February 3, 2023

We Don’t Need Black History Month Police Cruisers. We Need Police Reform.

It’s shallow. It’s tone deaf. It’s in poor taste. Please be fucking for real.

Columbus Ohio Police/Twitter

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We’re only three days into Black History Month, and people are already cutting up. Within the first two days of February, police departments in both Miami, Florida, and Columbus, Ohio, unveiled their own separate police cruisers commemorating the month, complete with Kente cloth patterns, raised “Black Power” fists, and Martin Luther King Jr. quotes. 

And, it was a hot mess.

On February 1, the Columbus Police Department dropped a video on Twitter, introducing the world to History 1, a police vehicle designed to “celebrate the achievements of African-Americans and recognize their roles in our history.” Plastered with red, yellow, and green hearts and the cheesiest of MLK’s quotes on the back windshield, History 1 will reportedly be patrolling Columbus’ neighborhoods and community events all throughout February. 

Only one day later, the Miami Police Department unleashed its own Pan-African patrol vehicle—an announcement that is especially rich considering it came swiftly after the College Board watered down the curriculum for its AP African American Studies course following objections from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“This is Black history,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said about the cop car during the Thursday press conference, according to Complex. And to make matters worse, the mayor also indirectly referenced the death of Tyre Nichols, who died three days after five Memphis police officers assaulted him during a traffic stop.

“Obviously we’ve seen some things across the country that are shocking, that we hope and know will never be repeated in our jurisdiction,” said Suarez. He continued: “But I think part of the reason why it won’t is because we embrace our history. We know where we came from. We understand what the struggles were.” 

Twitter users made their outrage known in response to both departments’ announcements, calling out the tone deafness with jokes, memes, and threads. To say the least, the themed cars were in…poor taste. To say a bit more, both were gross displays of faux solidarity and liberal pandering from a system that thrives off of Black suffering, especially in light of recent deaths of people, like Nichols and Keenan Anderson, at the hands of police. 

While these particular cruisers are new, governmental pandering to people with shallow displays of liberal solidarity isn’t. The Miami police pulled a similar stunt during June with a Pride Month-themed vehicle. To many, these flaccid attempts exemplify an especially sinister brand of performative activism—the kind that’s designed to aesthetically mirror progressivism without challenging any of the oppressive interests and institutions actually harming marginalized communities. 

We don’t need your Black History Month police cruisers if you’re not going to do anything to reform the police driving them. If you really want to help Black communities, listen to criminal justice reform advocates and organizers. 

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That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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