TRACKLIST
1. Shamir - "On My Own"
2. Kilamanzego - "Maze of Twists"
3. Noname - "Don't Forget About"
4. Zara McFarlane - "Future Echoes"
5. Space Afrika - "Self"
6. Achene - "Like Distant Moons"
7. Black Quantum Futurism Collective - "Constellation 8: Parable"
8. Lojii & Swarvy - "Due Rent"
9. Armand Hammer - "War Stories"
10. OutKast - "True Dat (interlude)"
11. Pink Siifu - "On Fire, Pray"
12. Nubya Garcia - "Contemplation"
13. Deantoni Parks - "Prog on the Prairie"
14. Xxochitl - "Madre de las Estrellas"
LISTEN ON MIXCLOUD
LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS
NOTES
Today's episode gets into some more experimental territory, after all, when the present is no longer satisfactory, what else is left but to create something new?
We open with a recording of Oluwatoyin "Toyin" Salau, a 19-year-old activist in the Black Lives Matter movement, speaking at a rally calling for justice in the murder of Tony McDade in Tallahassee. She was recently found dead along with Victoria Sims, 75, after having gone missing for a week. Prior to her disapperance, Toyin had posted a series of tweets about a man who had sexually assaulted her after offering her a place to stay while she was without housing. The account provides details to the man's home and a description, which has led to his arrest. Some tweets following Toyin's death stated that law enforcement had not chosen to investigate her disappearance until pressure mounted online from concerned friends and fellow activists. This is shameful if true, and yet, I don't feel any value in thinking otherwise. Police departments in most cities have the damning reputation of not properly investigating sexual assault cases, if they're being investigated at all. This is on top of the racial discrimination that is practically built-in to the institution of police. As we’ve seen throughout the last three weeks, the problem of racist policing - or simply policing - is alive and well in our country, despite repeated “reforms” that have been put in place by various decision-makers over the years. Reformed police still commit racist hate crimes. Reformed police continue to allow for racism to thrive in our communities. The kind of racism that is older than you and me, the kind of racism that DARES frame the lynching or black men (5 by my count as of today) across the country as “apparent suicide”. The police are flat-out ignoring that Black men are being lynched. In 2020! At the height of the country’s racism debate! How does anyone in their right mind look at a lynching with today’s eyes on and see suicide? There is no logical answer other than institutional racism. You don’t simply misunderstand things like this. Police are considered to be the on the same level of service and skill as the military right? How pathetic is it then for them to reduce their precious, revered, investigative skills to that of ignorance?
I call foul play.
In the latter half of today’s episode, I tried - best as I can with an exhausted mind, which isn't very well - to go through the pages of my city’s budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year to show how much money they give to their police department. I make a few speculative claims that I haven’t been able to substantiate regarding the use of the police budget for equipment purchases. To make up for my false claims on the program, I've included screenshots below of the city's General Fund Budget Summary and the sections on the Police department. To have a look at the city of McAllen’s budget yourself, visit the document here.
This first graphic details the city's spending. Public Safety is 51%.
The above three pages detail the city's Budget Summary by department. The total operations budget is $116,889,942. Public Safety alone takes up $60,191,907, which is 51.5% of the ENTIRE OPERATIONS BUDGET. Half of the city's money goes to public safety. And out of that 51.5%, 30.2% of it goes to police, which is still a larger budget than the Total General Government section receives, larger than Culture & Recreation, and absolutely towers over the Health & Welfare department, whose budget doesn't even break $3 million.
According to the above document, there are 440 law enforcement employees in the city of McAllen. Out of these 440 employees, 294 of them are active officers in the field, 67%, and 1.9 per for every 100 residents. Their salaries and benefits make up most of the police budget, at $31,608,024. The supplies budget sits at $411,091, 1.3% of the department's budget.
If we want to bring the defunding the police discussion to McAllen, understanding the need for all of these officers will become very important. It seems a majority of the police budget simply goes to keeping all of them paid and insured. Do we need that many officers? Are there other ways to address the "32 crimes per 1000 population" outlined in the graphic above? This will require more research, of course, but I suppose this can be food for thought for now.
If you made it to the end, you'll have heard the latest single from a project I worked on with some good friends, the trans-media RGV-futurist experience, Futuro Conjunto. I didn't play any music, but I did some voice work for a character in the story. FC is part podcast, part time-capsule, part live album, and part RGV musician compilation, as curated, written, and composed by Charlie Vela and Jonathan Leal, who also brought you the Wild Tongue compilation. If you want to learn more, visit the website, and stay tuned for more updates!
Thanks again for listening, reading, and apologies for my blabbering on the show. Will do better next week.
Also, I wrote an article for Texas Monthly this week. You can check that out here.
AS
