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To get this resolution onto the DPOC Agenda by tonight (Monday Aug. 25) I need to have the signatures of 9 DPOC Central Committee Members besides myself) and to make 75 copies of it, which must be delivered to the DPOC officers by by 6 p.m. tonight. If you’re a DPOC member, and you like where I’m going here, I hope that you will consider meeting me there by 5:30 to sign your name!
Here’s the inspiration: the reason that Ferguson has such a bad and unresponsive government, including its police is that its citizens don’t take part in its elections. There are various reasons for this, but two big ones are (1) that those local elections take place in April of odd-numbered years — the next is on April 7, 2015 — so low turnout is to be expected, and (2) that, because the town has been so profoundly controlled by a small elite, their candidates can’t raise the money and buy the expertise to get elected, despite an almost 40% advantage of African American voters over whites.
(The first person who can look at Fergson and say that “Race Doesn’t Matter” will get a verbal drubbing that will leave permanent marks on your hippocampus. Yeah, it DOES matter.)
Once African Americans establish a City Council majority, they can move municipal elections to the general election primary, or the general election itself — anytime that SOMETHING ELSE is on the ballot that can bring voters to the polls. But first, they have to win once. To do that, they need access to expertise, field organizers, availability of a legal team, mailers, etc. All of that takes money — not a whole lot of it for a city with a population of 21,000! — but more than they are likely to have without outside help.
You know who has it — and is probably pretty willing to spend some of it? People in places like Southern California, including the increasingly cosmopolitan Orange County. And Democrats — and Republicans too, if they want to look good — can even round up strategists, etc. willing to work for free from afar or low cost on site. And then we can blow those racist bastids out of the water come April 7. The timing is perfect.
No one, from what I can tell, has though of doing this — or if so they haven’t discussed it publicly. But right now, Ferguson needs a life preserver and the notion that help is not much more than 10 weeks away may help provide one. (It would be VERY USEFUL, for example, for the police to anticipate that the people running the City government will be changing soon. That can hold back abuses.)
And they need that life preserver now. So, I hope that today’s resolution might start off a trend. It might not pass today — like any other first draft, I’m sure it can use work, especially given the limitations of the “make the whole thing look like it’s one long sentence” style — but it’s enough to light the fire. Have a look — and come give your signature if you’re able!
Resolution: DPOC Will Raise Funds to Provide Material Political Support to the African American Community of Ferguson, MO in Preparation for its Upcoming April 2015 Local Elections
WHEREAS, Ferguson is a city of approximately 21,000 residents in St. Louis County, Missouri, the racial composition of which was 73.8% White to 25.1% African American in 1990, then 44.7% White and 52.4% African American in 2000, and now 29.3% White and 67.4% African American in 2010; and Ferguson became prominent in national and international news during August 2014 due to the police shooting, apparently in cold blood, of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, who had apparently surrendered to Officer Darren Wilson with his hands held high; and this act led both to prolonged protest by residents of Ferguson, and other communities both near and far, and also to unconstitutional acts of police violence against protesters, onlookers, and media, which appears to violate not only First Amendment protections but Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment protections of civil rights as well; and overt racists have organized to raise over $340,000 in only five days to support the cause of Officer Wilson, far more than has been raised to support the needs of Michael Brown’s family and those of other African American victims of police repression; and
WHEREAS, all but one Ferguson City Council member is White, only 3 of 53 police officers are African American, and its residents, especially African Americans, have borne a heavy burden of fines and fees imposed by their municipal government; and this situation is unlikely to change without outside intervention due to Ferguson’s municipal elections taking place in the spring of odd-numbered years, a time when voter turnout tends to be especially low [seehttp://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/08/18/3472278/this-is-the-most-important-reform-ferguson-can-enact-to-prevent-another-standoff/]; and also because its voters face police intimidation, many voters are transient and have not registered, and candidates from the largely impoverished African American community of a city of its small size are unlikely to have access to the resources necessary to run an effective campaign that might let them elect a government able and willing to serve their needs; and
WHEREAS, the Democratic Party of Orange County, both on its own and in conjunction with other county Democratic Parties in California and across the nation, is experienced with identifying strategists, managers, field operatives, direct mail operatives, election attorneys, and others able to provide these and other services that can register voters in advance of an election, train candidates, and provide them with the means to run a winning campaign in the usually low-turnout elections scheduled for April 7, 2015; THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED, that the Democratic Party of Orange County, on its own if necessary and with other county and state parties within and beyond California if possible, will within a week of passing this resolution seek to make contact with African American Democrats in the Ferguson area, including Democratic committeewoman Patricia Bynes, and seek to establish a plan to register voters, identify candidates, and attract volunteers and (as appropriate) paid staff both to travel to the area to train Ferguson residents and provide their own hand-on experience in winning elections and to provide such services on a pro bono basis, where possible, from outside of the area; and THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER
RESOLVED, that the Democratic Party of Orange County agrees to earmark $5,000 from its funds from this year’s Truman Dinner, and from future Truman Dinners until such time as Ferguson is under the political control of its vast African American majority, to “kick-start” fundraising a campaign to return Ferguson to its own citizens.
