DC Police Chief and the American Health Care Act
Runners, welcome to another week!
I want to start by asking all of you to reevaluate your commitment to resisting 45 and his goons this week. It’s been two months since 45 was sworn in as President, and I don’t know about you guys but I am exhausted most of the time of the political stuff. But we have a long way to go yet. Take a few days off if you need to, but recommit yourself, if necessary, to doing a few political resistance acts every week. They can be small, big, or medium sized; whatever works for you. Pick a dedicated night a week to do things. Join a specific group that meets at specific times that you can make. But keep going.
I have a few small acts of resistance for you this week, some of which are repeats from last week if they’re not too time sensitive. Some of them — like tweeting at sponsors of the US Women’s Open — can also be done multiple times, so even if you did it last week, do it again this week. Topic 1 is even more local-to-DC in its focus than usual, so I apologize to my non-DC readers. If you’re interested, feel free to read on. Or, as always, take what I say and apply it to your own city. I’m writing about DC’s Police Chief today: who is your police chief? What is their civil rights record like? What are the police-related issues of the most concern where you live? And two of my three immediate acts of resistance can be done by anyone, they are not specific to DC. So take a look at those and then skip to Topic 2 if you’d prefer. And don’t forget to scroll allll the way down for the event roundup.
Also this week I am not doing my Good Night and Good Luck section, which is a weekly roundup of political news. I feel like we’re all actually oversaturated with news at this point, and the work I’m doing there is just repetitive for most people. If you’d like that column to come back at some point, let me know by replying to this letter!
Small Immediate Acts of Resistance
That are never calling your Senator or Representative
- Hound the LPGA’s corporate sponsors to move the US Women’s Open off of Trump property. A couple of weeks ago I wrote an action item to write to the LPGA to ask them to move their national event off of a Trump-owned golf course. Donald Trump makes untold amounts of money from events like this being held on his property, and he is using the Presidency to promote his golf courses and other properties. I also wrote before about a campaign called AdStrike which targets Breitbart News by politely hounding corporations to pull ads from their site, depriving them of revenue. Well, now combine the two strategies, and join the campaign to tweet, write, etc to sponsors of the LPGA tournament to pull their sponsorship if the event remains on a Trump golf course. Use this resource, again provided by Wall of Us, to tweet or write the top corporate sponsors of the event. Corporate pressure gets things done.
- Tell the White House how great the Affordable Care Act is. The current administration is seeking feedback on the White House’s website on how the ACA has impacted YOU or your friends or family. The framing of the question clearly states that Donald and friends are looking for negative feedback, so let’s turn it around.
- Call the DC Council about elected Police Chief Peter Newsham. A lot more details on Newsham are in Topic 1 below, but essentially, Newsham has a record of civil rights violations of peaceful protesters, an alleged history of domestic violence, and has been involved in the mishandling of sexual assault cases. Call your Councilmember, especially if they are on the committee that will confirm Newsham, and voice your opposition to his appointment. Scripts and the most important Councilmembers to call can be found in the Topic 1 info below.
Topic 1: DC’s Elected Police Chief, Peter Newsham
A few weeks ago, Mayor Bowser named Peter Newsham — a longtime DC Police Officer who had been serving as the interim Chief of Police after Cathy Lanier retired — as her pick for the new permanent DC Chief of Police. Newsham, according to the Washington Post
“Newsham, whose appointment is subject to confirmation by the D.C. Council, has been on the force for nearly 28 years. He worked as an assistant chief under the two previous police chiefs — Lanier and Charles H. Ramsey … Ramsey picked Newsham to oversee a department overhaul after concerns surfaced in the late 1990s over the high number of deadly shootings by officers. Newsham also was instrumental in helping Lanier reduce homicides when she named him chief of investigations.”
In short, it seems that Mayor did not want to make a dramatic departure from the direction the DC Police Department is already going in. Newsham is a direct descendant of the ideas and practices of the two police chiefs right before him. Newsham also has support from relevant members of the City Council. Chairman Phil Mendelson said he didn’t think Newsham would have any difficulty being confirmed, and Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who is head of the Committee in charge of the appointment, has said “I have a lot of respect for Chief Newsham … I hold him in high regard.”
However, Newsham does face some pretty fierce opposition from local civil rights groups, particularly Black Lives Matter DC and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) DC, as well as the Partnership for Legal Justice Fund, based on what they say is a record of past civil rights violations.
