Within 20 miles of where I live, Vallejo, California suffers under the most violent police force in the state. According to this fantastic long form analysis by Shane Bauer in The New Yorker, “[s]ince 2010, members of the Vallejo Police Department have killed nineteen people—a higher rate than that of any of America’s hundred largest police forces except St. Louis’s.” In those 10 years, the city has paid almost $16 million in legal settlements, had their insurance raised significantly, and are currently still facing 24 use-of-force legal cases expected to cost upwards of $50 million dollars.
“It can’t be awful if it’s lawful.”
Joseph Iacono, Vallejo Police Lead Force Options Instructor
This is a small city where many black and brown families have moved, often being squeezed out of the historically minority-centered but now rapidly-gentrifying Oakland and Richmond. The police force is staffed mainly by white men who don’t live in Vallejo but get paid top wages, often leaving forces in places like Oakland to find a job where their violence is acceptable.
And you know my refrain… Who suffers when the white man is in power? Always the black & the brown & the women. Also the mentally ill, the senior citizens, the homeless, and any other disenfranchised and powerless groups. Vallejo has gone bankrupt trying to pay the police officer’s increasing wages and benefits, often eliminating funding for roads and senior centers entirely in the process.
This is a city with a public health problem, and that problem is POLICE VIOLENCE. Defunding the police–perhaps even disbanding and restarting from the beginning seems to be the only situation in Vallejo.
All I can ask from you is that you know what’s happening in your area. Are people suffering like this? Can you help? Stand with your fellow citizens!