The Congressional Black Caucus: Powerful, Diverse and Newly Complicated
"George Floyd death: How US police are trying to win back trust [...] How Camden, N.J., disbanded and rebuilt its police force"
The group, which includes most Black members of Congress, remains publicly united. But in private, an influx of new members who think differently about its purpose are making a play for the future.
The Congressional Black Caucus is a firm part of the Democratic establishment, close to House leadership and the relationship-driven world of political consulting and campaigns. Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times
By Astead W. Herndon Aug. 21, 2021
The Congressional Black Caucus is the largest it has ever been, jumping to 57 members this year after a period of steady growth. The 50-year-old group, which includes most Black members of Congress and is entirely Democratic, is also more diverse, reflecting growing pockets of the Black electorate: millennials, progressives, suburban voters, those less tightly moored to the Democratic Party.
But while a thread of social justice connects one generation to the next, the influx of new members from varying backgrounds is testing the group’s long-held traditions in ways that could alter the future of Black political power in Washington.
The newcomers, shaped by the Black Lives Matter movement rather than the civil rights era, urge Democrats to go on the offensive regarding race and policing, pushing an affirmative message about how to overhaul public safety. They seek a bolder strategy on voting rights and greater investment in the recruitment and support of Black candidates.
Perhaps more significant than any ideological or age divide, however, is the caucus’s fault line of political origin stories — between those who made the Democratic establishment work for them and those who had to overcome the establishment to win.
“There was not a single member of the caucus, when I got there, that could have gotten elected in a congressional district that was only 4 percent African American,” Mr. Clyburn said, referring to Ms. Underwood.
“We didn’t have people in the caucus before who could stand up and say, ‘I know what it’s like to live in an automobile or be homeless,’” he said of Ms. Bush, whose recent dayslong sit-in on the Capitol steps pushed President Biden’s administration .. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/us/politics/cori-bush-eviction-moratorium.html .. to extend an eviction moratorium.
In interviews, more than 20 people close to the C.B.C. — including several members, their senior aides and other Democrats who have worked with the group — described the shifting dynamics of the leading organization of Black power players in Washington.
Representative Lauren Underwood of Illinois serves a district that is overwhelmingly white.Credit...Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times
The caucus is a firm part of the Democratic establishment, close to House leadership and the relationship-driven world of political consulting and campaigns. However, unlike other groups tied to party leaders, the caucus is perhaps the country’s most public coalition of civil rights stalwarts, ostensibly responsible for ensuring that an insider game shaped by whiteness can work for Black people.
Today, the C.B.C. has swelling ranks and a president who has said he owes his election to Black Democrats. There is a strong chance that when Speaker Nancy Pelosi eventually steps down, her successor will be a member of the group. At the same time, the new lawmakers and their supporters are challenging the group with a simple question: Whom should the Congressional Black Caucus be for?
The group’s leadership and political action committee have typically focused on supporting Black incumbents and their congressional allies in re-election efforts. But other members, especially progressive ones, call for a more combative activist streak, like Ms. Bush’s, that challenges the Democratic Party in the name of Black people. Moderate members in swing districts, who reject progressive litmus tests like defunding police departments or supporting a Green New Deal, say the caucus is behind on the nuts and bolts of modern campaigning and remains too pessimistic about Black candidates’ chances in predominantly white districts.
Many new C.B.C. members, even those whose aides discussed their frustration in private, declined to comment on the record for this article. The leadership of the caucus, including the current chair, Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio, also did not respond to requests for comment.
Miti Sathe, a founder of Square One Politics, a political firm used by Ms. Underwood and other successful Black candidates including Representative Lucy McBath, a Georgia Democrat, said she had often wondered why the caucus was not a greater ally on the campaign trail.
She recounted how Ms. Underwood, a former C.B.C. intern who was the only Black candidate in her race, did not receive the caucus’s initial endorsement.
In Ms. Underwood’s race, “we tried many times to have conversations with them, to get their support and to get their fund-raising lists, and they declined,” Ms. Sathe said.
