The date is October 17th, 2024. The ideological battle has been lost, temporarily. The masses of black folks in America are invested in Kamala becoming president of the empire. Following the murder of Sonya Massey and then the immediate wave of Olympic media coverage by the American propaganda machine, patriotism, and ambivalence seems to be growing with each passing day. Middle-class ideals have become prioritized over the majority working class, leaving the workers without a concession they can lay their head on when they go to sleep at night, like universal healthcare or even universal basic income (which has seemed to have lost its importance this election). Instead, there has been a hope and a prayer that a win for Kamala will have the same effect as Moses parting the Red Sea for her supporters from the red MAGA cap-wearing, American flag-waving Trump supporters trailing behind. Unfortunately for her supporters, this is not the case.
This does not necessarily reflect her supporters or the rest of the country that chooses (or not) to participate in the parliamentary voting method. It is more reflective of the lack of organization from the left to get the working-class organized in spaces that represent our own collective needs. The consequences of this have resulted in America starving the masses of its people again. And with starvation, questions of morality regarding the elites in the duopoly system inflicting this type of violence on us, become irrelevant. The people must never starve again. If starvation is to give us anything, it should give us urgency. It has been what propels our bodies into the streets to protest, to mobilize, to rebel.But the necessity of organizing these forces of the working-class into an independent party will be our line of defense against this and other types of violence that America perpetuates. In Texas, this becomes increasingly important.
While Texans are preparing themselves for who will run the empire next, there are counter-insurgency attempts beingmade locally, here within Dallas. In 2022, Joe Biden came up with the ‘Safer America Plan’: A pro-police Executive Order, which includes funding the hiring of 100,000 police nationally. This plan serves as a counter to the call for the police to be defunded by the George Floyd protestors in 2020 and to prevent the next mass movement, the last of course being the Black Lives Matter movement. This signals that the government has organized itself and is attempting to increase its militarized forces. Subsequently, what has crept on the ballot in Dallas are Propositions S, T, and U, a Dallas Hero ballot initiative concoction.
Dallas Hero is an organization created by an out-of-town MAGA elite billionaire, Monty Bennett, featuring Trump political appointee and Dallas Hero Executive Director Pete Marocco, Dallas Hero President Stefani Carter (also on the board of Braemar Hotels, which is a company controlled by Monty Bennett), and pro-police owner of the ballot access consulting firm, Accelevate 2020, Trent Pool. It should be noted that Monty Bennett and Pete Marocco slithered their way to Washington to be attendees of the January 6th capitol riots and are now trying to slither their way into Dallas politics. However, given Proposition U’s relevance to the ‘Safer America Plan,’ we will make it a priority.
Dallas has already set aside 1.13 billion for public safety alone, which is 61% of the city budget. Proposition U offers to add an additional 1,000 officers to the Dallas police force while simultaneously helping drain a significant amount of funding from other city services. The fact that these initiatives are being pushed by out-of-town elites should be enough for the working-class citizens of Dallas to deem these propositions unworthy of consideration, but of course, we do not live in a world of absolutes. Therefore, we should never underestimate Dallas Hero or their constituents. But this leaves us in a triangular situation. There are the people who are aware Dallas Hero and Proposition U are a trojan horse and don’t want it in Dallas, there are the people who want Dallas Hero and Proposition U as a trojan horse, and finally, there are the people unaware it’s a trojan horse until the soldiers jump out.
In response, organizations and campaigns have sprung up to rally against Dallas Hero and “the Cop Prop.” While they [organizations and campaigns] have been mobilizing throughout the city to spread awareness and get communities engaged, even Dallas officials have found Proposition U to be ridiculous. But their rhetoric isn’t as “righteous” as it may seem. Now EX, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia has used fear tactics to rally for the bigger police facility. Before his questionable departure from the Dallas Police Department, Garcia, in a Dallas City Council meeting in August, advocated for the criminalization of 4 grams of weed, as opposed to the “typical” 2-3 grams that are purchased during a “regular” drug transaction. According to Garcia, when it gets to 4 grams, that’s when the guns come out. Garcia proceeds to present on a science project cardboard cutout images of guns and bags of weed found during one [emphasis] of their investigations. He continues by listing off a few statistics of crimes that are linked with drug use incertain targeted areas of the city. But to the people in these communities, this is a rhetorical observation; to which you can only respond with “Duh”.
