Deegan, of Lebanese ancestry, is a former newscaster, and is a known personality in the community, anchoring Channel 12 news for years. She subsequently went on to run a nonprofit, the Donna Foundation, focused around breast cancer awareness, using her own experiences with beating cancer multiple times to connect her with the broader community.

Deegan ran under the banner of uniting the community. Unlike her opponent, she swore off negative ads. Her campaign was supported by progressive forces as she supported calls for more investment in neglected communities and stood against privatization of city services and the publicly-owned electric utility. Unlike her opponent, she supported calls for civilian oversight of police and supported calls for taking down Confederate monuments. She also advocates ridding city hall of corruption after eight years of Republican leadership under Mayor Lenny Curry. Backed by every major labor union in the city with the exception of police and fire unions, she ran on supporting labor and using her office to support worker’s rights.

Daniel Davis, current CEO of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, ran unabashedly on a pro-cop, anti-police accountability, anti-BLM platform, parroting Fraternal Order of Police cop union talking points, using over $8 million raised (the most of any Jacksonville mayor race in history), to attack Deegan over her support of civilian review, something police and cop union forces have fought off for years.

Davis claimed if Deegan was elected, “radical activists” would oversee police. He called for adding over 200 new police officers, even saying he’d support cutting other city services to make it happen. Black Republican Sheriff T.K. Waters was used as Davis pit bull, being on the face of TV ads calling Deegan a radical who wants to defund police and support policies harmful to cops. Waters, an opponent of police accountability and civilian oversight, in his first interview after Deegan’s victory spoke about why civilian review shouldn’t happen, a clear signal of their fear of what Deegan’s election could mean.

Local grassroots activist Ben Frazier, president of the activist group the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, cited, “It should be acknowledged that black voters in Duval played a major role in the historic mayoral victory of Donna Deegan,” adding, “From the urban core to the northwest, Black voters propelled the trajectory of the Deegan victory.”

Deegan’s election comes at a time when the state of Florida has been terrorized by a Republican state legislature that has sought to limit the power of local counties and local city mayors. Governor DeSantis, with a Republican supermajority, pushed through reactionary policy after reactionary policy in order to grease the wheels for his bid for presidency. The city council of Jacksonville still has a 14 to 5 Republican to Democrat ratio, with a few moderate Republicans. However, to grassroots activists, Deegan’s election represents a change and more room to politically maneuver.

Under the previous mayor, after historic police accountability protests in 2020 where tens of thousands hit the street, Mayor Curry and former Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Sheriff Williams, along with current State Attorney Melissa Nelson, in response to rallies led by the Jacksonville Community Action Committee and their partners, met with and succumbed to activist demands around the release body camera footage. They released a new body cam policy pledging to release footage after a certain time frame in the summer of 2020. They’ve since reneged on that, only releasing body cameras when the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) deems it appropriate for them to do so.

In 2020 and 2021, in response to the rallies, the city council of Jacksonville created a special committee called the Safer Together Committee which proposed and supported the creation of a civilian review board. Deegan’s late cousin, Tommy Hazouri, a Democrat and former mayor, was city council president at the time. Families of police crimes used the committee meetings as a forum to air grievances with JSO and call for civilian oversight and change. JSO subsequently pressured to have that committee shut down and was eventually successful, stopping any change of police accountability reforms at that time through city council.

That is why progressive forces are optimistic about Deegan’s election. She represents the possibilities of a new era in Jacksonville politics and new organizing terrain for activists. However, those same forces plan to hold her accountable to her support if she fails to pursue pro people agenda.

Time will most certainly tell, but the smashing of the right-wing machinery that has held city hall in Jacksonville for almost a decade is a significant development.

#JacksonvilleFL #US #Opinion #PeoplesStruggles #Elections #DonnaDeegan #MayorOfJacksonville

By Destiny Spruill and Jacob Buckner

Chicago, IL – Two factors have made public safety a lynchpin issue in the upcoming mayoral election between Brandon Johnson, former teacher supported by the Chicago Teacher’s Union, and Paul Vallas, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, backed by the Fraternal Order of the Police (FOP). First is the rise in the crime rate in the city in recent years. The second, and principal, reason is the law-and-order backlash that followed the historic protests of the George Floyd Rebellion.

Groups like the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) are fighting to make sure that the city’s supposed concern for public safety prioritizes police accountability for its Black, Latino, indigenous and working-class residents. These residents face the highest rates of incarceration and violent police raids and have been the most likely to face the full force of the police state.

You can’t discuss public safety without discussing the struggle for community control of the police – a struggle for democratic rights.

“This mayoral election is historic. It is the first time in four decades that we’ve had a truly progressive candidate for mayor – Brandon Johnson. For the first time in history, the people of Chicago have a real choice between the old reactionary, recycling of the status quo and taking a progressive road towards advancing the democratic right of the people,” says Frank Chapman, the executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression (NAARPR).