Representative Cori Bush of Missouri, an outspoken progressive, defeated a caucus member in a hotly contested primary race last year. Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times
Representative Ritchie Torres of New York, a 33-year-old freshman member, said the similarities among C.B.C. members still outweighed the differences.
“It seems one-dimensional to characterize it as some generational divide,” he said. “The freshman class — the freshman members of the C.B.C. — are hardly a monolith.”
Political strategy is often the dividing line among members — not policy. The Clyburn-led veterans have hugged close to Ms. Pelosi to rise through the ranks, and believe younger members should follow their example. They have taken a zero-tolerance stance toward primary challengers to Democratic incumbents. They have recently pushed for a pared-down approach to voting rights legislation .. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/26/us/politics/democrats-voting-rights.html , attacking proposals for public financing of campaigns and independent redistricting committees, which have support from many Democrats in Congress but could change the makeup of some Black members’ congressional districts.
And when younger members of Congress press Ms. Pelosi to elevate new blood and overlook seniority, this more traditional group points to Representatives Maxine Waters of California and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi — committee chairs who waited years for their gavels. The political arm of the Black caucus reflects that insider approach, sometimes backing white incumbents who are friends with senior caucus leaders instead of viable Black challengers.
Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, the chairman of the caucus’s political action committee, said its goal was simple: to help maintain the Democratic majority so the party’s agenda can be advanced.
“You don’t throw somebody out simply because somebody else is running against them,” he said. “That’s not the way politics works.”
Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the most powerful Black lawmaker in the House, said the group still functioned as a family. T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times
In a special election this month in Ohio to replace former Representative Marcia Fudge, the newly appointed housing secretary .. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/10/us/politics/marcia-fudge-hud-biden.html .. and a close ally of Mr. Clyburn’s, the caucus’s political arm took the unusual step of endorsing one Black candidate over another for an open seat. The group backed Shontel Brown — a Democrat who is close to Ms. Fudge — over several Black rivals, including Nina Turner, a former state senator and a prominent leftist ally of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Mr. Meeks said the caucus had deferred to its ranking members from Ohio, including Ms. Beatty and Ms. Fudge. Mr. Clyburn also personally backed Ms. Brown .. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/us/politics/jim-clyburn-nina-turner-special-election-cleveland.html . In the interview, he cited a comment from a campaign surrogate for Ms. Turner who called him “incredibly stupid” for endorsing Mr. Biden in the presidential primary race. “There’s nobody in the Congressional Black Caucus who would refer to the highest-ranking African American among them as incredibly stupid,” Mr. Clyburn said.
Ms. Turner, a progressive activist, defended the remark and said the caucus’s endorsement of Ms. Brown “did a disservice to the 11 other Black candidates in that race.” She argued that Washington politics were governed by “a set of rules that leaves so many Black people behind.”
“The reasons they endorsed had nothing to do with the uplift of Black people,” Ms. Turner said, citing her support of policies like reparations for descendants of enslaved people and student debt cancellation. “It had everything to do about preserving a decorum and a consensus type of power model that doesn’t ruffle anybody’s feathers.”
Privately, while some Black members of Congress were sympathetic to Ms. Turner’s criticism, they also regarded the comment about Mr. Clyburn as an unnecessary agitation, according to those familiar with their views.
Last year, several new C.B.C. members across the political spectrum grew frustrated after concluding that Democrats’ messaging on race and policing ignored the findings of a poll commissioned by the caucus and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The poll, obtained by The New York Times, urged Democrats in swing districts to highlight the policing changes they supported rather than defending the status quo.
But the instruction from leaders of the caucus and the Democratic campaign committee was blunt: Denounce defunding the police and pivot to health care.
[INSERT: Damned if i understand why any Democrat, even any journalist worth their salt, is still using that misleading and provocative phrase "Defunding the police." Was good to see just above it being described the way it should be - "to highlight the policing changes they supported." Policing changes. That's is what it is. And it certainly is one hell of a lot less divisive. Leave "defunding the police" to the idiot Republicans to misrepresent what it's really about.]
“It was baffling that the research was not properly utilized,” said one senior aide to a newer member of the Black caucus, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to voice the frustrations. “It could have helped some House Democrats keep their jobs.”
