Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Covid Funds Spent on Police and Prisons
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
22 Sep 2021
Covid Funds Spent on Police and Prisons

Systemic racism and weak movement politics allow states and cities to spend relief funds on police and jails. 

The health and financial impacts of the covid pandemic have been enormous. More than 42 million people have been infected and 679,000 have died in this country. Individuals, businesses and every level of government have suffered as they lost income and revenue. Many workers are unemployed and certain sectors of the economy still suffer disproportionately. There is an easy case to make in favor of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP) which was passed in order to relieve these many crises.

The argument is harder to make when those funds are being used for police and prisons, and which is happening across the country. The state of Alabama is poised to use ARP funds to build three new prisons. Philadelphia is paying for police and for jails. The state of Idaho is  increasing correction officer salaries. Mesa, Arizona will buy surveillance equipment for its police department. A lawsuit is pending in Kansas City, Missouri which will determine whether relief funds can be allocated to that city’s police department.

The prison building proposal in Alabama is particularly troubling. Only 41% of its population is fully vaccinated against covid. The spread of the Delta variant there has resulted in covid patients utilizing half of all Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in the state, which means that non-covid patients are also impacted by this lack of capacity. An average of 50 Alabamans die of covid every day. Black people in the state are as hesitant as white residents to be vaccinated and consequently have the same high death rate. One would think that Alabama would be a state eager to bolster its health care system with ARP funds. Alas, incarceration is a priority while sick people literally can’t find a hospital bed.

All of these plans cynically claim that policing and incarceration are health, safety, and infrastructure issues. ARP funds are allowed to make up for losses of revenue but they could just as easily be used for health care, housing or schools. Police departments are very well funded with over $118 billion spent on U.S. police departments as of 2018. The armed forces of Russia, Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan all receive less money than American police departments. 

That is because police in this country are a domestic military force. Just as in the days of the slave patrol they are used to keep Black people under physical control. Maintaining that level of control is a constant political priority, regardless of whether any other needs are met. Police can always count on having good paying jobs and all the resources they want while millions suffer from low wage work, inadequate housing, and crumbling schools. No one should fear eviction because ARP funds have been earmarked for rental assistance, but states and cities are slow to spend that money.

The failure here is not just about systemic racism as it pertains to law enforcement. There is also a failure of left wing movements. Mayors and legislators should be afraid of public opposition if  ARP funds are used for anything except human needs. In the absence of strong movement politics they can expect little push back and are assured of getting whatever they want. 

The huge protests which occurred in 2020 after the police murder of George Floyd now seem to be figments of the imagination. Attention given to the presidential election and the imperative of getting rid of Donald Trump sucked the oxygen out of the room. The movement itself lacked structure and was unable to sustain itself. There are still plenty of reasons to protest but the moment seems to have passed for most of those who were activated last year.

The rallying cry for community control of police must be extended to the entire governmental apparatus. We have a plethora of governments at the city, county, state and the federal level yet they rarely act on the public’s behalf. That is why elected officials from Idaho to Pennsylvania to Alabama are certain they can get away with using the people's money for dubious reasons. New prisons and better paid police are all we have to show for sickness, unemployment, and death.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. Her work can also be found at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.

Black Mass Incarceration
Defund the Police

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Crazy Like a Woodfox
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Crazy Like a Woodfox
10 August 2022
Crazy as a Woodfox...
Prison in Plain Sight: Visualizing the Economic Veins That Fuel Our Carceral Reality
The Mapping Project
Prison in Plain Sight: Visualizing the Economic Veins That Fuel Our Carceral Reality
13 July 2022
The prison system links corporate interests, the military industrial complex, and policing into a web of oppression impacting more than 2 milli
Biden Kills the Demand to Defund Police
Netfa Freeman
Biden Kills the Demand to Defund Police
08 April 2022
The same people who wanted to defund policing voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden.
New York Bail Reform Fight
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
New York Bail Reform Fight
23 February 2022
Black legislators in New York are defending their legislation which reduces the use of cash bail.
Eric Adams' Black on Black Crime
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Eric Adams' Black on Black Crime
09 February 2022
The mass incarceration state was built to lock up as many Black people as possible and discussion of even modest reforms is shut down.
The US Political Elite Gives Cover to the Brutal US Police State
Netfa Freeman
The US Political Elite Gives Cover to the Brutal US Police State
09 February 2022
The US political elite and their elite press are using the fraudulent claims about a “crime wave” as an ideological offensive, a backlash, agai
Arizona State Prison Laborers
Michael Sainato
Corporations are Making Millions of Dollars From U.S. Prison Labor
25 January 2022
A Freedom of Information Act request shines a light on how much private corporations and government agencies have been exploiting prison labor
Rittenhouse and Verdict Mania
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Rittenhouse and Verdict Mania
23 November 2021
Black people give great attention to certain court cases in hopes of receiving justice when the system is designed to be unjust.
Russell “Maroon” Shoatz is Free, But Other Political Prisoners Languish
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Russell “Maroon” Shoatz is Free, But Other Political Prisoners Languish
27 October 2021
The demand for freedom of political prisoners must be consistently made for their sakes and for all at risk of joining them in the future.
photo courtesy Donnell Murray's family
Josmar Trujillo
How Prosecutors Use Conspiracy and Questionable Testimony in “Gang” Cases
26 October 2021
Conspiracy laws, RICO statutes and "gang" designations are tools of police and prosecutorial misconduct and the maintenance of the mass incarce

More Stories


  • Black Agenda Radio August 12, 2022
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio August 12, 2022
    12 Aug 2022
    National and international crises exemplified in Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. The struggle to secure reparations for African people continues.
  • Pelosi, Taiwan, and the American Crisis
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Pelosi, Taiwan, and the American Crisis
    12 Aug 2022
    Dr. Anthony Monteiro is a Duboisian scholar and founder of the Saturday Free School for Philosophy and Black Liberation. He joins us from Philadelphia to analyze the crises in U.S. domestic and…
  • Reparations for African People
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Reparations for African People
    12 Aug 2022
    Kamm Howard is Executive Director of Reparations United. He recently attended the reparations and racial healing summit in Accra, Ghana. He joins us from Chicago to discuss the campaign to secure…
  • Nancy Pelosi, White Supremacy, and China
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Nancy Pelosi, White Supremacy, and China
    10 Aug 2022
    White supremacist arrogance was the order of the day when Nancy Pelosi ignored a red line set by the Chinese government and visited Taiwan.
  • ESSAY: Women in Prison: How We Are, Assata Shakur, 1978
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Women in Prison: How We Are, Assata Shakur, 1978
    10 Aug 2022
    Assata Shakur exposes the conditions faced by incarcerated Black women in a powerful 1978 essay.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us