Back in 2002, hundreds of protesters in DC were arrested while protesting against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. At the time, Peter Newsham was Assistant Police Chief. According to a report by DC’s Fox 5,
The Federal District Court and the Appellate Court found the arrests to be “ludicrous.”… The attorney who filed the class-action lawsuit, Carl Messineo, works for the Civil Justice Partnership. He says officers “hogged [sic] tied them wrist to opposite ankle and left them in that painful position for 10, 15 hours and left them on the gymnasium floor.”
The final lawsuit in this case was recently settled out of court for $2.8 million. That brings the total paid in the course of the case to over $13 million, $11 million of which were paid by the District. That number also doesn’t include several million more for outside attorney fees. In addition to the clearly inhumane treatment of those detained, and the unlawful nature of the arrests, the case was also fraught with false testimony, missing evidence, and cover-ups; it was an embarrassment to the entire police force and the government in DC.
But what does all of this have to do with Newsham specifically? As I mentioned above, Newsham was Assistant Police Chief under then-Chief Ramsey at the time of these arrests. Fox 5 says in their article that Newsham himself ordered the arrests, and he testified in court that he made the order. However, based on a copy of court documents I obtained through the legal blog of one of the filing attorneys, it seems much more likely to me that Ramsey himself ordered the arrests, not Newsham. According to the affidavit of Detective Hustler,
“Detective Hustler’s affidavit reveals that he not only personally observed Ramsey directly order the mass arrests, … but further reveals that other officers expressed opposition to the order.”
Furthermore,
“This testimony directly contradicts the sworn statements of former Chief of Police Charles Ramsey and other top District officials, such as Assistant Chief Brian Jordan. For example, in previous testimony, the District and Chief Ramsey sought to attribute the order to arrest the hundreds of people in Pershing Park without probable cause solely to Assistant Chief Peter Newsham. Newsham in turn seemingly took responsibility for the order. In depositions and in various filings, Ramsey and the District portrayed Ramsey as a largely passive actor in the arrests.”
In my personal (and non-legal) opinion, it seems more likely that Newsham was covering for his boss, Chief Ramsey, who had actually ordered the arrests. The Department then tried to portray Newsham as solely responsible. Now this clearly does not absolve Newsham of wrongdoing. A cover up is still bad, and he was still a high-level a participant in the incident. There is also no evidence that Newsham was one of the officers who apparently tried to oppose the arrest order. Still, despite his own testimony that he ordered the arrests, I would be skeptical of any news outlet referencing it as his order specifically. Since then, Newsham has stated that he believed the decision made in 2002 was not the right one, and the DC Police as a whole have modified their tactics for dealing with protesters,
D.C. police apologized and abandoned “trap and detain” tactics in which officers surrounded and arrested large groups of people close to demonstrations.
Many civil rights groups still oppose Newsham’s appointment, and believe that his handling of the mass arrests during Inauguration Weekend of 2017 only a couple of months ago makes for an ongoing pattern of violating protester’s civil liberties. For example,
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which also was involved in the Pershing Park cases, called Newsham “a serial mass violator of civil rights” who is “not fit to be chief of police.”
The arrests of 240 people on Inauguration weekend of this year occurred while Peter Newsham was Interim Chief. The police are being accused of mass arrests without specific probably cause, and use of excessive force such as tear gas and sting grenades. Police have said this incident was not like the 2002 incident in Pershing Park because these protesters were actually being violent and causing property damage. Of the 240 arrested, 214 have been indicted on felony riot charges, which Mayor Bowser and Acting Chief Newsham say proves their case. This case together with the 2002 case is causing grave concern among local advocates.
Newsham has also been implicated by local groups for the DC Police’s history of mishandling sexual assault cases. In particular, the Fox 5 article on Newsham interviews Veronica Best, mother of an 11-year-old girl who was raped in 2008 and whose case was horribly mangled by the DC Police. Best calls Newsham a liar and says he ruined her daughter’s life. But in the extensive Washington Post expose on the Best rape case (trigger warning), though the piece is abundantly critical of the DC Police Force (guys seriously, this eleven year old who was raped ended up being convicted HERSELF for lying to the police…at 11), Newsham is barely mentioned at all. He sent an email to the best family well into the case that seemed to confuse them, but that’s his only direct mention. How much was Newsham personally involved in the mishandling of this case, or other rape cases? I think it is difficult to say. He was, again, Assistant Police Chief at the time, this time under Lanier. But I have seen no hard corroborating evidence that he was a decisive or even large player in this particular case’s mistakes.