The caucus is perhaps the country’s most public coalition of civil rights stalwarts, ostensibly responsible for ensuring that an insider game shaped by whiteness can work for Black people. Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
Mr. Clyburn makes no secret of his disdain for progressive activists who support defunding the police. In the interview, he likened the idea to “Burn, baby, burn,” the slogan associated with the 1965 Watts riots in California.
[Shite. Surely there are many changes to policing structure, training and procedure which Clyburn would support. Why has he been sucked into the defunding the police phraseology mistake. Into that trap. What the hell am i missing here.]
“‘Burn, baby, burn’ destroyed the movement John Lewis and I helped found back in 1960,” he said. “Now we have defunding the police.”
Mr. Meeks, the political point man for the caucus, said he expected its endorsements to go where they have always gone: to Black incumbents and their allies. Still, he praised Ms. Bush’s recent activism as helping to “put the pressure on to make the change happen,” a sign of how new blood and ideological diversity could increase the caucus’s power.
But Ms. Bush won despite the wishes of the caucus’s political arm. And those who seek a similar path to Congress are likely to face similar resistance.
When asked, Mr. Meeks saw no conflict.
“When you’re on a team,” he said, “you look out for your teammates.”
Camden police reboot is being misused in the debate over police reform
"conix, "Defund the police, Crime is not a problem, bail is a problem." You mock. You laugh at. Now, instead of always behaving like a surface-lovin' water slider, consider Camden N.J. George Floyd death: How US police are trying to win back trust [...]Watch the video. Consider it's content. Give digging deeper a go. Give thinking out-of-your-cell a chance."
Related: conix, Your post your usual counterfactual (Chicago) - ignorantly disingenuous (your questions, your post in toto) and superciliously indulgent meanderings. States with the most gun violence share one trait [...]There are indeed a horrific number of gun deaths in Chicago each year. CNN has covered the problem. But there are more gun deaths in Texas, by far, than in any other state, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm . https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169107638
Yes, the New Jersey city abolished and replaced its police department. But the results weren’t good until activists stepped in.
Camden County Metro Police Chief Joe Wysocki raises a fist while marching with Camden residents on May 30 in Camden, N.J., to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. (April Saul/AP)
Perspective by Stephen Danley June 16, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Cities across the nation are grappling with demands to defund and rethink policing, and some are taking action. Nine members of the Minneapolis city council, for example, have pledged to disband the city’s police department.
This announcement turned a spotlight on Camden, N.J., which disbanded its police force in 2012 and has been held up as a possible approach to solving policing problems. But the current discussion of Camden, from its data to its history, is oversimplified and dangerously misleading.
In reality, Camden’s police restructuring was deeply undemocratic and involved a doubling-down on “broken windows” policing strategies that increased excessive-force complaints. It was only tireless efforts from local activists and watchdogs that eventually pressured the new police force to adopt a new force policy requiring officers to avoid escalation, training them to do so and requiring them to intercede if another officer was incorrectly using force. It is this local activism — not disbanding the police force — that is the key to understanding the gains made in Camden.
Misinterpreting crime statistics — and ignoring historical context — can produce catastrophic policy blunders. That’s why it’s important to look more carefully at how police reforms actually work.
For example, during the 1990s, violent crime in New York dropped 56 percent and nonviolent crime dropped 65 percent .. .. https://www.nber.org/digest/jan03/w9061.html . At the time, the gains were attributed to the broken windows approach .. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/304465/ .. to policing advocated by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) (elected in 1993), which theorized that cracking down on small infractions would lead to lower incidence of more serious crimes. Because of New York’s prominence, Giuliani’s claims had a major effect on police strategies across the country, as many other cities adopted the approach.
In other words, the oversimplification of a single high-profile case — without proper context or comparison — propagated deeply racist policies.
Which brings us to Camden.
With more than 70,000 residents, Camden’s history parallels Detroit’s on a smaller scale. As in Detroit, the city lost manufacturing from companies such as New York Shipping Company, Victor Talking Machine Co. and Campbell’s Soup, particularly in the years after World War II. “White flight” and suburbanization sped that disinvestment, leaving behind a bankrupt high-poverty city dependent on state aid since the 1980s.
