needs a Super Pac.
For the most part, Super Pacs allow rich individuals and corporations to corrupt our democracy by spending millions of dollars on political ads, voter registration, and get out the vote efforts for candidates they support. Usually these candidates are conservative, anti-tax, and anti-government. Super Pacs cannot work with candidates directly, but this is a minor barrier to their overall effectiveness. However, Super Pacs can also be used to advance more liberal causes which benefit everyone in society. For example, billionaire Tom Steyer has funded a Super Pac to defeat candidates who refuse to solve the climate crisis. And I believe it is time for someone to form a Super Pac to support the political agenda of Black Lives Matter. This agenda begins with police reform, but also extends to more funding for schools, job training, and local economic development.
The tradition in American politics is that local government is dominated by well-connected players in the local economy and local unions. These complacent politicians (white and non-white) often have very little in common with the urban poor they often represent. And, this is one reason why urban (and now suburban) poverty in America has been so difficult to eliminate. But a Black Lives Matter Super Pac could change this by electing a new generation of reformers to city councils across America. In small cities and towns with high poverty rates, electing more low-income people of color to local government would go a long way to bringing government closer to the needs of the citizens. This would result in policies that grow the economy from the bottom up (education and job training) instead of top down (the inevitable new football stadium). Here are some policies that a new city council and mayor might implement in Ferguson, Missouri if the Black Lives Matter candidates swept to victory.
*Renegotiate the police union labor contracts to remove any language that would prevent the city from firing any abusive police officer.
*Mandatory body cameras for all police offers and training in conflict de-escalation.
Recruit for diversity when filling vacancies on the police force and other government departments.
*Reorient the police force towards community policing and community engagement.
*Renegotiate the school teacher labor union contracts to reward teachers for effectiveness instead of tenure.
*Review all city contracts to ensure that local businesses have had a chance to bid competitively to provide services to the city.
*Replace traffic tickets with an energy tax for city revenues. Currently, police officers are tax collectors in Ferguson. Replacing traffic and court fines with an energy tax would allow the city to cut staff in both the police department and the court – saving the city money. And the energy tax would spread the cost of local government more broadly and fairly among the citizens.
*Reorient economic development towards those who need it most in the community instead of towards well-connected business leaders. Nearly all cities have economic policies that are biased towards local business leaders, and this is one reason many cities have intractable poverty.
All of these policies could be enacted swiftly with a new mayor and a new city council. And this sweeping change could be repeated in high poverty cities across America where complacent local governments ignore low-income citizens who rarely vote.
In the short-term, this would be a problem for the Democratic Party. Many of the urban poor live in Democratic cities and there would be no credible Republican opposition. This would be a fight between the Democrat establishment, local Democratic family dynasties (white and non-white), and the Black Lives Matter reformers. But in the long-term, this would be a major windfall for the Democratic Party. If the Black Lives Matter Super Pac swept in a new generation of local government leaders who actually expanded opportunities for the urban poor, the political benefits would be deep and lasting. The urban poor could move up in the economy and become more politically engaged with the Democratic Party. And the Democratic Party would reap a large pool of strong Democratic candidates for higher office.
There are certainly plenty of successful and altruistic people who could fund a Black Lives Matter Super Pac. And it might not require much money. Local elections have low turnout, sometimes as low as 10%. Imagine a city of 90,000 people with a 10% voter turnout. This is just 9,000 voters. Imagine a Black Lives Matter Super Pac creating a Facebook page to market a new voter registration drive. How long would it take to sign up 10,000 new voters? Not long. And if these new voters turned out on Election Day, the Black Lives Matter reformers could sweep into local government. The amount of money needed to do this across America is probably just a few million dollars. Compare this to the hundreds of millions of dollars Super Pacs spent in the 2014 election to elect a few dozen members to Congress and a handful of governors. That was a very low return on investment.
Before any of this can happen, the activist base of Black Lives Matter must present a clear list of policy preferences and a plan for electing credible candidates to local government. They need to research which cities (besides Ferguson) would present a reasonable opportunity for victory at a reasonable cost. (Some of our largest cities are probably too expensive for a major political campaign.) And finally, they need to recruit quality candidates to run for city council and mayor.
Local government has the most impact on our lives. And unfortunately, local government often caters to local businesses and local unions at the expense of average citizens. A Black Lives Matter Super Pac dedicated to electing reformers to local government would be good for America. If the Black Lives Matter reformers came to power and succeeded in bringing fairness to local policing and criminal justice systems, African-Americans would be living in a better America than they do today. And if the Black Lives Matter reformers succeeded at reducing poverty by expanding opportunity at the local level, racial inequality in America would be greatly reduced. And that would benefit us all.