At this point, I’d like to say I think it is very very likely that Peter Newsham is going to be confirmed as DC’s Chief of Police. Only two people testified against him at the two hearings that have already happened. Many on the Council support him. The third hearing is tomorrow, Friday, and Black Lives Matter and SURJ DC are arranging a Day of Action around it, where they are trying to pack the room with people who oppose Newsham (see in the events below). I urge you to go to these meetings if you can. Why am I urging you to do that, despite the fact that I think Newsham will be confirmed and despite the fact that I am skeptical of some of the individual charges laid against him?
Because, there is enough going on here that I am still quite concerned. I haven’t even discussed Newsham’s alleged abuse of his ex-wife, which you can also read about in the Fox 5 article. Do two mass arrest cases in the last 15 years actually make a pattern of abuse? I’m not so sure. Did Peter Newsham himself even order the mass arrests from 2002? I don’t think so. Did Peter Newsham himself mishandle evidence in rape cases in DC? At this point. it’s unclear. Did he abuse his ex-wife? I’m generally inclined to believe women, but I don’t know for sure.
That is a lot of questions I just had to ask right there. Though I don’t feel comfortable indicting Peter Newsham for most of the particular charges definitively, I do strongly feel that he needs to be watched. It is precisely because I believe he will be confirmed as Police Chief, and will be acting in that role here in DC for who knows how long, that I think we need to take these claims somewhat seriously, perhaps ask for more concrete answers, and urge local journalists and our neighbors not to take their eyes off Newsham while he is in office. We need to be in the courtroom when he is confirmed, and on the phone before and after, and in the streets with cameras to make sure those mass arrests don’t become patterns. Things like this happen unchecked because nobody is watching. Watch Peter Newsham. Watch the DC Police.
And in the short term, you can use BLM-DC and SURJ-DC’s scripts to call your Councilmember and voice your concerns. The priority calls to make are to the following members:
*Chair: Councilmember Charles Allen [Ward 6] — (202)-724–8072
Councilmember Vincent C. Gray [Ward 7] — (202) 724–8068
Councilmember Mary M. Cheh [Ward 3] — (202) 724–8062
Councilmember Anita Bonds [At-Large] — (202) 724–8064
Councilmember David Grosso [At-Large] — (202) 724–8105
And their provided script is:
Hello, my name is [Name], and I’m a [Ward #] resident. I’m calling to express my strong opposition to the appointment of Peter Newsham as MPD Police Chief. In previous roles, Newsham has established a clear pattern of civil rights violations, use of excessive force, and mishandling of sexual assault cases. His appointment as MPD Chief would risk the safety and civil rights of DC residents and I urge [Councilmember X] to vote no on his appointment. Thank you for your time.
Make your concerns and your opposition known. And do it soon, because as I said the final hearing is tomorrow, Friday the 24th. If he is confirmed, keep calling anyway. Say “I want to voice my hope that newly appointed Chief Newsham will uphold the civil liberties of DC protesters in the coming months”. BLM-DC and SURJ-DC are very concerned that Newsham will effect the lives of black and brown residents of DC for the worse, and we need to stand with them and let him and the police department know they won’t get away with it. Know who your elected and appointed city officials are at all times. Get to know Chief Newsham, the good and the bad, and don’t let up.
Topic 2: The American Health Care Act
The American Health Care Act or ACHA, also known as the House Republican plan to replace Obamacare, is being voted on in the House today. According to The Hill, 45 and the House’s Freedom Caucus, the ultra conservative wing of the GOP, reached an “agreement in principle” late last night. However, they note that this has potentially further aliented the moderate members of the party who have been against the bill on the grounds that it would increase premiums for the elderly and remove coverage from too many people in their states. It also remains highly unlikely that the bill in its current form will pass the Senate. Exactly what changes they will try to make to the bill remain to be seen.
For those of you who haven’t been closely following the story on this bill, I’m going to break down some of the major changes between this bill and Obamacare. Some of my article sources include this breakdown from Politifact, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s side-by-side comparison chart, this piece from Vox on chronic disease under the ACHA, and this piece from Newsweek.
