Share link For those not familiar with Adam Tooze, he's a Columbia University history professor and political economist whose "Chartbook" newsletter I find well worth reading. In this essay, he's...
Last night, up close, on the barriers on Broadway barring the approaches to Columbia campus, I witnessed riot police crush protestors, driving them out of the way, pinning them against walls. Somewhat further away, on Amsterdam through the haze of drizzle and flashing lights we glimpsed what looked to be disheveled young people being herded into police buses.
It has been a while since I have been on a rough demonstration. Returning to the experience after many years was shocking and deeply thought-provoking. For me, the juxtaposition of the the blunt force deployed against demonstrators and the the themes I am normally preoccupied with, brought home an essential point: the strange multiplicity of ways in which the state manifests its power, but also the ways in which those hierarchies of power intersect and reinforce each other.
For those not familiar with Adam Tooze, he's a Columbia University history professor and political economist whose "Chartbook" newsletter I find well worth reading. In this essay, he's commenting on the what he witnessed as a front-row spectator to the Columbia campus protests and violent police response.
Once you have seen the working of coercive state power up close, you realize that slogans like defund the police do one vital thing, something which should be essential for democracy, they challenge not just the bargain to which we agree - do we divest? are wages acceptable? etc - the radical slogans challenge the coercive power that ultimately sets the playing field on which we bargain.
If we want truly democratic politics and not merely a one-sided wrestling match, the question of what kind of safety we want and how it is to be secured, how we wish to preserve order, how we fund and equip what kind of police, must be on the table. If you simply “call in” and deploy the NYPD as it stands, the result will be the shattering, brutalizing experience that Columbia University, our neighborhood and our fellow campus at City College New York now have to come to terms with and recover from.
Share link
For those not familiar with Adam Tooze, he's a Columbia University history professor and political economist whose "Chartbook" newsletter I find well worth reading. In this essay, he's commenting on the what he witnessed as a front-row spectator to the Columbia campus protests and violent police response.