by Jerry Dunleavy
Janeese Lewis George rode to power into the D.C. Council in 2020 on a wave of "Defund the Police" promises and with the backing of the DSA. As their latest poster child, she could be mayor of America's capital city.
A longtime “Defund the Police” advocate who could be the
next mayor of the nation’s capital has argued that American policing is
“rooted in white supremacy” — and she, like NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is
also a member of Democratic Socialists of America.
Janeese Lewis George, who won her D.C. City Council seat in
2020 with the backing of the DSA and on a “Defund the Police” platform
following the George Floyd protests and riots, is now a leading
contender to replace outgoing multi-term Mayor Muriel Bowser. The
Democratic mayoral primary will be based on ranked choice voting for the
first time this year. Lewis George has a lead in the primary according to a City Cast poll, as well as according to a GBAO Strategies poll sponsored by her own campaign.
Prior to winning the DSA endorsement and the Democratic
primary in 2020 and becoming a member of the D.C. City Council, Lewis
George had been an assistant attorney general in Philadelphia as well as an assistant attorney general in Washington, D.C.
Lewis George backtracks on defunding the police
Crime is a key issue in the race, where Lewis George’s top
opponent, Kenyan McDuffie, has hammered the DSA candidate over her
Defund the Police stances. Lewis George now contends that she will not
defund the police, but getting DSA’s backing during her original D.C.
council run meant vowing to defund the police, and she had a vocal
history of promising to do just that.
Mamdani, as mayor of the country’s biggest city, could soon
have a fellow DSA member as mayor of the nation’s capital, if Lewis
George wins on June 16.
Lewis George’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DSA endorsement and Defund the Police stance are inextricably linked
Lewis George’s endorsement by and membership in the DSA is
inextricably linked to her long history of calling to defund the police,
because it is a litmus test for DSA support. When she was making her
first primary bid for a D.C. council seat in 2019, Lewis George filled
out the standard endorsement questionnaire put together by the DSA of Metro D.C.
She said “yes” when asked if she identified as a democratic
socialist, writing, “Because democratic socialists believe that our
political and economic systems are fundamentally flawed, and that a
better system is one that shifts more resources and power into the hands
of working families. My campaign is built on this foundation, which is
why I’m fighting to decrease the influence of money in politics; raise
wages; beat back racism, sexism, and other forms of cultural and gender
bias; expand healthcare; and make housing affordable again.”
Lewis George’s timing for joining the DSA and then seeking
the DSA endorsement seemed strategic, as she wrote that “I was
admittedly late to the game, signing up only in October 2019.” The DSA
questionnaire asked whether she supported “efforts to demilitarize and
disarm our police departments” and she answered “yes.”
“We’re told the institution of policing is intended to
protect all of us from some suspicious menace, but the fact is that
crime is a public health problem, not a battle of military opponents,”
Lewis George wrote. “The transformation of American police departments,
especially the MPD, into military units trained to occupy the very
communities promised protection is one of the greatest dangers to the
future of urban life.”
She also said “yes” when asked if she recognized “the
increased police presence in our schools as the start of a
school-to-prison pipeline” and thus supported "removing police officers
from schools, instead providing free mental healthcare as an alternative
means to provide for the safety of our children.”
“I don’t think we should have guns in our schools no matter
who is carrying them,” Lewis George wrote. “We should be expanding
funding to ensure mental health services and staff are available in all
Ward 4 schools, not just but especially those with a high rate of mental
health-related needs.”
She also said “yes” when asked if she was committed to
“rejecting any political endorsement by labor groups whose mission is
primarily to organize and represent police officers.” The DSA-backed
mayoral candidate — who was then running in the Democratic primary to
join the D.C. council — tweeted in October 2019 that “I will absolutely divest from MPD and put that money into violence interruption programs” and expounded
upon that by saying that “what I mean is that I would redirect some of
the $550 million in funding that is currently allocated for policing
toward violence prevention and violence interruption programs that are
run by agencies other than MPD.”
Lewis George doubled down on this in December 2019, arguing
that “I'm tired of throwing failed solutions at this problem. More
policing doesn't work, we can't enforce our way to safer communities.”
She won the Democratic nomination for the D.C. City Council seat in Ward 4 in early June 2020.
The Minneapolis City Council announced a few days later that it was in support of disbanding or dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department. ABC News soon reported that Lewis George — now the nominee for D.C. city council — was in favor of that.
"It's no longer sounding like a radical idea. It's sounding like a logical idea for many," Lewis-George reportedly
said, adding that “just like the 1968 Civil Rights Act had to be passed
in order to see the protests die down, I think this is a moment where
our legislators are going to have to do the same thing."
