Black Lives Matter Birmingham Chapter Responds to Mayor Randall Woodfin’s Law Enforcement Task Force to Address Violent Crime
Written by: Jilisa Milton, Tez Files, & Eric Hall
On April 13, 2018, media outlets released a video and information highlighting a newly-formed task force aimed at reducing homicides and other violent crime in Birmingham. According to media outlets, the task force is a project of U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin designed to develop a strategic plan for reducing violent crime in the Birmingham metro area. It purports to use policing strategies to attempt to combat and prevent violent crime, following high statistics related to gun related deaths.
Sources indicate that the task force is comprised of the Birmingham Police Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Shelby County Drug Task Force, Housing Authority of Birmingham Division, Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, and the federal law enforcement agencies FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service, and Homeland Security Investigations. This composition is alarming. It is problematic that this task force seemingly lacks the presence of any community members or community organizations.
Voting for Randall Woodfin was an act of harm reduction. Many Birmingham voters believed that his policy platform — highlighting various safeguards and positioning him as the progressive candidate--was exponentially better than his challengers. Because of political ads like this, he caught the eye of progressive organizations and elected officials such as Our Revolution, Nina Turner and Bernie Sanders. HuffPost even described him as a Progressive Challenger [that] Want[ed] Birmingham To Be ‘Frontline Resistance To Trump Policies’.
On the campaign trail, Woodfin expressed support for a number of radical policies that would ultimately protect Black and Brown people. He is often quoted as supporting: Medicare for all, sanctuary cities, cooperatives and community land trusts, citizens’ oversight for the police, $15 minimum wage, a non-discrimination ordinance for queer and trans communities, and free college education within the Birmingham city limits. This positioned him as one of the most radical candidates Birmingham voters had ever seen in the history of the city.
Those of us who knew Randall as the Alabama State Director for the Hillary Clinton campaign, went against our basic instincts and historical knowledge of establishment democrats. We banned together to disrupt the “politics as usual” climate that had been maintained in Birmingham since the election of its first Black mayor, Richard Arrington Jr., in 1979. We thought that perhaps Randall Woodfin, even if he could not do most of what he promised, would at the very least ally with progressives/radicals to get those things done.
This is why it was a hard pill to swallow when grassroots activists and organizers learned of Woodfin’s “tough on crime” task force. Woodfin notes, when describing this task force that “Today, we are announcing a critical partnership that supports all three areas: prevention, enforcement and reducing the likelihood of repeat offenders with a focus on greater deterrence through strengthened and targeted enforcement.” Members of the task force have made their thoughts about achieving these goals clear with their employment of language that mirrors the “tough on crime” rhetoric that has continually led to mass incarceration of Black and Brown people in this country. For example, U.S. Attorney Jay E. Towns, who is one the most vocal members of this task force, has stated that the task force will “move swiftly to smother the violent criminal activity afoot in this city.”
Alarmingly, “One of the task force’s first orders of business was to develop a short list of serious offenders who have drawn the attention of various task force agencies” in the past. In other words, the task force will likely target former offenders in the off-chance that they will re-offend. Black Lives Matter Birmingham does not agree with this method of engagement. The hyper-surveillance of communities of color is a problematic habit of law enforcement agencies that must be stopped. For decades, hyper-surveillance has been pinpointed as one of the root causes of excessive force. Also, it has been shown that racial bias plays a large part in police encounters in our country, as demonstrated by advocates working to reverse the harms of mass incarceration. Furthermore, people in these overly surveilled communities feel the residual effects of these policies as their neighborhoods are pathologized and labeled “target areas.”
It is not BLM-Birmingham’s recommendation that police stop responding to issues of crime or stop collecting information regarding criminal activity in areas with high crime rates. As one of our BLM members recently posted on social media:
“Policing is a responsive strategy to “defend” and “arrest” (i.e. when something goes down) and does not function as a preventative [strategy] without it being excessive, without it pathologizing the communities they police and without it contributing to mass incarceration and problems with re-entry that exacerbate the original problem[.]”
Just this year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has, without explanation, repealed six civil rights protections. This has impacted minors, people in poverty, people of color, immigrants, and people with disabilities. In fact, he was sued by the city of San Francisco earlier this month. One of the most important civil rights protections repealed was the directive that state and local governments comply with the Constitution and federal law when imposing fines and fees.This was important to avoid the perpetuation of poverty and jailing people unnecessarily. Prior to his appointment as Attorney General, Jeff Sessions was quoted stating that “stop and frisk,” a policing policy in New York City, that was found to have targeted an outstanding percentage of Black and Brown folks, and known for unconstitutional stops and pat-downs, may be okay, because, in his view, “it’s all about how that is done.”
Sessions’ racist “tough on crime” policies are no surprise to us. In an internal memo soon after taking office, Jeff Sessions vowed to repeal regulations that impose civil rights standards onto local and state agencies, and has done so when he quickly rescinded Obama-era guidances on issues such as federal contracts with private prisons, federal prosecutors abusing their discretion in drug cases, and treatment of transgender students. However, Sessions is not hesitant to assert the “tough on crime” policing policies onto the same local and state entities. Through his National Public Safety Partnership (PSP), numerous sites are “pilot operation sites,” “operations sites,” and “diagnostic sites”. In Birmingham, community members are not involved in these decisions, and it is probably safe to say that citizens in other cities, particularly those who seek police reform, are undermined as well.