The movement for community control of the police in Chicago began over 50 years ago. CAARPR played a leading role in the 1970s and starting 11 years ago has led it through its Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) campaign. They believe that electing Brandon Johnson is an important piece in the broader struggle for police accountability. Understanding the history of CAARPR’s CPAC movement is crucial in assessing the needs of Chicago’s most vulnerable populations. It is also crucial in evaluating how we can chart the way forward.

CAARPR and its struggle for community control of police in Chicago

By 1968, the first citywide attempt at community control was started by the Black Panther Party (BPP), which initiated a number of programs that demanded to transform the power structure of the police and its effect on the lives of Black Chicagoans. The Panthers believed that community control of the police was a political necessity for Black community members to decide for themselves how public safety would be implemented. Their demands were clear: violent police officers must be held accountable through community boards, the people must decide the funding of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), and the power of supervising and administering the police department must be transferred to the citizens of Chicago. The National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression (NAARPR) took up these demands and created a model to bring these demands to legislation.

Starting in 2012, CAARPR, the Chicago branch of NAARPR, provided a model based on the principle set forth by the Panthers, and on legislation that had been developed by the National Alliance in the 1970s. Decades later, the need for this movement continued as racist policing in Chicago increased as a result of the heightened power of the CPD. In 2012, 22-year-old Rekia Boyd was murdered by an off-duty police detective named Dante Servin. Following community protests, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression began a ten-year process of building a movement to pass an ordinance that would create community-controlled police boards in all 22 Chicago police districts. This movement became known as the Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) campaign.

CAARPR spent the next years in working-class neighborhoods most affected by police violence and spoke to survivors and community members about their public safety needs. These efforts continued from the murder of Laquan McDonald in 2014 to the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. When George Floyd was murdered, the National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression called for a national day of protest on May 30. In Chicago, 20,000 marched or car caravanned into the Chicago Loop. In the following weeks, over 100,000 marched in Chicago. Every protest called for “CPAC now!”

The campaign collected over 60,000 signatures with an average of 1000 signatures in 38 wards. Their efforts proved that victory is only possible with the leadership and experience of the community. This mass movement created the conditions for passing legislation.

By 2021, CAARPR had the support of 19 of the 50 city council members. A competing police accountability legislation, the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA), had the support of 26 of the 50 city council members. Council members of the Socialist Caucus of Chicago told GAPA that they would not cast a vote to support their legislation unless they came to an agreement with the CPAC legislation proposed by CAARPR. After then-mayor Lori Lightfoot refused GAPA’s demand to include control of police policy in their legislation, negotiations between CAARPR and GAPA began, and a compromise was reached two months later.

The Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance was passed in the city council and officially created two bodies for police accountability: the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) and the police district councils, for which there were elections in February. These bodies have the following powers: Directly investigating crimes of police violence; determining Chicago Police Department policy; hiring and firing the Chief Administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA); holding hearings about police superintendents; and recommending preventative, proactive, community-based and evidence-based solutions to violence.

These District Councils and the CCPSA go beyond stopping vicious and racist police officers, they hold a model for community members directly affected by racist police violence to see justice and build a regenerative model to change public safety.

Many of the candidates for these boards had never run for public office – they are motivated by their own experiences with police violence. Cynthia McFadden, for example, ran for the board because she was inspired by her father who fled the South due to extreme violence only to be murdered by Chicago police the day of his arrival. Coston Plummer was motivated by his older brother who was forced by Chicago police to falsely confess to a murder when he was just 15 years old. These candidates believe that ECPS represents the will of communities impacted by police violence to finally experience justice.

On February 28, 2023, for the first time in history, residents of Chicago had the opportunity to vote for these boards – resulting in 39 of 66 district councilors being elected from the movement for police accountability. CAARPR, alongside their partners in their community, expanded this grassroots campaign and made it possible to succeed.

From CPAC to ECPS to Brandon Johnson

“The terms of this election were set by the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Across the U.S., 26 million people called for justice – including Brandon Johnson. Brandon Johnson has received the support of the Chicago Alliance because he alone included police accountability and working with ECPS in his platform and campaign. Paul Vallas received support from the FOP to maintain injustice. On February 28, the Black community voted against the FOP and for justice through democratic control of the police in the district council elections,” says Joe Iosbaker, cochair of the Labor Committee of CAARPR.

During a mayoral forum on public safety at the UIC Forum on March 14, Paul Vallas put forth his vision of police accountability by saying, “Community policing fundamentally means, you have beat officers on every beat. So every single beat is covered by a patrol car, manned with officers. Officers know the community, and are known by name and by badge number, by the community.” Vallas has seized on rising concerns for public safety – which have steadily grown as the city of Chicago experiences more violence and believes the only way forward is to increase police presence and grant them more control over the city. Chicago’s FOP, an organization that is nationally known for its hostility towards Black and brown people, threw its support behind Paul Vallas. He welcomed its endorsement and thanked “Chicago’s finest, men and women of the FOP who sacrifice their lives to make our city safer. Reducing crime and making Chicago safer are my top priorities.”

Brandon Johnson has built his public safety platform with the intention of addressing the “root causes of violence and poverty.” Johnson’s campaign for Chicago mayor is not only about the use of community control boards, but about creating an overall model of safety which positions the needs of the community at its center. Johnson argues that public safety is not only about stopping police violence but about investing in generative initiatives such as mental health care and housing.

Johnson believes these measures will prevent systemic violence from attacking Chicago communities. One of his initiatives involves getting rid of the racist “Gang Database,” which currently “labels more than 280,000 people – 95% people of color as gang members without requiring evidence of gang affiliation or informing them of their listing.” The Gang Database has been used to profile and surveil Black neighborhoods, resulting in heightened Black and Latino arrests. Johnson also supports the Anjanette Young Ordinance, which will stop no-knock warrants. He believes in collaborating with the democratically elected District Councils to manage police accountability and decide the Chicago Police Department's policy.

Each of Johnson's initiatives interconnects with the overall needs of the community, including mental health. Within mental health initiatives, Johnston aims to Launch Crisis Response Teams with non-police personnel, reopen all 14 mental health centers, and expand the 988 mental health crisis hotline to 24 hours.

The fight for Brandon Johnson is the fight for justice for the Black and Latino community In Chicago

The mayoral election between Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas will decide if the city continues the struggle for a public safety plan that includes Black and Latino Chicagoans and its working-class neighborhoods. The grassroots work of the last ten years – the struggle for democratic control of the police – could be upheld through Brandon Johnson’s leadership. For ten years, Chicagoans have fought for police accountability, affirmative mental health treatment, and housing for all community members. Many believe Brandon Johnson’s candidacy represents the work that Black Chicagoans have put toward a movement to see their own collective needs met against systemic violence.

Throughout the ten-year CPAC campaign, CAARPR created a grassroots movement that won a historic ordinance to hold the police accountable. CAARPR responds to the calls for public safety this way: “Black and brown communities are over-policed and under-protected. There’s a reason that 70% of violent crimes in our neighborhoods go unsolved. No one trusts the police. And why would they? After generations of police crimes, like the reign of torturer Jon Burge!” In the words of Frank Chapman, “We want to hold the police accountable for what they do, and what they don’t do.”

CAARPR’s current task is to uphold the advances made by the district council elections through the election of Brandon Johnson, but they will carry forth the mission toward real police accountability, in partnership with the local community, well beyond this mayoral election. We will continue to look to them as leaders in our struggle against state-sanctioned violence.

#ChicagoIL #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #Elections #ChicagoAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #CommunityControlOfThePolice #BrandonJohnson

Tampa, FL – Hundreds came out to protest the right-wing, billionaire-funded “student group” Turning Point USA summit, July 23. The Turning Point summit featured a gaggle of reactionary, racist and chauvinistic speakers, not the least of whom was Donald Trump, looking to build momentum for a possible second presidential run.

Shouts of “shame!” echoed through downtown as speaker Laura Rodriguez from Tampa Bay Community Action Committee spoke about the conference’s police protection, stating, “They’re paying cops to protect those racists and bigots in our city.”

Rodriguez continued, “This city is in a housing crisis whether the mayor wants to accept it or not. Tampa is the fourth worst city in the nation for rent affordability.”

Who these cops protect couldn’t have been clearer than when the protest moved to the convention center where the hatefest was taking place. The bigots attacked, shoved, pushed down and assaulted protesters as cops looked on in tacit approval, intervening only when it looked like the reactionaries were in danger.

As David Jones of TBCAC described, “We sat there and watched them protect those conservatives while they were attacking us, because whose side are they on? Not ours.” The reactionaries attacked protesters as young as 11. After a tense standoff, protesters returned downtown.

The Tampa community took to the streets to let these hatemongers know that they and their brand of bigotry were not welcome. This event took place in the context of not just the repeal of Roe v. Wade, but also other state level attacks on women, African Americans, and LGBTQ folks, with Florida’s ban on abortion at 15 weeks, whitewashing the history of U.S.'s oppression and slavery, as well mandating LGBT discrimination in the education system with the “Don't Say Gay” bill.

It is no accident that this event took place in Florida – both of these bills have been the pet projects of Trump ally and potential successor, Governor Ron DeSantis, who was also in attendance. The virulent national agenda of those at the conference was to further roll back political and workers' rights, continue environmental devastation, enable attacks on women and LGBTQ folks, and suppress national liberation movements.

Speakers from a wide range of community groups attacked the agenda and attendees of the conference. Harrison Lundy, local activist and organizer with Democratic Socialists of America, said, “They get billions in dark money to keep poor people poor, to keep houseless people houseless, and keep birthing people from their autonomy, and so they’re scared to see us out here.”

The protest was hosted by Women’s Voices of Southwest Florida and Tampa Bay Community Action Committee, with speakers from Students for a Democratic Society, Democratic Socialists of America, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization. The same coalition of workers, oppressed nationalities, immigrants, LGBTQ folks and women, that united to deliver Donald Trump a crushing defeat in the 2020 election came out today, and is what is needed to continue the struggle to defeat the agenda of groups like TPUSA.

#TampaFL #ImmigrantRights #StudentMovement #InJusticeSystem #Labor #OppressedNationalities