Long list of "soft on crime positions"
Lewis George also took a number of soft-on-crime stances when seeking the DSA endorsement in 2019.
She said “yes” when asked if she supported “eliminating
cash bail” and wrote that “cash bail keeps low-income people with
limited cash liquidity behind bars.” The candidate also said “yes” that
she did “recognize sex work as work” and did “support the
decriminalization of sex work.” Lewis George added, “This isn’t
complicated. Just because many might find it unsavory does not mean that
those employed in the sale of sex should be denied the rights afforded
all workers.”
Lewis George also said “yes” when asked if she was in favor
of “the decriminalization of all drugs” — including the hardest and
most addictive.
“Yes, though probably it'd be most practical to do it in
phases,” she told the DSA. “Like most crime, drug use is a public health
problem whose solution is a public health approach, not punitive law
enforcement and incarceration."
The DSA’s D.C. chapter held a “Fund Care, Not Cops!” rally in mid-June 2020, which Lewis George spoke at.
Lewis George endorsed the “Defund the Police” slogan during
the rally. “A lot of people have said to me, ‘oh, don’t use the word
defund because it makes a lot of people uncomfortable,’ and I said,
‘were people as uncomfortable when they defunded education?’ What we’re
saying to you is that you have had too much of continuing to divest from
our communities and to take from our communities and continue to do it
and we are tired,” she said according to Street Sense Media.
Lewis George tweeted
in June 2020 that “Juneteenth recognizes Black freedom and Black
resistance, a powerful opportunity to proclaim in one voice that BLACK
LIVES MATTER. To honor our ancestors and create a path toward freedom
for future generations.”
The candidate was asked whether, back when she was a
prosecutor, she had ever thought to herself that she was working within a
racist system.
“Absolutely,” she said. “All the time.”
Introduced the “White Supremacy in Policing Prevention Act”
NPR said that that experience “informed her proposals to
divert some of the police budget to community improvements and violence
reduction programs.”
“You know, I've seen, you know, how much we just lean on
doing the same thing and expecting a different result, which is like —
let's just put more officers there, and that'll [solve] the problem,
which is not the only solution,” Lewis George said. “You've got to put
more resources into the community to do that.”
Once in office, Lewis George quickly continued her critiques of the police, including introducing the “White Supremacy in Policing Prevention Act” in February 2021.
Her office announced
that this was “a bill to investigate any ties between members of MPD
and hate groups that could prevent fair enforcement of the law, and to
recommend preventive and detection safeguards for the Department” and
contended that “in the wake of rising extremism, police departments
nationwide are grappling with the threat of white supremacist and hate
group ties among law enforcement.”
Lewis George said
on Instagram at the time that “this legislation is a critical step to
ensure that our laws are enforced fairly, improve officer and community
safety, and increase public trust in the Department without setting
aside additional funding for policing.”
She also introduced legislation in 2021 to restrict police chases in D.C.
The councilwoman appeared
on Zoom for a hearing in May 2021 where she praised proposed police
reforms which “fundamentally reimagine what the role of policing is in
D.C.” She said she was in favor of “decriminalizing poverty and
low-level offenses” and wanted to create “police-free schools.”
DSA candidate said Jacob Blake case shows black people “not safe in our own bodies”
Lewis George also suggested that Wisconsin police not being
charged for the shooting of Jacob Blake meant that black people are not
safe in America.
In August 2020, Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey shot
Jacob Blake in the back and left side seven times after Blake repeatedly
managed to evade being detained by the responding officers and as Blake
turned toward the officer while holding a knife.
Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley released
a January 2021 report saying the facts established that Sheskey and two
other responding officers knew Blake had a felony warrant involved with
domestic violence and sexual assault charges. The report said they also
knew: that Laquisha Booker flagged them down and indicated Blake was
trying to take her car while her kids were in it; that Blake physically
resisted arrest while armed with a knife; that Sheskey and another
officer repeatedly tried to subdue Blake with a taser to no avail; that
Blake was walking to the car with a knife; and that Sheskey, another
officer, and two citizen witnesses saw Blake turning toward Sheskey with
the knife when Sheskey then shot him.
The district attorney concluded:
“I do not believe the State could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
Officer Sheskey was not acting lawfully in self-defense or defense of
others.”
“Time and time again we see that deescalation, respect for
our lives, and accountability for those who shoot us is not a privilege
Black people get to have. We are not safe in our own bodies.
#JacobBlake,” Lewis-George tweeted the day of this announcement.
The Biden Justice Department announced
in October 2021 that the Kenosha police officer who shot and partially
paralyzed Blake would not be prosecuted, due to “insufficient evidence.”