Submitted by Greg Diamond, _______________________________________________________________
With a population of only 21,000, a good field campaign — which in this case would have to include legal observers to monitor police treatment of canvassers and the ability to head QUICKLY to federal court — can give them the chance at a truly fair election. In a fair election, I think that the elites realize that they are going to lose and “sue for surrender” sooner rather than later.
I humbly submit that this is a very good place for us activists outside of Ferguson to start. We should not just mouth platitudes about the need for change in Ferguson; we should take a tangible step to let the democratic process work — and make sure they they have the funds they need to see that it happens!
THIS is the way to make the difference — and very soon. Who’s in?
While you’re at it why don’t you get Steve Buscemi to advise them on orthodontia, or Gary Busey to conduct a motorcycle safety course.
You’re hilarious. Completely ineffectual and apparently proud of it, but hilarious.
Don’t worry, we can hire people from LA, San Francisco, and Alameda if need be.
The idea is that we, even us here, can do something to break this standoff. For those who care about that, it may provide some satisfaction. For you, well, I won’t speculate.
Good for you.
I wish I had this much free time on my hands. I am busy working, dealing with a broken washing machine, and teenage kids.
Go get them.
I am busy working too. This is my hobby.
Our dishwasher is broken too, although our teenager is pretty well-behaved.
If you have teenagers (or kids tall enough to reach the sink), they should be washing dishes.
*Who said that the Ferguson Police Chief needed to resign immediately? We did! How about the Ferguson Mayor and the entire City Council? Fired, on the spot…please! What about the Board of Supervisors? Have not heard a beep from them either. Guess, they are all holding their breath…..for Grand Jury Report and the DOJ Report – and of the forthcoming 10 year Consent Decree implementation. These are ridiculous sad excuses for public servants.
$5000 of DPOC money! Maybe you ought to pay your dues to the DPOC so they can afford your payment plan idea.
Does that seem like a whole lot to you, person who surely is not but merely sounds like Dan Chmielewski? (The person’s fake email address is “payupGreg@aol.com”; that narrows it down to most likely one of relatively few assholes from the party. Or Matt Cunningham.) Spending $5000 on a high profile and desperately needed attempt to show solidarity with poor minorities under extreme duress — showing some leadership, in other words — is unreasonable? Maybe for you even $5 would be too much. And that’s part of the problem with the mentality of too many — not all — of the faction dominating the DPOC.
For what it’s worth — and it’s worth roughly $100 — I’ve given $50 twice so far this year to be considered for DPOC endorsements for positions where I’ve done what others generally only give lip service to: having someone run, and fight aggressively as far as their budget will allow, for every office, especially ones where particularly repugnant opponents would otherwise go unopposed. (The CDP endorsement in the 2012 race against Huff cost me $500. No good deed goes unpunished.)
I’ve put way more than $100 of my own money, not even counting my time, into each race — for the good of my party. Each time, a committee hand-appointed by the Chair has recommended against my endorsement: last time because, among other things, they didn’t want to piss off the (increasingly Republican-leaning) Building Trades and Teamsters); this time, because, apparently, someone whom I won’t identify (no one else do it either, please) one person went on a screaming jihad against me in the committee and others did not want to stand up to her or him. (Both times, the full body reversed that decision.)
“Pay up.” How about YOU grow some gonads? If and when I get paid for the public interest legal work that takes most of my time, I expect to go back to supporting the Democratic Party, as I generally have. It may be the Democratic Party in Missouri, if that makes more sense to me, but I promise you that it will go for a good cause.
Not Chmielewski. He’s really not a Party insider much as he wishes he were.
Oh by the way, congrats on your DPOC endorsement last night, Juice brother!
Hearing the reasons for the “no recommendation” from the committee was … odd. I do thank the members of the academy. If Matthew McConnaghey couldn’t represent the long-winded last night at the Emmys, at least I could do so at the DPOCkies.
So the resolution was not adopted. What is this committee and what were the reasons “for no recommendation”.? Would this type of resolution be send to the DNC?
Suspecting that Dan C/Cunningham are behind malicious posts is giving them too much importance, even if they are the ones behind those anonymous posts . They may get under our nerves, but keep them in proper perspective.Probably Cunningham was the one posting as “Anaheim Blog” in the OCR article about the Angels. They may fool some people but even their clients end up keeping their distance from them.
We didn’t get far enough down in the agenda to where the Ferguson proposal was located due to a sudden motion to adjourn. It ended up not being a resolution, for lack of time, but an action item.
I’m satisfied to identify the Cunningham/Chmielewski tendency within the “get rich quick off of the public” overlap between the parties with those particular models, Ricardo, for reasons that I doubt I need to belabor here beyond the advantages of choosing the other side’s mascots.