Dems debate police union donations
Top California Democratic leaders are demanding that the party stop accepting campaign contributions from law enforcement unions, The Chronicle has learned — the latest sign in how the Black Lives Matter movement is reshaping politics since the death of George Floyd.
Since 2017, the state party — the largest in the nation —
“It’s been clear for many years that law enforcement organizations are obstacles to legislative changes to save Black lives.”
Amar Shergill, chairman of the California Democratic Party’s progressive caucus
has accepted $1.8 million from four police unions and other organizations representing law enforcement employees, according to a letter signed by the chairs of eight of the party’s caucuses, including those representing African Americans, Latinos, and progressive and young members.
Over that same period, the letter said, “266 Black and brown lives have been ended at the hands of law enforcement in California. The party accepted just over $7,000 per death; the price for our silence.
“It is no secret that law enforcement organizations engage their vast financial, lobbying and advocacy resources to limit the culpability of law enforcement officers that engage in unlawful violence against our Black siblings and friends,” the letter continued. “We must refuse to be a conduit for those financial contributions.”
Some top Democrats say that the party needs to align its rhetoric on racial justice with its financing sources.
“Equity and equality are really important for all of us, but for far too long, the
Democratic Party has not demonstrated that for Black lives matter,” Taisha Brown, chair of the party’s African American caucus, told The Chronicle on Monday.
“We’re at a point in this country where we have to do what we say. We can’t just say something, and then two weeks later go back to what we were doing before,” Brown said.
Said another letter signer, Amar Shergill, chairman of the California Democratic Party’s 800member progressive caucus: “It’s been clear for many years that law enforcement organizations are obstacles to legislative changes to save Black lives.”
Cutting off the flow of political contributions from police unions to politicians is a key element in the movement to defund the police, Alex Vitale, author of “The End of Policing,” told The Chronicle’s It’s All Political” podcast.
“The way to do that is to go after the campaign contributions and endorsements that they hand out and to make those politically toxic for elected officials,” Vitale said.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association contributed $929,500 to the state party over the past three years, the most of any union cited in the letter. But the union’s leader did not want to get involved in the Democratic Party’s internal squabble.
“We are proud to support organizations and candidates across the political spectrum, but we certainly won’t get involved in an internal decision like this,” Glen Stailey, president of the 30,000member California Correctional Peace Officers Association, said Monday.
The state party’s executive board is scheduled to discuss the proposal at its July 2426 meetings, which will be conducted online. The party is not currently soliciting or accepting contributions from law enforcement, officials said.
Some police reformers have been critical of police unions contributing more than half the nearly $4 million raised for the Reducing Crime and Keeping California Safe Act, which is scheduled to be on the ballot before voters in November.
The ballot initiative would roll back provisions in three measures that were aimed at reducing the state’s prison population, including Proposition 47, a voterapproved 2014 initiative that reclassified several felony crimes as misdemeanors.
“It is a measured approach to correct the problems we had with Prop. 47,” Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, the state’s largest law enforcement labor organization, representing more than 77,000 public safety workers, told The Chronicle last month.
Prop. 47 has also helped to steer money away from incarceration. The law required that the state spend the money it saved by not imprisoning more nonviolent felons on social and educational programs — an example of “defund the police” initiatives that many reformers are calling for now. This year, the state will redirect nearly $103 million in this way, according to the California Department of Finance.
“I find it extremely hypocritical that (police unions) are putting so much money behind efforts to repeal Prop. 47,” said George Gascón, coauthor of the 2014 initiative and a former San Francisco district attorney, who is now running to be Los Angeles County district attorney.
Police unions say, “‘We want to be part of the reform,’ ” he said, “but they’re spending real money on fighting that reform.”
Law enforcement wouldn’t be the first sector from which the state party has refused to accept contributions. It has previously
“We have a process to align the financing with the values outlined in our party’s platform.”
Rusty Hicks, California Democratic Party chairman
banned contributions from tobacco companies and gun manufacturers, as well as forprofit prison and oil companies.
While the contributions from police unions represent a relatively small fraction of the $40 million the party spent on political activities in 2018, the symbolism of a ban is large. The racial justice movement has exploded in weeks since Floyd was killed while in police custody, with more than 2,000 U.S. cities holding demonstrations in support of police reform and racial justice.
However, it will not be easy or quick to untangle law enforcement’s contributions to the party. Several unions that are a key part of the Democratic Party’s base in California — including those representing teachers and service workers — also represent law enforcement employees.
Brown said that state party Chairman Rusty Hicks was supportive when she and Shergill presented him with the letter last month.
“We have a process to align the financing with the values outlined in our party’s platform,” Hicks said Monday. “This issue is a part of that process.”