The DOJ said
“it will not pursue federal criminal civil rights charges” against the
officer, saying it had told Blake’s family and that prosecutors made the
decision “because the evidence obtained is insufficient to prove that
the KPD officer willfully used excessive force.”
Lewis George tries to downplay Defund the Police stance as she runs for mayor
Lewis George’s current mayoral campaign platform makes no mention of her prior repeated pledges to Defund the Police, but instead claims she will support the police.
“Janeese will implement a comprehensive public safety
strategy that addresses prevention, intervention, and enforcement. It’s
an approach she took as Ward 4 Councilmember when addressing crime on
Kennedy Street and in Petworth,” the platform
contends. “And it’s the approach she took when she was a prosecutor at
the D.C. Office of the Attorney General. As Mayor, the entirety of her
government will play a role in public safety, not just one agency.”
Lewis George has attempted to somewhat walk back her prior demands for defunding the police.
The DSA candidate’s current campaign platform further claims
that “to make D.C. safer” she will “enforce our laws and support law
enforcement agencies” by “strengthening and expanding resources to
detectives to aid in solving more crimes” and by “addressing MPD’s
vacancy and retention crisis by expanding the police cadet program,
reducing forced overtime, renovating aging facilities, and providing
child care benefits that make the District competitive with other local
and federal police departments.”
The Washington Post noted
in May that “the DSA’s platform calls for substantially defunding
police departments and ultimately abolishing them.” The outlet said that
Lewis George was asked if she agreed with that view, and replied that
she “does not always agree with what the DSA does” and argued that the
“defund” attacks by her opponents are “cheap shots.”
“I stood up in the moment, just like every generation
before me has stood up, and made a loud, resounding call for investment
in our community,” Lewis George told the outlet, reportedly “adding that
years of police brutality cases that did not result in justice informed
her earlier calls” and “that she would hire more police to alleviate
overtime burdens straining the department.”
Lewis George has allowed clear indications of her
softer-on-crime stances to be made well known during the campaign,
including attacking federal law enforcement as well as opposing
late-night curfews for juveniles in the wake of youthful and often
predominantly black teenaged crowds committing spates of violence in the
nation’s capital in recent weeks, including a viral brawl at a Chipotle in a Navy Yard Chipotle in May.
WUSA9 reported
in May that the D.C. Council had approved a curfew measure which “would
give police the authority to establish curfew zones across the
District.” The outlet added that “under the measure, the Metropolitan
Police Department would be allowed to designate areas where children and
teenagers are prohibited from gathering in groups of eight or more
starting at 8 p.m. as a way to prevent teen takeovers in places like the
U Street Corridor and Navy Yard that have sometimes become violent.”
The measure was passed by an 8 to 5 vote, with Lewis George as one of the nays.
Lewis George also called the curfew “dangerous” during debates in May.
"Right now, using the curfew as a tool for our young people
is dangerous. It is dangerous because we have federal troops who are in
our city, masked ICE agents who are in our city, and these are the
people enforcing this law and our young people, and these are not
individuals who are trained in de-escalation, they are not accountable
to D.C. residents,” Lewis George said as reported by Fox News.
"As mayor, I think it's important that we use the right
tools, and we don't put the risk of our youth being harmed or killed
without the real oversight that's necessary,” the DSA candidate added.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro argued
in May, "Teen takeovers have disrupted neighborhoods, forced businesses
to close temporarily, and diverted valuable law enforcement resources
from the residents of the District. These incidents have become
increasingly common in areas such as Navy Yard and NoMa and are often
accompanied by criminal conduct, including assaults, robberies, fights,
and other disorderly behavior."
McDuffie’s campaign put out another new ad in June which went after Lewis George on the issue of crime.
“D.C. is at a crossroads. The next mayor must tackle crime.
But Janeese Lewis George will make it worse. She routinely stands in
the way of critical safety laws like youth curfews. It’s common sense,”
the ad said. “What’s really dangerous for our kids is violence. …
Janeese Lewis George is a risk we just can’t take.”
The would-be socialist mayor also laid out the importance
of the DSA to her electoral bids — and crowed about the DSA’s growing
power.
“I’m running to be the first Democratic Socialist mayor of
D.C. I’m a proud democratic socialist. I’m proud of how far we’ve come. …
D.C. was one of the first to be building democratic socialism in our
country,” Lewis George said. “Our Metro D.C. DSA was the first to say
we’re going to build global power here in our cities. And when we
decided that in 2020, people were like, it will never happen, you’ll
never do it. And we said: watch us do it.”
Jerry Dunleavy
Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/defund-police-champ-who-says-policing-rooted-white-supremacy-may-be
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