Birmingham voters believed that any work initiated by Mayor Woodfin to deter crime and violence would center root-cause analysis and comprehensive grassroots and community-based solutions. When talks of Birmingham partnering with Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions were announced during the last administration, members of BLM Birmingham held a community meeting to voice our frustrations and fears about potential partnerships with the Federal government to address crime. We echo the sentiments of Councilor Sheila Tyson, who at that 2017 meeting stated, “Remember the crack epidemic…they went in and start busting peoples doors in with these iron pipes…they had tanks coming into the neighborhoods.” Inviting the federal government into community policing opens the door for potential police terrorism, abuse, misconduct, ICE raids, and other threats to Black and Brown people. Having Black leadership means absolutely nothing if they continue to reproduce the same white violence that over-incarcerates, criminalizes, dehumanizes, and exterminates Black and Brown people in this country.
We thought Randall Woodfin was aware of racist dog-whistles such as “federal intervention” and “tough on crime.” We, especially thought he was familiar with the ways these anti-Black policies have exacerbated mass incarceration. In fact, he signed on with 11 other mayors to create a “smart on crime” agenda. The Mayors for Smart on Crime’s national platform also agrees with stances that BLM-Birmingham has taken in our policy recommendations. Here they state, “Reforming the criminal justice system is a top priority across the country. But the momentum for reform is jeopardized by the return of dangerous and ineffective “tough on crime” rhetoric and policies.”
As Angela Davis reminds us, “Radical simply means ‘grasping things at the root.” Many radical activists and organizers understand that much of our reform efforts are borne out of harm reduction strategies. They are borne out of resistance to systems and institutions that seek to harm and eradicate us. We know that in the end many of these systems will have to be dismantled. Even still, we have offered policy proposal after policy proposal to no avail. Two years ago, at Beloved Community Church in Avondale, members of BLM Birmingham shared with Randall Woodfin the Movement for Black Lives Policy Platform. We expressed that platforms such as this comprehensively attend to grassroots strategies for maintaining safe and prosperous Black communities.
Organizations such as Black Lives Matter, Movement for Black Lives, Campaign Zero, as well as countless scholars, activists, organizers, and advocates have written at length about the historical implications and tensions present with communities of color and law enforcement agencies. All over our televisions and social media are images of dead Black bodies lynched at the hands of the state. People have even gone as far back as Reconstruction to describe American policing’s historical connection to slave catching. And even with research, think pieces, movies, documentaries, and transformative policy platforms, our leadership’s first moves are always centered around building standing aggressive armies of police officers to “smother,” intimidate, incarcerate, and terrorize Birmingham’s Black and Brown communities. Why isn’t there a prioritization and investment in poverty reduction, mental health services, healthcare and dental services, the arts and creative community, educational equity, permanent affordable housing and land, or comprehensive restorative justice instead? The actions of Mayor Woodfin and current city leadership lacks vision and appears heavily invested in white supremacist violence.
As a candidate for mayor, Randall Woodfin pledged to make Birmingham work for all of its citizens. Moreover, he committed his long term support to addressing the current ills of Birmingham’s 99 neighborhoods, particularly, our city’s most vulnerable communities where poverty, blight and homelessness dwells. As mayor, he candidly talks about what progress can look like and often mentions that the phrase “Putting People First” is not just a slogan but a strategy. However, his recent actions and policy shifts appear to be working for a select few and detrimental to the well being of the overall populace of Birmingham.
Again, Randall Woodfin’s endorsement from progressive grassroots organization Our Revolution captured this nation. Inspired by the Presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, Our Revolution has three intertwined goals: to revitalize American democracy, empower “progressive” leaders and elevate the political consciousness of this nation. As a progressive candidate Woodfin guaranteed his support to a series of issues: racial justice, immigration, physical violence perpetrated by the state, legal violence, economic violence, LGBTQ+ equality, women’s rights and more. Woodfin’s actions in partnering with the Department of Justice undoubtedly defy the beliefs, mission, and ideology of Our Revolution.
BLM-Birmingham has been asked many times to “provide a solution” if we wish to complain. First, we find the contention that community members must act as their own policy consultants highly classist and egregious. Second, we urge Mayor Woodfin to hire real grassroots consultants and advisers who understand the implications that certain policing policies have on communities of color. We ask that Mayor Woodfin and the city further their research beyond suggestions and policy considerations (although we provide a platform below). Third, it is our stance that without accountability, especially in a climate where civil rights and community involvement are increasingly undermined, utilizing police departments to prevent chronic violent crime in communities is counterproductive. Therefore, we assert the following strategies to address crime in our city, including measures to work towards protecting citizens from human rights abuses. Our proposals include but are not limited to:
