POLICING MUST END! Memphis Updates, Origins of Policing, and Organizing Mass Movements! | E.M.P. 51

In this episode of the "Entitled Millennials" podcast, Double D sits down with comrade Colton Power of the YouTube channel AbcadeazCoffee to discuss issues surrounding policing.

Jumping in to the video, the pair discuss updates from Memphis protests surrounding the death of Tyre Nichols, highlighting new direct actions, the ongoing investigation of officer Preston Hemphill, and the news that the three EMT's who failed to provide adequate care for Tyre have been discharged. The two go on to discuss the well organized actions of activists and the response of the City of Memphis. They ask what this increased organization may mean for wider movements, and question if perhaps left leaning organizations have learned from the shortcomings of past spontaneous actions.

The two discuss what a post-policing, post-prison world may look like, with a focus on how public safety would be managed in the interim period. Colton brings the conversation back around to the issues of capitalism and imperialism, and reminds viewers not to fall complacent over general reforms, but to continue pushing for the deep systemic change that will be necessary to overcome police brutality.

The two transition into a general discussion on police violence and gun violence and how the two issues intersect with the military industrial complex and the racist origins of policing. They examine the racist history of gun control, and debate the efficacy of such reforms when statistically such laws disproportionately effect people of color who carry arms to defend themselves again police or gangland violence.

The two go on to discuss the relationship between America's violent colonial history and it's contemporary gun culture. Double D draws a correlation between the emasculation and alienation of white working class males as a driving force behind fire arm fetishism, noting that as white workers had their capacity to provide for their families, as well as their sense of community and belonging destroyed, gun culture acted as a means to fill that emotional void. Colton adds that right wing online personalities have further exacerbated this trend as young men flock to hyper-masculine charlatans to cope with their own sense of alienation.

Moving on, Double D plays a video showing State Troopers clearing a path for the Proud Boys at an anti-trans rally in Memphis, he goes on to read a testimony from a Memphis activist who suggests that law enforcement may be collaborating with these right wing militias. The two use this instance as a chance to discuss the long history of police collaboration with white supremacist's organizations, touching on their complacency in the ousting of black politicians in the Reconstruction Era south as well as modern police departments origins in "slave catching squads."

Double D plays another video, depicting the shooting by police of double amputee Anthony Lowe. The two ruminate on the absolute horror and inhumanity of people who are willing to shoot someone having a clear mental health crisis. Double D suggests that this sort of callousness is endemic to capitalist, imperialist systems, and he suggests that their violence will only grow worse as the contradictions of capitalism sharpen, and as society as a whole continues to break down. Colton expressed disbelief at reactionary elements within society that fetishize policing, imploring them to understand that when the chips are down, the police will turn on you the same way they have people of color. He insists that people must understand that policing as it exists today is completely counter to the public interest.

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