Camden also features stark contradictions. While communities are pockmarked with abandoned or demolished houses, those blocks are also home to close-knit residents and a resilient cultural arts scene.
Despite this resiliency, Camden’s dependence on state aid has had vast ramifications. In 2011 and 2012, crime spiked in cities across New Jersey thanks to devastating cuts to that aid by Gov. Chris Christie (R). The cuts forced Camden to decrease its budget by 20 percent .. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/nyregion/14camden.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 .. in a single year. Police officers were fired. Services were cut. And Camden lost its last library.
With the city under duress, over the objection of Camden community members .. https://www.courthousenews.com/camden-pd-reboot-done-illegally-nj-court-rules/, local officials partnered with Christie to enact a plan to disband the city’s police force and replace it with a regional county force. The goal was to dissolve the local police union, which would allow for a cheaper force that would enable more policing, not less.
The new force embraced broken windows policing. In the first year of the new force, summonses for disorderly conduct shot up 43 percent. Summonses for not maintaining lights or reflectors on vehicles spiked 421 percent. Summonses for tinted car windows similarly increased 381 percent. And farcically, summonses for riding a bicycle without a bell or a light rose from three to 339. It was straight out of the Giuliani handbook.
One resident described the time period by saying, “with the new police force, we all became suspects.” Rann Miller, a Camden-born education activist, said recently that it was the “same team with new jerseys .. https://twitter.com/UrbanEdDJ/status/1270189303059095563 .”
Given this history, why is Camden being held up as evidence that disbanding police departments works? Because observers are repeating the mistake made with broken windows policing and misinterpreting statistics.
Yes, Camden experienced a 23 percent drop in violent crime and a 48 percent drop in nonviolent crime from 2012 to 2018. But crediting the crime reduction to the new police force is highly questionable.
First, during the same period, crime also fell in other New Jersey cities .. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/home . Between 2012 and 2018, Newark saw violent crime fall 25 percent while nonviolent crime fell 40 percent. In Jersey City, the numbers were 23 percent and 14 percent. Trenton and Paterson also saw drops in violent and nonviolent crime. Among New Jersey’s comparable cities, only Elizabeth did not experience such a drop.
These drops reflected a reversion to the levels from before the austerity crisis. This is another parallel to Giuliani’s New York City where broken windows policing received credit for reducing historically high crime rates despite the drop being mirrored in other cities without broken windows policing.
That change in policy appears to be getting modest but positive results. Use-of-force data is notoriously messy, but NJ.com’s .. http://nj.com's/ .. Force Report .. http://(http//force.nj.com/ .. showed Camden’s use of force decreasing about the time of these changes. (That study ran from 2012-2016.) The effect was not mirrored in other New Jersey cities, indicating that it was not a statewide effect — though some of those cities still had lower rates-of-force use even after Camden’s decrease.
Furthermore, Camden’s excessive-force complaints that had increased early in the Metro Police’s tenure have dropped 95 percent .. https://www.bloombergquint.com/businessweek/how-camden-new-jersey-reformed-its-police-department .. since 2014 — the peak of the Metro Police’s broken windows strategy and two years into the new force’s lifespan. The de-escalation strategies then, not the change in police forces, seem to be working to limit police violence.
What can we take from the real, messy story of Camden’s police restructuring? The disbanding of the Camden City Police Department was not a silver bullet. In fact, it was deeply anti-democratic and done with the purpose of increasing enforcement. But local activism subsequently led to new force-reduction policies. Camden is not a story of how disbanding and creating a new force magically fixes policing, it is a story of how community persistence can lead to meaningful change and how force-reduction policies can, in fact, reduce force.
Correction: An earlier version of this piece said that the police killing of George Floyd happened in Wisconsin. In reality, of course, it happened in Minnesota. The story has been corrected.
By Stephen Danley Stephen Danley is the graduate director of the MS/PhD in public affairs and community development at Rutgers University-Camden and the author of "A Neighborhood Politics of Last Resort: Post-Katrina New Orleans and the Right to the City." He is a Camden resident. follow on X @SteveDanley
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