Black and Brown communities have historically been targeted physically, environmentally, economically, and psychologically in a violent manner. And the effects of this suffocating violence (which Garcia ironically happens to represent a part of) cause some in the community to self-medicate. It should be understood that the decriminalization of weed is not the promotion of weed but a call from the community to deal with its own afflictions without police intervention. This is community control. Even broadly speaking, those outside of over-policed black and brown communities feel the punitive and destructive effects of capitalism and self-medicate themselves as well. So, this is a collective issue that we cannot turn a blind eye to.
Although Garcia’s presentation to us could be considered a weak attempt at suggesting that Dallas will become a drug dealer’s paradise, what is ironic is that Garcia is also highlighted for successfully bringing crime down over the past 3 years with his current police force; 3,080 to be exact (for clarity, over the past 3 years: Violent Crime in the city is down almost 13.5%, Property Crime is down over 11.5%, and Aggravated assaults/non-family violence is down almost 5%). But after denouncing Proposition U, Garcia is asked how many officers he would need on the police force, to which he replies, “3,600 would be the sweet spot”. This would mean about 500 officers/250 per year within the next 2 years. Now, why would the police department need such an increase in officers when the current force (again, 3,080) is doing so well on crime? This is the covert way of getting a Cop City in Dallas! But 500 officers instead of 1,000 will never be the “better” deal. In this case, the city of Dallas has showed us its right hand but has hid its left. To which I reply that I don’t want to get hit with either one! But more importantly, where would this influx of officers be housed if the current facility doesn’t suffice?
The projected 152 million-dollar Dallas Cop City project has decided to place itself on the college campus of UNT atDallas as its site. The campus is in the Oak Cliff/Highland Hill area, which is a poor, predominately black working-class community. The city is already over-policed, with police causally occupying neighborhood apartment complexes and sharing the streets with innumerable amounts of 18-wheelers. To reflect briefly, over the past year, America has supported an ongoing genocide by Israel against Palestinians. Subsequently, Palestinian solidarity movements have spread across the nation, notably on college campuses.
College students made it clear they were protesting genocide and wanted a ceasefire and an embargo on the weapons being sent to Israel by America. Consequently, these young students jeopardized their potential careers, their freedom, and essentially their lives when they were fighting for an oppressed Palestine to be free and have the right to self-determine. This bravery was met with police force and brutality. What does this suggest to the youth of Highland Hills that want to attend UNT at Dallas and engage in political activism on a campus in their own community?
To understand Palestine is to understand the White supremacist settler colonialism of Israel. To understand Texas is to understand the White supremacist settler colonialism of America. And from this, we can understand Highland Hills as a colony. The resulting effect of capitalistic conquest leads to economic destitution of certain cities in the deliberate service of the metropolitan/capitol city (and/or cities) which in turn is in service of international trade. Highland Hills is surrounded by truck stops and low-paying jobs. This renders it as a site of extraction. This leaves the population a victim of economic violence, which leads to violence and/or drug use within the community, which leads to community members going to jail. Therefore, this is extraction in resources, black and brown bodies, and now, potentially UNT at Dallas students.
This is why the community must be organized. If students are to jeopardize their potential careers because of their protests, the worker’s party must create the institutions that protect the students, so their sacrifice won’t be in vain. The community and the students must be in mutual aid of each other. And if sacrifice is to be made, we must explicitly eradicate the bourgeois elements of the party. The party must not be co-opted into the Democratic Party because the planning of a Cop City in Dallas was done under a Democratic presidency to begin with. Are members of the independent working-class party to absolve themselves of their principles for the vague chance at a career or opportunity inside the Democratic Party incubator? The party will be inherently [emphasis] socialist in its character. The party must not have the same conservative talking points as the Republican Party, especially on issues of the border and migrants.
As mentioned earlier, there is another Cop City site being built in El Paso along the Mexican border. Is the independent worker’s party to be punitive to those seeking refuge and a livable wage in America? The party will be inherently [emphasis] internationalist in its character. There will be no room for the ills of white supremacy (homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, racism, sexism, and the like), unless the party/community be jeopardized or more broadly, the community itself. Our forces must be principled and strong if we are to protect ourselves from state suppression and violence.
It is November 7th, 2024- Trump has won the election and Proposition U has passed. What will Highland Hills decide to do?
Quenton Spencer is a writer for the Dallas Chapter of the Community Movement Builders organization