#joelolson

The web site of the New Abolitionist Society

Copwatch: Recording Phoenix Program Hits the Streets by Joel Olson, Phoenix

  After a year and a half of planning, Phoenix Copwatch is up and running, with cameras rolling. What follows is a brief report on our activities.

We took a long time preparing before we began patrolling for a couple reasons: 1) we're going up against an armed power of the state and 2) we didn't want to make a mistake and look foolish in front of the local community. In preparing for our patrols, we talked to community members, studied the laws, devised strategies, practiced mock copwatches, held training sessions, and produced some propagaganda, including a pamphlet that explains who we are and why we watch cops as well as a 'bust card' that lets people know the rights they have when dealing with the police.

We began regular patrols in February. On a typical patrol we carry a video camera, a still camera, tape recorders, and a copy of the Arizona state statutes. We also have a notetaker taking down notes of the situation and getting badge numbers, etc. Here's a sample of some of our interventions:

The cops had a car with five Chicanos pulled over on a dark, dead-end street. We came up to the scene, announced our presence and started videotaping. When I shouted from across the street, 'We're from Copwatch. We're not cops or part of any law enforcement agency. We're just ordinary citizens who observe and videotape the police to prevent against police brutality and harassment,' the people in the car started clapping.

Cops had four young Chicano kids (at least three were 16) pulled over. They found a can of spraypaint in their car and were giving the kids a lecture about huffing paint when we got there. (We couldn't tell if the people had huffed anything but they didn't seem high at all). They then proceeded to search their whole car and called their parents. They let them go after a lecture and a promise that they'd drive straight home.

Patrolling on foot in downtown Tempe (a college town next to Phoenix), we arrived at a scene in which 6-8 cops (including two on horse, two on bikes, and several from cars) and 3-4 private security had an older Black man and a young Chicano in cuffs. According to eyewitnesses the cops picked the Black man out of a crowd and arrested him for an unknown reason. The Chicano man was apparently getting beat up by two guys across the street when the cops ran up on the scene and maced and arrested the guy while the attackers got away! We videotaped the scene for about an hour, surrounded by a crowd of passersby. At first the security guards told people to move along, but once they saw us taping they changed their tune and said it was okay for people to stand and watch as long as they didnít block foot traffic. The response by passersby to our presence was typical: indifference by most, support from some youth, and disgust or outright anger by some white yuppies.

So far we haven't taken any arrests. This is good since an ex-cop we spoke with before beginning patrols told us, 'You're going to jail, and if you give the cops any trouble you'll go to the hospital first.' Instead, we have been treated with general indifference (minus a few wisecracks here and there) and have observed painfully courteous behavior toward the people they have pulled over. The police even act quite fatherly toward youth when on camera, especially the spray paint intervention mentioned above.

The most threatening reaction so far was in February. After the cops pulled over a minivan and made the youth inside walk home, we walked to our car, hoping to catch up with the kids and give them a ride. As we walked we realized one of the cops was following us. Every time we turned a corner, he was sitting in his car watching us. We had to circle two blocks before the cop finally gave up and we were able to get to our car unobserved.

The web site of the New Abolitionist Society

We Got The Camera  by Steve Phalen, Phoenix

  "Who got the camera?" Ice Cube

  Phoenix cops take heed! The next time you're about to harass or beat someone, check yourself: Copwatch is in the house and anything you say or do could be used against you in a court of law!!

Copwatch, which includes members of the local group Ruckus, is a grassroots watchdog group that observes and records potentially abusive police incidents. Copwatch patrols go out regularly and videotape cops as they work their beat. Videotaping cops not only helps combat police brutality, it also strikes a blow against white privilege. Copwatch wants cops who are about to harass or beat someone to check themselves and realize that they could be on the news the next day, and that any video recording could become evidence against them in court.

Black Panther Party The principles of Copwatch are based loosely on those of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The Black Panthers recognized the role cops play in oppressing people of color and ensuring white privilege. In fact, the Party got its start by watching cops when the late Huey P. Newton and other Black Panthers patrolled the streets of Oakland in the late 1960s. When pulled over by a cop (as usually happened simply because they were Black) Newton would confront cops and use the language of the law against them. By asserting his legal rights and the rights of Black people in general, Newton took away much of the power that racist cops held over the Black community.

The Thick White Line People may ask, "But why watch cops?" After all, cops often see themselves as the "thin blue line" between individual freedom and social disorder. The Ruckus asserts that Copwatch is needed because in the U.S., the police have historically served the interests of capitalism and white privilege. Cops are more like a "thick white line" - a barrier between not only rich and poor, but also between "the white race" and everyone else.

When it comes to crime prevention, cops spend most of their time protecting property. And since wealthy capitalists own the vast majority of property, the police primarily serve their interests. Further, this country was founded on white supremacy and the atrocities of slavery, so it is not surprising that the American system of capitalism is also a system of white privilege that affords many unearned advantages to members of the "white race." And the police have always been right there to enforce white privilege and racial division by criminalizing people of color.

Thus cops work to maintain the status quo in a socially unjust society, a society in which neither people of color nor those who partake of white privilege are free. Therefore, since the police have an institutional role in defending this status quo, police abuse is not just a matter of certain bad cops, as some would claim. Whether "good" or "bad," it is the job of a cop to defend the status quo of whiteness. And this is why we feel that a copwatch is really needed - to mess with the system of white privilege! By documenting police abuse and in turn forcing the police to face its injustices, a serious flaw in the color line will be exposed and, hopefully, stripped of its power. In this way, a step toward rejection of white privilege can be taken. Then and only then can the injustices of capitalism truly be confronted.

The Program Copwatch demands an end to police brutality, by any means necessary. Copwatch is not affiliated with any law enforcement agency, unlike many so-called civilian review boards that include either cops or appointees lobbied for by police departments. Because of this history, Copwatch is working with Citizens for Improved Community-Police Relations (CICPR), a group that's working toward the creation of citizen-run civilian review boards (no cops) and with full investigative and punitive powers in cases of police abuse of authority.

Copwatch is the civilian review board of the streets. We encourage citizens to join us in exercising everyone's right to observe the police:

Join Copwatch If you are committed to stopping police abuse and want to participate in our patrols, give Copwatch a call at (602) 241-6353, or write to: P.O. Box 1543 / Phoenix, AZ 85001

Extremism and American Politics: Abolitionists, Jihadis, and Tea Parties. A lecture by Professor Joel Olson, Department of Politics and International Affairs, Northern Arizona University, December 16, 2010