Things the ACHA keeps from Obamacare
- Children can stay on their parent’s health insurance until age 26
- No discrimination for pre-existing conditions and no raising premiums based on your health history — as long as you’ve had continuous health coverage with no more than a month lapsed
- The insurance markets created under the ACA where people can look through several insurance companies when selecting insurance stay
Things that change significantly from Obamacare
- The ACHA will continue to provide subsidies to make health insurance more affordable. However, these subsidies will be significantly lower than under Obamacare — an average of 60% of the Obamacare subsidies for most people, according to the CBO’s estimates. No household can get more than $14,000 in subsidies, and single people making over $75,000 and married couples making over $150,000 will get less in subsidies on a sliding scale
- Health insurers will be able to charge older people 5 times as much younger people; under Obamacare it was capped at 3 times as much
- Obamacare also offers additional assistant to those making up to 250% of the national poverty level, which the ACHA removes entirely
- End of the individual mandate
- Obamacare subsidized states that chose to expand Medicaid by offering up to a 90% Federal subsidy to pay for additional enrollees. The ACHA eliminates this for states who hadn’t enrolled in Medicaid expansion by March 1 of this year
- Event those states that signed up before March 1 will see the expanded subsidies for Medicaid disappear in 2020
Things that are just insane
- Tax cuts for the wealthy. Those making over $200,000 a year would see a reduction in their Medicare costs, which would take away tens of millions of dollars that, under Obamacare, were used to help pay for coverage of the poor
- Bans all Federal dollars from Planned Parenthood (don’t forget that Federal dollars already are prohibited from covering abortions thank to the Hyde Amendment; so this would be no Federal dollars for ALL Planned Parenthood services)
- Removes the provision that Medicaid block grant recipient states have to provide family planning as part of their services
Key Takeaways and Figures
- According to the CBO’s analysis, this plan will take 24 million people off of health insurance by 2026
- Also according to CBO, an person over 60 who makes $26,500 a year pays $1,700 a year in premiums for health insurance under Obamacare, and $14,600 a year under the ACHA
- People with chronic illnesses like cancer often miss more than a month of work at a time. This means their health insurance coverage will likely lapse more than a month. When re-applying for health insurance, insurers are allowed under the ACHA to charge a 30% premium for the first year of coverage after the lapse. So essentially the very sick are very likely to pay more.
Many people have already pointed out the the people this is most likely to hurt are demographics that voted heavily for Trump — rural, poor, elderly. People that are middle class and living in cities will only see relatively modest increases in premiums, which they can likely afford without too much difficulty. Trump has tried to win over moderate Republicans by adding additional tax credits into the bill for people 50–64 years old, but so far it hasn’t seemed like it’s enough. Is it possible that, if this bill passes, it will be a boon for Democrats among these demographics? It’s hard to say.
Is the ACHA going to pass the House? That seems pretty likely. People outside DC need to keep the pressure up on their Reps until the last possible minute, because it is difficult for them to vote against pressure from their party’s leadership. I think it is possible it won’t pass, but it will be a close thing either way. 45 and Ryan have significant incentive to make whatever changes necessary to ram this thing through to save face. Then they can say they tried their damndest to repeal Obamacare and Democrats in the Senate stopped them. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the vote today and on whatever happens next.
Thanks for your time this week Runners! As always, you can reply to this newsletter or email me at theforerunnerletter@gmail.com with your thoughts, criticisms, or ideas. Let me know if you did any of the things I recommended or found anything useful or informative. I ❤ feedback! Check out my Medium page if you’d prefer a blogged version of this newsletter or would like to read any of my previous issues. Last week’s letter was on Jason Chaffetz and his overreach into DC laws, and some local efforts to stop him. Follow me on Twitter at @speaknojessica. And definitely, definitely get your friends to subscribe to The ForeRunner at http://tinyletter.com/theforerunner. Every time someone new subscribes another former President wiretaps Donald Trump.
In solidarity,
JM
Event link round up (local to DC unless otherwise noted):
March 23: Fight Back to Save Healthcare and Protect Families Rally/March, hosted by CPD Action
March 23: Beyond Tolerance: Muslim, Immigrant, Black, AMERICAN, a panel discussion on religion and identity hosted by the Critical Race, Gender and Culture Studies Collaborative
March 23: Support a Fair WMATA Budget hosted by Americans for Transit
March 24: Never Newsham Day of Action hosted by BLM DC
March 25: Congressional Advocacy Meeting hosted by Neighbors United for DC Statehood
March 25: Women’s March: Now What? hosted by The National Allince for Women in Media-National Capital Area Chapter
March 30: Black Lives Matter DC Open House hosted by Black Lives Matter DC
March 30: Intro to DC Government Advocacy Training hosted by DC Jobs with Justice
March 31: My First Lobby Day co-hosted by Resist and Rise and DC Vote
